It was not too long ago when the L&D department’s sole focus was compliance training. While it is an essential and required box to check over the last ten years, the L&D discipline has become so much more. It’s now a leadership and management development engine, a master of Instructor-Led Training (ILT), and an expert in scaling learning across the corporation by offering virtual classroom software learning programs.
More importantly, it has become a growth engine for career paths and meaningful business impact, with the US e-learning market possibly growing by $12.81 billion between 2020 and 2024 (source: Market Research). According to an eLearning Industry survey, 47% of organizations have negatively impacted their training budgets due to the pandemic. But more than 23% of organizations are trying to completely migrate from face-to-face classroom training to virtual classroom software and on-demand formats. The fast-changing and volatile challenges of work may seem insurmountable. But the learning activities of thousands of international businesses offer a glimpse of the bright future ahead for on-demand learning.
Nurturing a culture of learning to upskill your employees makes good business sense. It’s simply too expensive for companies to hire their way out of the skills gap.
On-demand learning – What do we see as we move through 2021?
Soft skills training is seeing a rise in demand, including blended learning that includes Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) to replicate the fundamental nature of in-person instruction.
eLearning for self-paced learning – Expanding on what was covered in VILT sessions. Students can use instructional strategies such as scenarios, simulations, and case studies to increase engagement while giving a taste of real-life problems.
Mobile learning – Ideal if you’re on the go, for anytime-anywhere access to learning assets, including performance support.
Microlearning – such as videos, problem-based exercises, audio podcasts to reinforce and refresh learning to beat the ‘I’ve forgotten it’ curve.
Personalized learning paths – Using LMS (Learning Management Systems). A Learning Experience Platform (LXP) is even better for adaptive learning.
Social learning – Elements that include discussion forums, activities on social sites, ask an SME—can inspire learners to seek and share information and best practices that they can use in their jobs.
Another lesson from 2020 that affects eLearning in 2021 is that many people who begrudgingly started working remotely have found that they want to continue.
Surveys of employees have found that fully 90% of employees want to continue working from home [1] in at least some capacity. Almost 50% of workers in these surveys indicated that they wish to continue to work remotely for most or all of their time.
The shifting workplace means that the future of corporate learning must inevitably become more flexible so employees can take training when they need it.
Virtual Classroom Software
On-demand learning allows students to work through a class in their own time, start and stop labs, access training videos and other course materials while keeping engaged with quizzes and polls — all powered by ReadyTech. If you have further questions about on-demand learning, speak to one of the expert team on +1 (800) 707-1009 or email us by clicking this link.
References:
[1] A large majority of people want to continue some form of flexible working
