Just like almost every other aspect of our lives, technology has completely transformed the way we approach learning. The advent of eLearning has enabled instructors to reach students on the other side of the globe. The same technology has enabled businesses of all sizes to offer L&D opportunities to their employees.
Deploying training, however, is one thing, and making sure it is effective is another. There are a number of trends under the eLearning gamut that enable organisations and instructors to maximise the effectiveness of their training efforts.
In this blog post, we will explore some of these top trends. Without further delay, let us jump right into it:
Mobile Based Learning
Finding an LMS based on customer experience, user-friendliness and budget has always been a good starting point for deploying learning material.
However, the modern learner wants everything on the go, even learning. Thanks to this trend, mobile-based learning management systems are becoming increasingly popular. Bringing all the features of a regular LMS on a mobile device, these new-age learning management systems are once again, revolutionising the way we learn.
Not only is mobile-based learning beneficial for younger audiences, but also offers great benefits to organisations looking to deploy real-world training. With mobile-based training courses, trainees can access learning material while being faced with a real-life situation, and use it to effectively overcome obstacles in real-time.
These claims aren’t imaginary, they’re backed by research. For instance, researchers found that smartphone users completed a certain course 45% faster than their peers taking the same course on computer devices.
No wonder mobile learning is set to become a $70 billion industry by next year.
Microlearning
Microlearning, as the name suggests, is the practice of breaking course materials down into smaller, “bite-sized” lessons. In most cases, each lesson is aimed at teaching the learner a specific skill that they can learn about and test as soon as they complete the short lesson. Turns out, the feeling of gratification, when drip-fed to learners, is surprisingly effective.
Microlearning is not just another fad in the ever-changing world of learning. There are a number of studies supporting the efficiency and effectiveness of this technique. One of the most noteworthy conclusions from these studies is that microlearning makes the transfer of learning 17% more efficient. Not to forget, this technique pairs up nicely with mobile learning as learners can readily consume these bite-sized lessons on the go.
Apart from being beneficial to learners, microlearning also offers significant benefits to instructional designers and organisations. For starters, whenever any section of the course needs to be updated or personalised, making changes to a few bite-sized modules is much easier than updating information in a course that was developed over the course of months.
Gamification
The practice of gamification of learning, in essence, is simply adding a progressive reward system within your course material. This helps learners overcome the boredom that may set in when one is going through hours of training with on their day jobs to look forward to.
Point, achievements, leaderboards, can act as external sources of motivation for the learners. However, keep in mind that going overboard with gamification can lead learners to think that the “game” is more important than the course.
Conclusion
As you may have noticed, the three trends we discussed in this article can all be incorporated in the same learning strategy. It isn’t an absolute necessity, but these three strategies, when used in tandem, have the potential to significantly boost the effectiveness of your training endeavours.
