Learning & Development Glossary
Clear, jargon-free definitions of the most important terms in online learning, training technology, and instructional design.
Learning Management System (LMS)
A Learning Management System (LMS) is software that creates, delivers, tracks, and manages training and education programs for organizations.
Learning Experience Platform (LXP)
A Learning Experience Platform (LXP) is a learner-centric platform that provides personalized, AI-driven content discovery and social learning experiences.
SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model)
SCORM is a set of technical standards that ensures eLearning content works across different LMS platforms with consistent tracking and reporting.
xAPI (Experience API / Tin Can API)
xAPI is a modern eLearning standard that tracks learning experiences across any platform, device, or environment — not just within an LMS.
Microlearning
Microlearning delivers training in short, focused bursts of 3-10 minutes, making learning easier to consume, remember, and apply.
Blended Learning
Blended learning combines online digital training with traditional instructor-led sessions, offering the best of both synchronous and asynchronous approaches.
Gamification in Learning
Gamification applies game mechanics like points, badges, leaderboards, and achievements to training to increase learner motivation and engagement.
Virtual Classroom
A virtual classroom is an online learning environment where instructors and learners interact in real-time through video, audio, chat, and screen sharing.
Mobile Learning (mLearning)
Mobile learning delivers training content on smartphones and tablets, enabling learners to access courses anywhere, anytime.
Learning Path
A learning path is a structured sequence of courses and activities that guides learners through a progressive curriculum toward a specific skill or certification.
Compliance Training
Compliance training educates employees on laws, regulations, and company policies they must follow, with documented completion records for audits.
Course Authoring Tool
A course authoring tool is software used to create eLearning content including text lessons, video modules, quizzes, and interactive activities.
Instructor-Led Training (ILT)
Instructor-Led Training (ILT) is training delivered by a live instructor, either in-person or virtually, with real-time interaction between instructor and learners.
Employee Onboarding Software
Employee onboarding software automates the new hire training process with structured learning paths, task checklists, and progress tracking.
Training ROI (Return on Investment)
Training ROI measures the financial return generated by employee training programs relative to their cost, typically expressed as a percentage.
AICC (Aviation Industry CBT Committee)
AICC is an early e-learning interoperability standard that preceded SCORM, originally developed for the aviation industry.
cmi5 (Experience API Profile)
cmi5 is a modern e-learning specification that combines the tracking capabilities of SCORM with the flexibility of xAPI.
Adaptive Learning
Adaptive learning uses technology to adjust content, pace, and difficulty based on individual learner performance and behavior.
Social Learning
Social learning is learning that occurs through observation, interaction, and collaboration with peers, mentors, and communities.
Spaced Repetition
Spaced repetition is a learning technique that schedules review intervals at increasing gaps to optimize long-term memory retention.
Kirkpatrick Model
The Kirkpatrick Model is a four-level framework for evaluating training effectiveness: Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results.
ADDIE Model
ADDIE is an instructional design framework with five phases: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.
Bloom's Taxonomy
Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchical classification of learning objectives: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create.
Learning Analytics
Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about learners and their contexts to optimize learning environments.
Gamification in Learning
Gamification applies game design elements — points, badges, leaderboards, and challenges — to learning experiences to increase engagement and motivation.
Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT)
VILT delivers instructor-led training remotely through video conferencing and virtual classroom tools.
Competency-Based Education (CBE)
CBE is an approach where learners progress by demonstrating mastery of skills and competencies rather than by seat time.
Content Curation
Content curation is the process of discovering, organizing, and sharing the most relevant learning resources from internal and external sources.
xAPI / Tin Can API
xAPI (formerly Tin Can API) is a modern e-learning standard that tracks learning activities across any context — not just within an LMS.
Learning Record Store (LRS)
An LRS is a data store that receives, stores, and returns learning records sent via xAPI statements from any learning activity.
Blended Learning
Blended learning combines online digital media with traditional instructor-led classroom methods for a integrated learning experience.
Digital Credentials & Badges
Digital credentials are verifiable, shareable digital representations of skills, achievements, and certifications.
Knowledge Management
Knowledge management is the systematic process of creating, sharing, using, and managing organizational knowledge and information.
Informal Learning
Informal learning is unstructured, experience-driven learning that occurs outside formal training programs — through work, peers, and exploration.
Multi-Tenant LMS
A multi-tenant LMS allows one platform to serve multiple separate organizations or audiences, each with their own branding, users, and content.
Learner Engagement
Learner engagement measures how actively involved, motivated, and invested learners are in their training experience.
Self-Paced Learning
Self-paced learning allows learners to progress through content at their own speed, on their own schedule, without fixed deadlines.
Continuing Education (CE / CPD)
Continuing education encompasses ongoing learning activities required for professional license maintenance and career development.
LCMS (Learning Content Management System)
An LCMS manages the creation, storage, reuse, and delivery of learning content, combining content management with LMS delivery.
Synchronous Learning
Synchronous learning occurs in real-time with instructor and learners interacting simultaneously — either in-person or virtually.
Asynchronous Learning
Asynchronous learning allows learners to access content and complete activities on their own schedule, without real-time interaction.
Assessment Engine
An assessment engine is the LMS component that creates, delivers, and scores quizzes, tests, and evaluations to measure learner knowledge.
70-20-10 Model
The 70-20-10 model proposes that 70% of learning happens on the job, 20% from peers, and 10% from formal training — a framework for designing balanced L&D programs.
