
Skillsoft has kicked off 2017 with a new learning platform as well as new content to expand and deepen its engagement of corporate learners. The global e-learning company launched Percipio, a cloud-based content delivery and learning platform and unveiled new business and leadership skills content.
Percipio allows learners to track their goals, engage with recommended and popular content and follow designated learning paths, among other features. The platform also includes customized curated channels that can be adapted to learner’s specific needs based upon a self-assessment. With the new platform, administrators can manage learners as a group, set up audiences, assign goals to those audiences and track those goals, said Apratim Purakayastha, chief technology officer for Skillsoft.
Since its start, Skillsoft has been defined by its cloud-based learning delivery, Purakayastha said. But with Percipio, the company can quickly deploy learning in areas they may not have been present before.
Skillsoft also launched new content that it hopes will better reach the modern learner. New business and leadership skills courses feature shorter content and focus on scenario-based learning — giving a nod to theatre with hosts and actors. “It’s an immersive experience rather than someone trying to teach something,” Purakayastha explained. “It is as if somebody’s trying to live a life within the day and work of somebody dealing with an issue or dealing with business challenge.”
This theatrical approach — with videos lasting less than five minutes — features real-world illustrations and scenarios, and is more engaging than previous content Skillsoft has deployed, he said.
In addition to the new scenario-based courses where a host sets up a topic and introduces a related scenario, 2-D and 3-D graphics cover theoretical topics, and people-based animations deal with simpler behavioral areas.
Purakayastha attributes Skillsoft’s new products to a changing learning landscape where a new generation of learners wants to have more control over how and when they access learning and have experiences and interactions like those they have with consumer products.
Bravetta Hassell is a Chief Learning Officer associate editor. Comment below, or email editor@CLOmedia.com.