When Your Learning Ecosystem Starts to Feel Like a Rainforest: How to Bring Structure to the Layers

Life grows everywhere. Tall trees stretch into the canopy while thick vegetation fills the space below. Vines climb upward. Roots spread outward. Layers of life compete and cooperate all at once.

At first glance, it can feel chaotic. Birds shout over each other, insects hum, something rustles in the undergrowth, and every now and then you suspect that something large – possibly with a lot of legs – is moving behind you. 

Yet the rainforest survives because it’s organised. Every layer has a role. Remove one, and the effects ripple through the entire system.

Large learning environments often evolve in the same way. As organisations grow, they add new programmes across departments. Someone discovers a promising new platform, but the other half of the team still insists on using the old one. Another team builds a new dashboard. A third department installs a plugin that solves one problem and introduces two new ones. Learning initiatives multiply, and growth happens organically, in all directions and in layers. 

After a while, the learning ecosystem begins to feel dense and difficult to navigate. You open the LMS, and everything technically works, but understanding how it all fits together starts to feel a bit like hacking through jungle undergrowth. At that point, even simple changes start requiring a machete. 

So what can organisations actually do when their learning ecosystem starts to feel like a rainforest? 

Step 1: Map the layers in your learning ecosystem

The first step is surprisingly simple. We’ve found over the years that most organisations have never actually mapped their learning ecosystem. Everyone knows pieces of it, but very few people see the whole picture.

Start by identifying the major layers that currently exist. These usually include:

• Learning platforms (LMS, content platforms, assessment tools) 
• Learning design and content development
• Programme ownership across departments 
• Learner administration and support 
• Reporting and analytics 
• Technical infrastructure and integrations

Write these layers down.

Next, ask a straightforward question: Who owns each layer?

Many organisations discover that responsibilities overlap or are unclear. Two teams may assume someone else is responsible for platform governance. Several administrators may have access rights that evolved informally over time. We once watched a room full of very competent people try to work out who was responsible for the learning platform. After a few minutes, someone asked, “Should we check the LMS to see who set this up?

Rainforests work because every layer performs a specific role. Following this logic, learning ecosystems can benefit hugely from the same clarity.

Step 2: Clarify decision rights

Once the layers are visible, the next question becomes: Who makes decisions about changes?

Growth often introduces new tools, plugins, or integrations. Departments request new features. Vendors suggest additional platforms. IT doesn’t allow any new plugins without copious amounts of filled-in forms, signatures and more forms, leaving learner designers frustrated and often deflated. 

Without clear decision rights, additions and general frustrations accumulate quickly.

Good governance should never stand in the way of innovation, but should ensure that someone evaluates new additions against the health of the whole ecosystem.

Simple questions can help:

• Who approves new integrations?
• Who decides when tools are retired?
• Who maintains the overall architecture?

We’ve also learnt that small governance groups often work better than large committees. A small number of key people who actually work with the different aspects of the system can make better decisions than large, monthly or quarterly meeting groups. 

With the Rainforest metaphor in mind, growth thrives when environmental conditions support it. Similarly, learning ecosystems benefit from enabling environments!

Step 3: Introduce lifecycle thinking

Learning ecosystems contain many moving parts.

Courses evolve. Tools become outdated. Integrations change. Reporting needs shift. A course that made perfect sense three years ago may now sit quietly in the system, still active and still confusing the occasional learner who wanders into it. Lifecycle management helps organisations manage these changes deliberately.

Consider establishing simple lifecycle categories such as:

• Active and maintained
• Under review
• Retiring soon

Courses and tools can then be reviewed periodically rather than remaining in the system indefinitely. Otherwise, ecosystems accumulate forgotten structures, much like vines slowly covering abandoned buildings.

Without lifecycle thinking, ecosystems accumulate old structures that quietly increase complexity.

Step 4: Manage integrations carefully

Integrations are often the hidden source of complexity and reasons why LMSs become cranky.

Each connection between systems creates dependencies. A reporting dashboard may rely on data from multiple platforms. A plugin may depend on specific versions of the LMS. Everything works beautifully until one system updates in the early hours of the morning and the integrations suddenly decide to start behaving creatively.

The goal is not to avoid integrations altogether, but to introduce them intentionally.

Before adding a new integration, it helps to ask:

• What problem does this solve?
• Who will maintain it?
• What happens if the integration fails?

Rainforests maintain balance through interdependence. Yet each relationship within the ecosystem has evolved carefully over time. Learning systems should deliberately nurture the same discipline.

Step 5: Appoint ecosystem stewards

Large ecosystems require caretakers, someone to hold the whole picture together. We’ve noticed new titles popping up on the LMS landscape with roles such as:

• LMS ecosystem manager
• Digital learning architect
• Learning systems steward

It’s important that this role never comes with a demi-godlike structure to oversee all life in the LMS. Instead, such roles should ensure that the health of the entire system remains visible while individual teams continue developing programmes and content. Think of it less as ruling the rainforest and more as quietly keeping the paths clear.

Rainforests remain healthy because no single layer dominates the others. Learning ecosystems require similar stewardship.

A final reflection

Complexity is a natural outcome of growth.

Successful learning environments expand as organisations add programmes, learners and platforms. Over time, the ecosystem becomes layered, dense and interconnected.

The rainforest offers a useful reminder that abundance alone doesn’t create stability. Structure does.

Healthy learning ecosystems depend on clear ownership, thoughtful governance and careful coordination across the layers that support learning. Once those structures are in place, the ecosystem stops feeling like chaos and starts behaving more like a thriving forest.

By Chantal Tarling