When it comes to just-in-time and online training of globally dispersed workforces, technology platforms and applications have been the most significant enablers. Online programs have become a preferred choice for enterprise L&D. Enterprises are using various tools like Zoom, MS Teams, WebEx, Skype, Adobe Connect, etc. to allow their employee to communicate, share resources, and train virtually. Although they achieve the basic requirement – “an online conferencing tool”, enterprises often end up neglecting two very critical factors crucial for effective virtual L&D which are learning experience and learning paths.
Since businesses make constant value judgments based on the bottom line, L&D leaders restlessly look for an effective way to make L&D efficient with online training systems and learning technology applications. Let’s have a look at the factors crucial for effective virtual L&D:
Systems and learning technology applications – The Tool set
Organizations need employees to connect, communicate, and collaborate and the systems and applications that are used are standalone events hosting systems. The trial or enterprise versions of software come with different capabilities. If you are using any random screen-sharing platform for learning programs, your employees are going to see anything that pops up on the screen of the instructor, and that is certainly not an ideal situation. That’s why the need for a learning platform-based online conferencing tool. It gives you the flexibility of sharing learning resources and content into a shared online platform that everyone accesses and the host then controls what has to be shown.
EdTech has moved to cloud-based platforms, which brings in unlimited opportunities to plug and unplug systems and access the latest functionality without having to go through lengthy and expensive implementations of an on-premises system. Yet L&D leaders must make sure that learning technologies fit into an overall system architecture that includes functionality to support the business and talent pipeline.
Techademy – a next-gen Integrated Learning Experience Platform brings in virtual classrooms, self-paced resources, assessment and assignments, virtual IT labs, open and private online courses together. The platform has enabled enterprises to conduct recruitment, onboarding, performance management, L&D, real-time feedback, career management, succession planning, to name a few, within a singular integrated learning platform. That is not all—the platform has helped enterprises address the two other critical factors: learning experience and learning paths as well.
Learning Experience or the Learning Ecosystem
Classrooms have had immense value in terms of providing an immersive L&D, but L&D leaders point out the fact that their employees remain busy “from eight to late,” which does not give them a lot of time to sit in a classroom. In addition, they feel the need for virtual practice environments where employees can develop and practice new skills without impacting production environments. Virtual practice environments not only allow employees to apply their knowledge, but these also give them the “safe environment”, where they don’t have to worry about failures that might affect their career paths.
With the world working form from home, the learning experience/ecosystem is the key to how you can ensure the ROL. Hiving an online integrated learning ecosystem allows you to maintain decorum and ensure that employees acquire a learning mindset in a virtual environment as well. Just because employees are working from home, it does not mean that their work hours and learning sessions can’t appear professional and business-like.
Learning Paths
Classrooms have been the place where learners and peers get to interact, demonstrate, and train effectively, but since online learning is the new normal, do enterprises have the setup to engage their workforce? Does the platform you currently use serve the intended purpose you have for your virtual learning programs? If your answer is no, you can curb this if you are prepared, planned, and use the right platform to do so.
L&D leaders need to create a learning strategy that aligns with business strategy while identifying and enabling the capabilities needed to achieve success. The approach of ‘Learning Paths’ results in a robust curriculum that uses every relevant learning methods and technology pivoted by an integrated learning platform. As a result, enterprise L&D is moving away from stand-alone programs to designing individual learning journeys. These journeys can be defined as continuous learning opportunities that take place over a period of time and include L&D interventions such as hands-on practices, 1-on-1 mentoring sessions, gamification, and social learning, assignments, learning while working, and modular assessments.
As knowing is not enough and we must apply, without regular reinforcement of concepts, people tend to forget what they have learned. So the main objectives learning paths are to enable learners to develop required competencies and be able to apply those skills effectively at work. An innovative L&D strategy like this helps organizations keep their workforce flexible, agile, and build talent pipeline required to compete in the digital age.
Conclusion
Industry 4.0 has posed challenges for L&D while adapting to disruptions. As a result, only a few organizations have implemented large-scale workforce transformation programs that can accommodate frequent changes in their talent and business requirements. Technology is advancing at an ever-accelerating pace and the learning agility of modern workforces is going to be the competitive advantage organizations will have over the next few years. But in situations like the current lockdown, where not all learners have received the opportunity to use a dedicated online learning ecosystem, the effectiveness of learning is expected to remain unmeasured.
IIHT, with first of its kind Integrated Learning Experience Platform, is dedicated to supporting individuals and organizations in harnessing the potential of virtual learning technologies as part of their digital learning journeys. Apart from crafting engaging and interactive training sessions, the implementation of online programs at scale level has led our clients to the reduction of cost per person as companies benefit from “economies of scale”. The Integrated LXP offers a wide range of applications, from upskilling through specific certification programs to getting an executive degree from home. Enterprises use our platform to implement training and development initiatives that produce results.