The Powerful Amazon Feature You Should be Adopting in Your Learning Management System
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It seems like just yesterday that business analysts were wondering whether this newfangled eCommerce fad would catch on.
Photo by Naoto Sato on Flickr. Some rights reserved[/caption]
Amazon’s recommendation engine encourages us to increase the number of items added to our shopping cart. Rather than feeling like these items were forced upon us, we are instead grateful to the site for making shopping so easy. Gone are the crowded parking lots, endurance of inclement weather, and eternal waits in checkout lines, replaced with anticipation for delivery which may soon come within minutes via a flying drone.
With millions of customers, Amazon has the big data to support a powerful recommendation engine. But really, it isn’t rocket science to suggest to someone shopping for a kitchen knife that they may also want to purchase a cutting board and maybe some adhesive bandages for potential sliced fingers.
Adopting an Amazon-like recommendation system in learning and development doesn’t require big data and teams of programmers. This can be done within any learning management system (LMS) that contains two simple features:
Here's a variation that contains a couple of recommendations:
Adding recommendations to your communications with learners can provide measurable benefits:
- Would anxiety over credit card theft deter customers from trusting online retailers?
- Would people feel confident in buying stuff sight unseen or would they instead stick to going to brick-and-mortar stores to paw and sniff the merchandise?

- The ability to have course-specific communication templates
- The ability to link directly to one or more courses


- Increased enrolment, course completion, and certifications obtained
- Better learner engagement through a more pleasant experience
- For commercial learning content providers, increased sales