Traditional Learning Models Alone Can't Keep Pace
Organizations and employees alike want quicker access to relevant information and more streamlined integration of workflow and learning. A Towards Maturity Report revealed that 93% of businesses want to integrate learning and workflow, and 95% want to respond faster to the speed of business. 60% of employees, however, report they achieve better results from their own external research than from internal face-to-face coursework.
The problem is clear: traditional classroom learning alone isn't able to keep pace with business, workflow, and employee demands. The gap between demand and learning arises because over half (56%) of businesses aren't utilizing eLearning platforms (Source: Towards Maturity).
Many learning and development professionals feel daunted by the prospect of implementing eLearning in their organization, feeling it would be too expensive and require valuable time and resources to onboard and execute.
This isn't an accurate assessment, however, because affordable eLearning platforms are closing the workflow/learning gap, and quickly. Instead of focusing on full courses with a lot of content, more and more learning and development professionals are utilizing microlearning to keep pace with workflow demands.
Historically, organizations made vast quantities of content available to employees with the belief they could seek and find the content and information they need. Microlearning employs a different approach, and while it still allows for user autonomy it provides more focused information in shorter, easily absorbed and engaging formats.
What's a Learning and Development Professional to Do?
The answer is this: shorter, easily accessible (even from mobile devices), concise and highly targeted content.
There are many ways to achieve this, including the following:
De-Clutter: Keep course offerings to a minimum, and base course availability on actual employee demand as well as current business initiatives. You can always add to a course list that falls short; this is preferable to investing time and resources into content that isn't well attended, retained, or utilized.
Follow the "Shorter is Better" Content Model: Instead of thinking in terms of 'courses', think in terms of 'content'. Produce shorter, highly focused content which is easy to find and directly related to employee workflow.
Curate Content: It is estimated that an average employee spends nearly 10 hours a week looking for information, and 70% of learners say they can't find what they are looking for on a regular basis (Source: IDC). Learning and Development professionals can provide tips and filtering protocols that help employees access the content they need quickly.
Produce User-Generated Content: It has been well documented how effective user-generated content (UGC) can be for brand identity, etc. UGC is also a valuable internal tool for organizations. It promotes internal information sharing and helps address workflow issues as they arise.
Use Video: Video has become the most popular and engaging form of content distribution. Studies show that short, informative videos produce much higher engagement and retention rates. Combine user-generated content learning with video learning to further increase employee engagement.
Make Content Mobile Friendly: The vast majority of content is accessed via mobile device. It's not just about how content looks on a mobile device, it is also about user experience. Users should be able to access and execute all eLearning on mobile devices as easily as they can on a desktop.
Why Digital Content Creators?
We stand out from other eLearning companies. We have 30 years in the publishing and educational business; this is a meaningful part of why we understand our clients' needs from a first-hand perspective.
We are completely engaged with our clients, and consider ourselves more of a strategic partner than a vendor. Unlike many eLearning companies, we provide personalized, 24/7 support and a dedicated client representative. All of this, and more, at competitive and affordable rates.
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