E-learning and LMS blog articles

New year, new trends, new technology to explore! It’s 2025 and we’re kicking off the year by following up on our 2024 trends blog and unpacking the 2025 trends we predicted would take off this year.

We don’t have a magic crystal ball, but we do have a team of e-learning experts with plenty of ideas about what the future might hold for L&D professionals like you looking to get a head start in this new year.

With that in mind, let’s explore the top three trends we expect to stand out in the world of e-learning and L&D this year, along with our top tips on how to embrace them and integrate them into your 2025 L&D strategy.

Expanding the use of AI in L&D

Sick of hearing people talk about AI yet? We hope not as 2025 looks to be the year of (even more) widespread adoption of AI in the world of L&D.

We expect to see a huge influx of new AI and Gen AI platforms and tools offering a variety of technology designed to enhance e-learning and support L&D. From AI chatbots serving as virtual learning assistants providing instant support to students, to intelligent assessment and feedback tools – AI will become a core component of e-learning for many organisations.

So how can you begin to leverage AI technology in 2025? While we expect to see an influx of new tech, there’s plenty to play with already, meaning you can get ahead of the AI game if you haven’t already. Get started today with these by exploring options such as:

• Recommended learning in Totara using Machine Learning – LMS users will be shown course recommendations based on previous activities, delivering a more personalised learning experience without the need for manual intervention
• Design tailor-made training content using AI tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Midjourney and Storyline – Find out how to use these tools and more in our free webinar
• Use GenAI such as ChatGPT to generate meaningful and tailored training ideas and strategies that align with your core L&D strategy – Find out more about the power of ChatGPT in e-learning by watching our free webinar

Lifelong learning

In our 2024 trends blog, we discussed the value of embracing continuous training and moving away from front-loaded L&D. In 2025, we expect employers to take this one step further by supporting and facilitating life-long learning.

So, what is life-long learning? Essentially, it is a form of professional development that allows people to continuously grow by upskilling and reskilling throughout their lives and careers. Lifelong learning is a largely self-motivated process which requires self-directed learning pursuits, but employers can play a significant role in supporting employees in their lifelong learning endeavours.

Supporting employees with their lifelong learning can be a hugely attractive proposition when hiring new talent and retaining them. Not only that, the benefits of facilitating a continuous pursuit of knowledge and upskilling enable employers to build an agile, competitive and highly skilled workforce.

So how can you invest in lifelong learning in 2025? As lifelong learning endeavours are unique to each employee, supporting activities will require some personalisation. The best solution here is to use an e-learning solution such as an LMS that enables you to tailor learning activities to each employee’s lifelong learning requirements by using time-saving tech and automation.

To get you started, here are some of our top tips for supporting lifelong learning:

• Work with your employees to create learning objectives that align with their long-term goals, you can develop these using goal-setting functionality in your e-learning platform
• Determine existing skills and knowledge using LMS assessments, and use this data to outline future learning
• Emphasise the value of lifelong learning endeavours within your organisation by highlighting how it could help employees gain promotions and new responsibilities
• Set out time for feedback and progress reports. Be sure to use LMS reports to provide data, context and evidence of progress

Skills-based development

According to Gartner’s future of work trends for 2025, organisations will face an expertise supply crisis as retirements surge while ‘technological disruptions reduce opportunities for novice employees to develop expertise’. The report also found that in 2025, many organisations ‘will undergo transformative restructuring to enhance operations. This involves rethinking organisational structures to become more agile and responsive to the fast-paced technological landscape’.

Both of these key 2025 future of work trends emphasise a need for skill-based development opportunities that are designed to target specific skills gaps that have grown as a direct result of new technologies and rapid market changes.

A skills-based development strategy targets specific practical and technical skills and competencies that can be directly applied to role-based tasks and align with your organisational objectives while addressing specific skill gaps. Moving away from generic training exercises, and instead targeting specific skills enables employees and employers to remain agile while keeping up with accelerating technological advancements.

To deliver skills-based development opportunities, try using short concise content such as microlessons that target specific skills and can be rapidly deployed, enabling you to keep up with ever-changing skill requirements. Find out more about microlearning here.

Are you 2025-ready?

Get ahead of the game and jump on these key 2025 e-learning trends now. But first, make sure you have the right tools and technology to support your L&D strategy this year. Get to know our Totara and Moodle solutions or contact us today to find out how we can help you make 2025 your best year yet.