By Michael Gullan
If you haven’t completed any online training or e-learning courses for a while, you might be surprised to discover some new approaches to learning and development, especially in the online space.
Do you know what microlearning is? Do you know if your employees favour personalised or experiential learning? Is asynchronous learning something that happens online?
eLearning has come a long way since the days of PDF downloads, death by PowerPoint or talking head videos that never seem to end.
Technology, coupled with a deep understanding of the science of learning, has taken e-learning to new levels on several metrics, such as completion rates, engagement, knowledge acquisition and, importantly, application.
Here’s how the science of e-learning, overlaid with advancements in technology, can level-up your organisation’s learning and development.
Asynchronous learning
This type of learning can be completed independently, according to your employee’s pace and schedule or within a broad window of time.
With our busy lives, short attention spans, and myriad of daily interruptions, all successful corporate learning and development should be asynchronous.
Individuals have different schedules, KPIs, personal commitments and learning styles, and learning and development professionals are seeing far greater results using asynchronous online training.
Personalised and adaptive learning
This relatively new approach does not take a one-course-fits-all approach but customises or differentiates the curricula according to individual employees.
Technology has enabled organisations to personalise their e-learning and training so that employees are no longer required to work through courses not relevant to them or through information they already know.
Successful e-learning should pick up from where the individual’s existing skills end.You cannot achieve this with off-the-shelf e-learning software.
Your technology should understand each employee’s weak points and increase or repeat learning content until the learning outcomes are achieved. Adaptive learning still requires data analysts to interrogate the e-learning data but will soon use AI for immediate analysis and adjustments.
Experiential e-learning
Learning by doing gives employees the chance to apply their learning directly or indirectly after completing a course.
Online experiential practices can be achieved via simulations or case studies, giving employees the opportunity to apply their new knowledge in a safe environment.
Microlearning
This is the most important aspect of adult learning, focused on short but detailed learning tactics. Microlearning delivers only relevant, key information to the employee that directly matches the learning outcome.
So if your employees need to know how to sell a product or use new company software, microlearning will take the form of five to 10-minute Content CapsulesTM, designed to achieve the desired outcome.
Traditional e-learning might involve lengthy lectures on the history, theory, and other superfluous content not directly related to the learning outcome.
Michael Gullan is chief executive of G&G Advocacy.
*The views expressed here are not necessarily those of IOL or or title sites
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