Learnbook Becomes Open LMS Work: Celebrating the Past, While Building the Future

Last Friday, part of the Open LMS team had a celebratory lunch (yes, you can actually meet for lunch in places, like Melbourne, Australia, that have totally controlled this pandemic). What were they celebrating? Well, the “graduation” of Learnbook! Learnbook, which is a powerful corporate learning platform built around Moodle™, is becoming Open LMS Work. With this rebrand, Learnbook is going to the next level, evolving into a new product with an aggressive and fully open source roadmap.

Probably much like a parent dropping their kid off at school, there’s this mixed emotional feeling of pride, sadness, and excitement as we say goodbye to Learnbook. However, it’s also a time for us to reflect on the growth and evolution of this platform, and think excitedly about our plans for the future.

So, first, let me talk about the specifics of what’s happening. Over the last year, Learning Technologies Group (LTG), our powerhouse parent company, has brought together three amazing eLearning companies - Open LMS, eCreators, and eThink Education - to create the new Open LMS, a world-class provider of eLearning solutions and the largest team of Moodle™ experts in the world. Each of these companies have built special plugins, reports, and services around the open-source Moodle™ learning platform and, over the weeks and months to come, we look forward to continuing to bring the best of our portfolios and services together to provide even more value to our clients and the larger eLearning community.

But my reflection in this moment is less about the business or technical mechanics. My reflection is that software is about people, and EdTech software even moreso. What do I mean? Well, let’s start with the fact that software is built by people. For all the talk of “Big Tech” and people proclaiming that “Software is eating the world”, at the end of the day, software is built by people. So, in this case, Learnbook was built by lots of people. First, of course, are the hundreds of people who contributed to Moodle™ itself, which has been such an amazing project and platform for millions. But then the thoughtfulness of people like Dean, Safat, Trevor, Rob, Sara, Fouad, Lupiya, Karina, and others, who have built a truly incredible product from its foundation on Moodle™.

But software is also used by people. This isn’t a revelation, but it’s easy to forget... Every day hundreds of thousands of people login to Learnbook and do great things. They hone the skills they need to do their job, learn new techniques to do that job even better, retrain for a new career, or complete important compliance training. Learnbook has had a measurable and positive impact on thousands of learners across the globe, and that’s something we’re very proud of.

Finally, software is sold, delivered, and implemented by people. I’m also very proud of the team that sold and delivered Learnbook as part of Open LMS. They’ve been so successful, and will continue to be, because they believe in what they are doing: providing great software and service to help people learn and live better lives. That’s a powerful motivator. Their success also shows that people buy software from other people, people that they like and trust. This team has built incredible relationships with our clients and partners around the globe.

So, I just want to very publicly say congratulations to this team, and a very happy “graduation” to Learnbook! We’re so proud that you’re all grown up now and we look forward to seeing how you’ll positively impact the world in this next stage as Open LMS Work!

Interested in learning more about Open LMS Work? Contact us.