L-M-MESS: Ah, the learning management system. Some decry it as a necessary evil that won't go away. But George Kroner says that "LMSs are suddenly cool to talk about again," thanks to competency-based learning models and "intelligent" (read: adaptive) content recommendation engines. The LMS analyst and former Blackboard engineer explores these trends and other market insights as part of his "Year in Review" for the top LMS developments in 2014. "It's clear that the LMS isn't dead yet," he writes, "though it may be facing some variant of a mid-life or identity crisis."