The evolution of technology in education has opened new doors of opportunities for everyone. How can organizations leverage this transformation?

1. Could you share some insights about your career before Open LMS?
I started in EdTech 20 years ago on the software development side. I grew with several companies as they evolved and became Blackboard before Open LMS itself spun off of Blackboard. I’ve also gained a great amount of international experience over the years running teams in Europe, the UK, Latin America, and Australia.

2. Could you brief us about Open LMS and your role there as MD?
Open LMS is the largest provider of open source learning management systems in the world. We have more than a thousand clients around the world, serving many large universities and community college systems. But we are also seeing an increase in companies, associations, unions and trade groups that are looking to Open LMS to help with their learning and development needs. Corporate learning clients now make up more than half of our clients.
My main responsibility as managing director is to lead and develop the Open LMS team. We’re a company of more than 150 people in half a dozen time zones. Getting everyone aligned and focused on our customers’ needs is not always easy, but it’s my job to facilitate it every day.

3. What’s your favorite part about working in this industry?
The EdTech business helps people learn and grow, as does Open LMS. People use our platform to improve themselves, their careers and ultimately, their lives. We get to play a key role in this journey, especially because the EdTech industry tends to pull in passionate people. The Open LMS team is passionate about learning and development, and that alignment helps us be successful as a business overall and for all of our clients.

4. How would you perceive the employee learning revolution in the last couple of years?
When you want to learn how to do something, where do you go to get instruction? YouTube, right? Employees do this in their corporate jobs, too. You don’t want your employees to have to do this research unguided on their own. Companies can and should give their employees a dedicated platform to search and learn about the company, their role and more.
People expect to have learning-on-demand at work, just like in their personal lives. The real question is how do companies channel and focus employee curiosity and drive into a platform for their use, and that’s when organizations like Open LMS join them.

5. Have industries increased their dependence on OJT rather than online learning platforms?
We’re actually seeing it move the other way – dependence on OJT is broadly going down in some industries. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) mean some things that previously required in-person OJT can now be done virtually. Everything from car repair to clinical nursing can be trained on AR/VR. That said, OJT in a flexible work environment isn’t easy and will always require some level of coordination.

6. Are Open LMS training solutions customizable according to the client’s needs?
Sometimes we’re almost too customizable! Our platform is open source so its nature is to be flexible and continually improve.

Open LMS helps take ideas that clients have and match them with the right format within the platform to turn ideas into successful strategies.

The same solution that facilitates learning in the largest universities in the world as well as small service providers is proof of that flexibility.
Additionally, learning solutions can be customized on an individual professor or trainer’s level to automate elements of their course and personalize the learning of students based on their interaction with the course. Everything from automating feedback to recommending training to a specific learner can be customized.

7. Can Open LMS handle the client’s compliance needs?
Yes, the Open LMS system has multiple assessments, reporting, tracking and program features to facilitate compliance. Our product design team also reviews our products for accessibility updates every quarter to ensure we’re staying current with changes in best practices.

8. Could you brief us a bit about the working of Totara Learn?
Totara is an open-source enterprise LMS for specializing in corporate learning to educate, manage and connect employees, partners or constituents. It’s used by over 19 million learners worldwide across more than 1,400 organizations and is uniquely suited for corporate eLearning initiatives including employee onboarding, continued training, regulatory certifications, and succession planning. Totara enhances Open LMS with this additional functionality.

9. Can you give us a sneak peek of some future developments at Open LMS?
Personalized learning is our big focus right now. We want to meet the learner where they are as it relates to skills and competencies for their job, in particular, measuring where they have skill gaps and how they need to approach training with their current abilities. We’re working on reporting that will be beneficial not just to our clients, but to learning and development teams everywhere.
Through this work, we’ve been developing a community of leaders who all have a lot to learn from each other. Open LMS hopes to be a catalyst for that collaboration, which is why we’re hosting Connected 2023 February 28-March 2 in Phoenix, Arizona. This will foster opportunities for leaders to exchange best practices, discover new tools, and connect with the community within open-source and technologies partners.

10. What inspires you to achieve more at work?
Helping people learn. Learning, education and personal development is the great equalizer. People are able to do new and different things with their lives when they learn and gain more knowledge and skills. To play a role in helping these people discover and grow in their most important life’s work is incredibly fulfilling.

11. Where do your passions lie? What do you think defines you as a person?
I love building great teams. I like to work and develop a strong team and build the connections between team members and alignment across the team. As Open LMS grows, that becomes harder and needs more investment, and I’m happy to take it on. The relationships built out of these connections help us work together to solve hard problems.
Family primarily defines me. In family, too, I believe creating connections is how you solve problems.

12. What is the most significant piece of advice you would want to give to company leaders?
Focus on creating an alignment of purpose and goals across the team, then build the team around that. If everyone’s aligned and pointed in the same general direction, it radically improves performance.

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