It’s always helpful – necessary, actually – to look out the window to see how things are going out there. Everyday life often takes time away from us, and we fall behind. NEVER!
Let’s take a walk through the world of Digital Learning to find out which direction it’s following and, especially, some truths about it – taking a cue from the recent report by Fosway Group.
Nowadays, Learning and Training world is going through a crazy deep transformation, thanks to the advent of new tools and technologies that Corporate Training Managers can use.
It’s plain to see, even if someone still pretends to be blind (no rush: we’ll tell you about this kind of “ostrich” Training Managers in another post ?).
Back to business.
The boost coming from new technologies to corporate training is visible. According to David Wilson (CEO di Fosway Group), it’ll take time to benefit of the full potential of these new technologies. True.
However, one thing’s for sure: the ones who started embracing change and Digital Transformation are already noticing the first results in terms of training effectiveness and improved business performance – and thus competitiveness.
A new mindset
It’s pretty simple: as a Training Manager, it’s not just about adopting innovative technologies and cutting-edge digital solutions, but…adopting a new mindset!
Now, let’s begin our walk, taking advantage of what emerged from the Litmos LIVE event at the beginning of November, and of the David Wilson’s speech – which you can watch again here.
5 truths you have to know about Digital Learning:
1. The job market is changing fast and there’s so much to learn!
Change is not only happening in terms of workforce demographics, but involves the “world of work all-round”. Technology is now an integral part of every work activity, and organizations need new skills to cope with the Digital Transformation. Services, products and processes, are increasingly connected, online…in short, Digital. It’s progress!
As a result, Corporate training must take advantage of the opportunities made available by the Digital Transformation to keep up, and help employees acquire the skills required today and especially tomorrow.
2. “Digital” is first of all a mindset, not a mere delivery tool.
Keeping it simple, that’s the same situation when you run into certain online courses providers, who adopts the term “Microlearning” to freshen up their catalogue…but if you take a closer look, no Microlearning in sight (just 3/4 hours-long courses divided in several chapters. Buzzword alert!
There’s the same risk with the term Digital Learning. Saying: “We do digital training”, just because you switched from paper to e-learning, is not enough. Wow, welcome to 2018!
If you’re doing that…well, we’ll tell you a secret. In a Company, you have the so-called “elephant in the room”:
Digital Learning means, first of all, “Being Digital”. It’s a mindset. Then, in order to face the challenges of Digital Transformation, the first step as your Company’s Training Manager is change your mindset.
You haven’t done it yet?
Hey, look! The Elephant in the room is getting bigger and bigger!!
3. Investments increase, as does the speed of change.
The change we are experiencing appears to us in the quality of engaging forms and experiences of learning, where the Learner is at the center – till the point of driving this experience.
let’s see some metrics on Report di Fosway – 2018 Digital Learning Realities research.
The figures down below, for instance, shows where the organizations plan to increase investments dedicated to training:
- Increasing request of video contents (66%) and Learners-generated contents (60%).
- Increasing in “microlearning” (59%) and mobile (59%) courses production.
Moreover, the need for Companies to access digital training content emerges strongly from this Report, and it’s leading organizations to invest in Next Gen Learning Environments (NGLEs), platforms for new generation digital learning:
- capable of engaging Learners (64%);
- with social media features (63%);
- with powerful Analytics tools (60%);
- on Mobile (61%).
A remarkable finding – that seems likely to grow – from Fosway’s report, relates to the fragmentation of the organizations’ training ecosystem:
Companies adopt a wide range of solutions for corporate training (85%), and – according to their needs – they use a technology rather than another.
To sum up, Companies around the world are increasing their investments in training, in order to acquire the skills required to meet the present and future challenges. Being aware that change is accelerating and requiring increasingly rapid response times, as well as strong adaptability.
4: Being modern means being agile and keeping up. Do you have a strategy for Digital Learning?
It’s crucial to have a strategy in Digital Learning. How Training and Development Manager can help employees to keep up with this change? We have the latest technologies and solutions, but these are tools. It’s important to design an efficient strategy in order to use modern digital tools at their fullest.
From Fosway’s report, however, one data emerges that makes us realize how many Companies are still pretending not to see the Elephant in the room…and that’s how only 20% of respondents have a strategy related to Digital Learning – despite the incredible push toward Digital Transformation, which is being felt in the Company on a daily basis!
The Big Challenge for L&D teams
Summing up, truth is that the biggest challenge for Training and Development Managers is helping to support the employees’ continuous improvement and the acquirement of the new requested skills.
Nowadays, L&D Managers are called upon the creation of a true training culture as a new mindset for organizations and individuals, so that everybody is always updated, agile, prepared.
5. New ≠ Good ≠ Efficient. Do you have a Digital Learning strategy?
Despite the increased investments by Companies in Digital Learning, many L&D Managers are still doing too little to create a modern and efficient Digital Training:
The percentages you can read above tell us something interesting: innovation must be carefully managed. It is not enough to adopt a new and innovative technology (or one that claims to use Artificial Intelligence) for it to be automatically effective, per se.
To sum up, it’s important to design a strategy to be able to explore the world of Digital Training solutions and technologies. And adopt them successfully.
Embrace the change
It’s more and more a matter of mindset. So…embrace the change and Digital Learning as an integral part of Company life, and beyond.
In fact, seek them out! As a result, you’ll see that the Elephant in the room won’t be so scary anymore. ?
#neverstoplearning