AI in Learning
AI in learning refers to the use of artificial intelligence to personalize content recommendations, automate course creation, generate assessments, and surface skill gaps.
Learning Analytics
Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about learners and their context to understand and optimize learning outcomes.
Audit Trail
An audit trail is a chronological, tamper-evident record of every learning action — enrollments, completions, assessments, and certifications — used for compliance and accountability.
Learning Automation
Learning automation is the use of rules, triggers, and workflows to automatically assign training, send reminders, issue certificates, and escalate non-compliance.
Certification
A certification is a formal credential issued upon successful completion of a defined assessment or program, demonstrating competency in a specific area.
Collaborative Learning
Collaborative learning is an instructional approach where learners work together on activities, projects, and discussions to build knowledge collectively.
Community Learning
Community learning combines structured courses with persistent peer-driven discussion spaces, turning a one-time course into an ongoing learning community.
Competency-Based Learning
Competency-based learning measures and progresses learners based on demonstrated mastery of specific skills, not seat time or course completion.
Content Authoring
Content authoring is the process of creating and structuring learning materials — courses, lessons, assessments, and interactives — for delivery through an LMS.
Curriculum
A curriculum is the structured set of courses, learning paths, and assessments designed to achieve specific learning objectives across a program.
Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve
The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve describes the exponential decay of memory over time without reinforcement — typically losing 50-70% of new information within 24 hours.
eLearning
eLearning is the delivery of training and education through digital platforms — courses, videos, quizzes, and interactives accessed online.
Learner Engagement
Learner engagement is the degree of attention, interest, and active participation a learner brings to a course — a key predictor of completion and retention.
Instructional Design
Instructional design is the systematic practice of creating learning experiences that achieve specific outcomes, applying learning theory to course structure and content.
Just-in-Time Training
Just-in-time training delivers small, targeted learning content exactly when a worker needs to apply a skill — at the moment of need, in the flow of work.
Knowledge Retention
Knowledge retention is the degree to which learners remember and can apply training content over time — the ultimate measure of training effectiveness.
Learning Content Management System (LCMS)
An LCMS is a platform focused on creating, storing, and managing reusable learning content — distinct from an LMS, which focuses on delivering training to learners.
Learning Objectives
Learning objectives are explicit statements of what learners will know or be able to do after completing a course or lesson, written in measurable terms.
Mandatory Training
Mandatory training is required training that employees must complete to comply with regulations, policies, or contractual obligations — typically with deadlines and audit trails.
Micro-Credential
A micro-credential is a digital credential certifying mastery of a specific, narrow skill — smaller than a full degree or certification but verifiable and shareable.
Offline Learning
Offline learning is the ability to access training content without an active internet connection — critical for field workers, travel, and low-connectivity environments.
Open Badges
Open Badges is an open standard for issuing portable, verifiable digital credentials — enabling micro-credentials and certifications that learners own and can share publicly.
Professional Development
Professional development is ongoing learning that workers undertake throughout their careers to maintain and expand their skills, often supported by employer-funded programs.
Responsive Design
Responsive design is the practice of building interfaces that adapt to any screen size and device — essential for modern LMS platforms where learners access content on phones, tablets, and desktops.
Webinar
A webinar is a live, online presentation or seminar — typically combining a presenter, slide content, audience Q&A, and interactive features like polls and chat.
Cognitive Learning Theory
Cognitive learning theory explains how people acquire knowledge through mental processes — attention, memory, and reasoning — rather than through stimulus-response conditioning alone.
Constructivist Learning Theory
Constructivism holds that learners actively build their own understanding by connecting new information to prior knowledge and experience, rather than passively receiving facts.
Behaviorism (Behaviorist Learning Theory)
Behaviorism is a learning theory that explains learning as a change in observable behavior produced by stimuli, responses, and reinforcement.
Connectivism
Connectivism is a modern learning theory that frames knowledge as distributed across networks of people, tools, and information sources — with learning being the ability to navigate and grow those connections.
Andragogy (Adult Learning Theory)
Andragogy is the theory and practice of teaching adults, based on the principle that adults learn differently from children — they are self-directed, experience-rich, and motivated by relevance.
Experiential Learning (Kolb's Cycle)
Experiential learning is the process of learning through doing and reflecting — most famously modeled by David Kolb's four-stage cycle of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation.
Learning Curve
A learning curve is the graphical relationship between practice or experience and performance — showing how proficiency improves (and the rate of improvement changes) as a learner repeats a task.
Cognitive Load Theory
Cognitive load theory holds that working memory is limited, so effective instruction manages the mental effort imposed on learners to avoid overload and maximize learning.
Chief Learning Officer (CLO)
A Chief Learning Officer (CLO) is the senior executive responsible for an organization's learning, training, and talent-development strategy, tying L&D directly to business outcomes.
Cloud-Based LMS
A cloud-based LMS is a learning management system hosted on the vendor's servers and accessed over the internet, with no software to install or infrastructure to maintain.
Soft Skills
Soft skills are the interpersonal, communication, and self-management abilities — like collaboration, adaptability, and emotional intelligence — that determine how effectively people work with others.
High-Context vs Low-Context Communication
High-context and low-context communication describe how cultures convey meaning — high-context relies on implicit cues and shared understanding, low-context relies on explicit, direct words.
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