Many companies these days run training programs to enable employees and customers to acquire knowledge at their own pace. Unlike conventional learning models, eLearning helps companies and businesses design, run, and manage online training programs without investing extra time and resources. An organization can run a variety of online training programs efficiently and simultaneously simply by investing in the right learning management system.
Several market forecast reports suggest a steady increase in the number of companies and businesses switching from live learning to e-learning.
A market research report released by Technavio suggests,
“The corporate eLearning market size has the potential to grow at a CAGR of 11.23% during 2019 and 2024. Also, the global corporate eLearning market growth is expected to increase by $ 38.09 billion during the forecast period.”
But the corporate eLearning trends change from time to time. In 2021, corporate eLearning will be driven and transformed by both current and emerging trends. While implementing corporate eLearning, the decision-makers can easily boost the learning experience of employees and customers by adopting the emerging corporate eLearning trends proactively. We help decision-makers to identify and adopt some of the hottest corporate eLearning trends by gathering information from many sources.
Identifying 9 of the Hottest Corporate eLearning Trends of 2021
Mobile Learning
Companies can no longer boost mobile learning experience simply by investing in an LMS which is optimized for mobile devices. The learning managers have to ensure that learners can use their smartphone or tablet to collect information about a topic or concept from diverse online sources. While creating eLearning content, they have to switch from SCROM to Experience API to track both mobile and offline activities of learners. The large companies will further boost learner engagement and learning experience by launching customized mobile learning apps.
Microlearning
The learning managers need to ensure that the learners acquire knowledge by accessing a wide variety of digital content – eBooks, PDFs, infographics, audio clips, and video. But they have to focus on reducing the size or duration of the learning materials to cater to short attention span and lack of free time. They have to divide the content into bite-sized learning materials to ensure that each learner can acquire and retain knowledge without putting in extra time and effort. While creating eLearning content, they have to focus on answering specific questions instead of covering a specific topic or concept.
Social Learning
With learners spending most of their digital media time on social networks, social learning has emerged as one of the hottest corporate eLearning trends. The new-age LMS and virtual classroom software are designed with features to facilitate social learning. But the learning managers have to focus on creating opportunities for developing a community of learners. The community will help learners to clear doubts, answer questions, and share ideas with other learners. Also, the instructors can implement self-assessment and self-improvement by gamifying the online learning environment.
Elearning Personalization
In addition to learning at their own pace, learners these days love personalized content and approach. Learning managers can make it easier for employees to complete online training programs by delivering personalized content. Also, they need to allow learners to choose from multiple options and approaches. The companies can invest in robust learning analytics to understand the needs and expectations of individual learners. Most organizations will leverage the actionable insights collected using learning analytics to personal learning experiences according to the preference and intent of individual learners.
Virtual Mentors
Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) creates opportunities for learning managers to replace human instructors with virtual mentors. They can deploy AI-driven chatbots to provide instant information and on-time assistance to the learners. The employees and customers can interact with virtual mentors through both web-based interfaces and mobile apps. The chatbots will help employees to retain knowledge and complete online training programs by recommending the most relevant path of learning. Also, they will make it easier for the learning managers to personalize both content and approach according to the preferences of every learner.
Game-Based Learning
Both gamification and game-based learning are the hottest corporate eLearning trends. While creating eLearning content, the learning managers add gamification elements to improve learner engagement and foster healthy competition. But the learning managers have to implement game-based learning to make employees and customers acquire the desired knowledge without interruptions. The game-based learning approach will ensure that a learner continues learning in a manner similar to playing games. Instead of making the learner read, the game-based approach emphasizes making the learner visualize the content using new-generation technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR).
Continuous Learning Journey
Despite learning experience personalization, employees and customers forget important information after a few weeks or months. While implementing corporate eLearning, organizations must focus on making an employee remember and recall important information whenever the need arises. That is why; they have to focus on creating a continuous learning journey by complementing the primary eLearning content with micro-courses. The micro-courses will help learners to retain important information as well as get updated information and track changes.
Elearning Performance Measurement
AI and learning analytics are currently two of the two hottest technology trends in eLearning. The companies must leverage AI to enables learners to access the most relevant eLearning content and get on-time assistance. At the same time, they also need to leverage learning analytics to understand the intent of learners. Learning analytics make it easier for learning managers to understand how employees and customers learn. Also, the learning managers can improve the performance of training programs by measuring the completion rate of courses, identifying difficulties faced by learners, and understanding what learners want and expect.
Rapid Learning Development Strategies
Elearning trends change regularly. Also, the emerging technologies compel learning managers to update the learning development strategy regularly. While switching from instructor-led training to eLearning, the learning managers have to finetune eLearning strategies without any hassle and delay. They have to focus on keeping the strategies flexible enough to record, redesign, and republish the eLearning content in a short amount of time. They can implement rapid learning development strategies to ensure that no eLearning content becomes outdated or obsolete.
The number of companies switching from conventional learning to e-learning will continue to increase in the near future. But the worldwide corporate eLearning market will be shaped by many trends. Companies can make online training programs more effective only by adopting the emerging corporate eLearning trends early and proactively.
