This is the second in the series of our insights from Learning Live this year, following on from Mike Byrne’s initial introduction to the series last week.
More than ever most experiences people are engaged with on a daily basis are shaped by a digital layer. Whether it is to book a service, to communicate with friends, listen to music, read a book, watch a movie, or indeed buy or sell goods and services. For businesses and L&D departments to evolve digital experiences within a work environment we need to consider both how these experiences are connected and understand how we are engaging with them.
Poor eLearning is a waste of an L&D budget and is being completely rejected by would be learners. Learning experience is a key differentiator in today’s ultra-competitive environment, but is this really enough? Building engagement with limited intelligence and behaviour data will limit the ability to expose learners to increasingly more relevant content. Reducing the impact, effectiveness and overall engagement, creating a vicious cycle.
There are very few people I talked to at Learning Live this year that are not focused on improving the learner experience whilst also contending with the investment that has already been made in their LMS. Indeed, this pain also reflected in the LPI top 5 challenges for people development this year.
Learning departments are stretched more and more in the areas of time, resources and budget and are working in more complex and demanding environments that expect data to validate and drive initiatives. Compounding this, is an increasing dissatisfaction and low engagement with existing LMS’s. Learning leaders are having to look for new methods of engaging and delivering learning in a personalised way that reflects the digital experiences people are having in their everyday lives while showing measurable impact on the business.
Ultimately L&D leaders are motivated by improving people capability and business performance through learning. Not so much the infrastructure and filing cabinets to store content. It is understandable therefore, they do not want to spend the next 2 years planning an infrastructure migration project. The solution lies in leveraging existing investment in current systems and recognising that at the moment there is still a role for the LMS, however it is merely a component part of the learning technology solution required
The good news is, L&D leaders don’t at this stage need to become infrastructure architects remodeling the LMS cabinet. There are two separate concerns and therefore, when looking at a digital strategy the focus needs to be on building interoperable solutions that can marry with your existing environments, whilst also delivering highly engaging personalised learning experiences that are informed by performance and behavioural data.
Data is the key to success rather than just applying fixed rules to ascertain a learner’s journey purely based on a job role. Dusty eLearning needs to be replaced with data informed experiences in order to drive meaningful personalised learning that engages people, whilst driving and inspiring them to perform better.
Whist many of these statements and points may have been seen before. The great thing is, we actually now have the technology to deliver on these changes and it is perhaps the most exciting time in the last 20 years to be in the industry. Knowing that now learning can be a significant instrument to enable and lead change while showing measurable and meaningful impact within the business.
The experience Netex is having with clients at the moment validates the need for an overhaul, recognising that for most the nirvana will require a suite of solutions and vendors to deliver highly engaging rich UX that is underpinned by real time data to drive meaningful personalised learning. All in all, exciting times ahead.
Header photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash
