Distance learning, in general, has been in the news lately, especially concerning secondary and post-secondary education. However, online learning has also become more important in work. As working from home and managing remote teams becomes the new normal, the ways companies need to engage and train their workforce are changing. Utilization of our hosted learning solutions has skyrocketed over recent days and weeks.
Across the board, our clients’ utilization of Meridian LMS has increased by more than 100% since last year. The increase is especially notable in those specific clients at the forefront of the response efforts across the public and private sectors. We are on pace to see even larger year-over-year increases in April. Rest assured, we are vigorously monitoring all environments to ensure that the learners you serve get the performance and user experience you expect. We will continue monitoring on a 24×7 basis and make changes, if necessary, to continue providing the same or greater level of service.
Before the pandemic, we planned to make the Meridian LMS Spring 2020 release available in late April. We are happy to report that we remain on schedule. We will start the production update of Meridian LMS version 20.1 on the evening of Friday, April 24, 2020. This is largely possible thanks to the help of our user community, which is actively engaged in pre-release planning and testing. Teamwork makes the dream work. Thank you to those clients who could provide feedback and contribute their ideas. We appreciate your time and input.
In closing, while Meridian staff are experiencing the same changes in their personal and professional lives as nearly everyone else across the country and the world, please know that we are doing well. We have not missed a beat regarding providing the service you need to support the learning communities you serve. Our people and systems have worked flawlessly. While we greatly miss the personal interaction, we are well equipped to deliver service and support to you remotely, as long as necessary, to maintain the safety of all the friends and families that work at Meridian.
Be safe. Stay home. Wash your hands. Keep your distance. Here’s to the health and safety of the entire extended Meridian community.