Learning Engagement: The Learn-Tech Way

Evolution of learning technology and its impact on learning engagement

With widening skills gaps, increasing attrition rates and employee engagement in a longstanding crisis, more and more organizations are increasingly turning to Learning & Development (L&D) to leverage learning solutions and platforms that can enable organizations to offer consistent and seamless learning opportunities, boost learner engagement by offering personalized learning and provide actionable insights into the effectiveness of learning programs.
 

Evolution of L&D Technologies

The corporate training industry is currently in a state of technological disruption, and has been over the past decade. Estimated at $362.2 billion, the global L&D market has been constantly growing since 2009, with more and more organizations shifting away from traditional training methodologies of text-based, exhaustive training courses to find more innovative solutions and platforms offering a range of video-based learning, microlearning, mobile learning etc. in an effort to bolster their training initiatives and offer a whole new learning experience to their employees.

There has also been a significant growth in the use of learning technology where the number of learn-tech solutions and tools leveraged by L&D professionals has doubled since 2012. From corporate universities and eLearning to mobile learning and continuous learning, the growth has been exponential to say the least. Platforms like Google and YouTube, and Workplace by Facebook have further altered the learning landscape. Today, almost 71% of global organizations use technology-led learning solutions with 69% L&D departments set to invest in learning technology. 

In today’s world of increasing automation across all industries, business transformation and continued skills gaps, it has become imperative for organizations to realize the value of delivering compelling learning experiences for business growth and success. Corporate learning is now all about making learning simpler and seamlessly accessible to employees anytime, anywhere and on any device, with platforms that are easy and intuitive (as easy as apps like Uber); taking into account the employees' journey at the workplace to offer learning in the flow of work.

The LMS and the Learning Ecosystem

Although the Learning Management System (LMS) remains an all-important learning delivery and engagement platform, with its market size expected to grow to over $22 billion by 2023, there are various innovative tools and solutions that can now be integrated to enable increased learning engagement.

The learners of today have more organic ways of self-learning through LinkedIn, YouTube, Podcasts and more, and this is precisely the point behind establishing a learning ecosystem. With a learning ecosystem, L&D professionals can better engage the learners via a range of tools that craft the learners’ journey by assessing the modern learners’ learning practices and embed them into L&D programs.

A learning ecosystem has many advantages, like integrating delivery processes to offer a unique learning environment, which includes mobile learning, microlearning, blended learning, knowledge collaboration and social learning, performance support and more. Moreover, with a learning ecosystem, L&D professionals can achieve agility. With so many disruptions happening in and around the workplace, it becomes increasingly difficult to gauge the value of learning technology, which makes the ability to be agile with one’s learning set-up extremely crucial.

The LMS thus becomes a unified learning and engagement platform that offers a range of tools and solutions that bring content together more effectively for the learners, collect and measure learners’ data through learning analytics, and use smart algorithms (AI) to identify skills gaps, recommend content and monitor employee engagement.

However, within the learning ecosystem, there are several different solutions associated with learners’ engagement and learning successes. Detailed below are few of the prominent ones -
 

Shrinking attention spans and evolution of technology, in general, gave way to microlearning, which delivers training in easily consumable bits of information, in the form of text, videos, podcasts etc. Each bite-sized microlearning lasts anywhere between 60 seconds to a maximum of 10 minutes, where the learners are provided with relevant content in an easily digestible format to ensure the learning objectives are met. Moreover, with microlearning, the learners are in control of what they learn and when they learn it, which has a positive impact on the learning engagement.
 

Organizations have long realized the impact of mobile learning as a valuable tool for business development and are increasingly creating strategies for implementing mLearning. A survey by Brandon Hall Group suggests that mLearning is among the topmost business development priorities for global organizations, while 34% organizations have aggressively implemented mobile learning programs for their employees, according to ATD. Statistics aside, mobile learning has taken learning engagement to newer heights. Using the same temptations that attract the employees away from work, mobile learning packs in a world of engagement for the modern learners.
 

VR and AR are some of the most impressive emerging technologies for boosting learning engagement with corporate training. Safety training for hazardous jobs, simulations, AR/VR-enabled gamified experiences, are just some of the use cases for delivering engaging training. And, leading organizations are increasingly incorporating AR/VR (coupled with AI) into corporate training across diverse industries, including oil and gas, energy and utilities, healthcare, manufacturing, tourism among others.
 

Personalization is not a new term in L&D circles and has been around for a while. Yet, the way we work has changed and so has the way we learn, and some of the traditional techniques (technologies) associated with personalization have failed to catch up. Artificial intelligence (AI) enabled learning solutions are now increasingly being used to further improve the learning ecosystem, and have the potential to significantly impact the way learning is delivered. AI can help L&D professionals curate content, analyze learning patterns and behaviors and offer personalized solutions to bolster learning engagement and drive performance.
 

It is being predicted that 85% consumer interactions will occur without human intervention and 80% organizations will use a chatbot by the year 2020. Chatbots backed by AI technology make our existing enterprise solutions simpler, intuitive and engaging, and make for an advanced user-friendly technology that offers better experiences in terms of employee interactions and communications. In L&D, Chatbots leverage machine learning and natural language processing technologies to give improved learning outcomes. Moreover, Chatbots can also be integrated easily with existing learning platforms used by global organizations.

The future has in store a whole new marketplace of learning solutions and tools that are continuously evolving to offer a better learning experience, every day. Platforms like Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) and Program Experience Platforms, Microlearning Platforms, Content Libraries and Learning Record Stores (LRS) are set to reinvent the learning landscape.

Learning experience platforms essentially offer a learning experience by combining and curating learning content without really storing or authoring it. Platforms like Netflix are the best reference for what an LXP might look like with an UI that enables learners to browse, consume as well as rate content.

Learning delivery systems or program experience platforms (either as part of an LMS or otherwise) enable L&D professionals to develop innovative learning programs, offering social features, assessments as well as instructor interactions, and are effective for creating programs for sales training, leadership development, on-boarding etc.

Micro-learning or adaptive learning tools come as part of an LMS and enable L&D professionals to arrange large amount of content into microlearning programs and deliver them to learners just in time.

Above all, the most exciting solutions and tools are the ones powered by Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. Content development and assessment tools are increasingly becoming AI-powered to offer a more engaging learning experience.
 
With all the innovation, emerging technologies, Artificial Intelligence powered solutions, there is a growing risk of losing the way when it comes to corporate training. While there could come a time when we would do almost anything using a single device, ‘the reality of corporate life is that culture drives almost everything’, as rightly said by noted industry analyst Josh Bersin in one of his many insightful observations. Organizations and L&D professionals alike cannot afford to underestimate the impact culture has on learning. Pick up any research study and you will be sure to find that leadership, management and company culture are critical to corporate L&D.

Through continuous disruptions, changing mindsets and learning trends, learning technology has certainly come a long way from servers, PCs and browsers, and has opened up a brave new world of digital learning, one we need to embrace and leverage to its fullest potential.

Amit Gautam is Founder & Director of Technology Solutions at UpsideLMS. Amit has played a key role in bringing an innovative approach to the traditional Learning Management System (LMS) and has been instrumental in putting UpsideLMS on the global map. Acting as a consultant for his clients, he leverages his 16+ years of experience in the eLearning domain and helps them in implementing LMS successfully. Connect Amit Gautam Visit www.upsidelms.com