How technology is impacting Learning & Development teams

Today we see that most of the organizations are still failed to adapt to most modern and optimal learning management solutions and practices, which in turn puts them on a struggling road for gaining growth and enhanced productivity.  Is increasingly complicated and sophisticated nature of technology responsible for this failure or the learning and development teams  of today don’t possess necessary skills to best utilize the learning technology, has been such a debatable questions in recent years in learning and training industry. Being the researcher and provider of corporate training and specialized learning solutions to enterprises, yourtrainingedge.com[1] is always keen to analyze the latest technological innovations rising in the industry and the way these are impacting the learning and development teams.

Due to the increasing competition and growing popularity of online training and education tools such as MOOCs, video training, online demonstration and simulation, discussion boards, leader boards, distance learning tools like webinars etc, leading organizations in view of technology change in these areas, are abandoning conventional modes of learning and replacing these with more effective solutions[2]. Thetechnology changes are compelling the learning and development teams to adapt to the learning solutions that involve recent technology innovations. Technology is really setting a new standard for engaging learners, improving their performance and developing an enhanced learning experience both for learners and development teams. In this article, let me discuss some of the ways technology is impacting learning and development departments of organizations and influencing the strategies developed by the managers.

 MOOCs

Learning and development teams today are increasingly shifting to adopt MOOCs to leverage their learning and development measures in order to enhance the workforce. Learning and development teams are influenced by the convenience and opportunity modern technology is providing to learners for participating in open learning forms and communities. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Community) gained popularity in 2012 as a great learning mode, playing a vital part in strengthening online learning community and giving access to a broad range of quality courses to the learners[3]. Udacity, Coursera, edX are some of the providers of a lot of courses backed by training expertise from big institutions such as MIT, Harvard, IIM and Stanford. This has led the learning and development teams to consider MOOCs far more valuable and reliable than computer based training and other distance learning courses.

Video learning

Why learning and development teams are adhering to achieve their learning goals via video learning, is another great way to see how technology is impacting learning and development industry. Video learning, as one of the modern and rising modes for learning and development, gives a new dimension to what PowerPoint is unable to deliver. Learners can easily be engaged through video content and training and development teams are now mostly relied on effectively created training videos to deliver the sessions all over the world. Learning teams consider video as a vital component of their training strategy and influenced by ease, interest and spark the video brings to their training and development session[4].

In addition, accessibility is another feature that has compelled teams to adopt video training. Trainers and instructors can create videos; both informative and demonstrating, that learners can access from any part of the world, once the video is published on dedicated platforms. Video has become one of the greatest means of pulling in visitors to particular website or a business. Thus, learning and development teams, which are also focused on marketing side of their learning and development strategy, especially find video an interesting mode to use.

Going Mobile

We all are aware of how mobile has just transformed the way organizations work, communicate, interact and collaborate to external environment and within departments. With global penetration level rising, learning and development teams that don’t consider mobile in all areas of training and development of their employees would have struggling time competing for talent. In spite of this reality, many learning teams are not responding to embrace mobile learning solutions. As per one of the latest surveys, just 10 percent of organizations and their learning and development teams are using mobile based learning strategies. Only 8 percent use mobile learning apps, 5 percent use mobile performance web based sites and just 8 percent use mobile performance apps[5].

The “mobile going viral” technology is compelling the teams to recognize mobile learning solutions as a means to improve learning strategies, expand globally and engage learners better. In addition, teams are also finding it difficult to determine the options that are accessible, effective and budget friendly. Determining technology partner has become an important decision for learning and development teams since this decision greatly impact training cost and learning outcomes as well. Technology is always changing and learning and development teams need to be ready to cope with the challenge of determining, selecting and using the most optimal technological

[1] Yourtrainingedge.com
[2] https://blog.kurzweiledu.com/2015/02/12/5-positive-effects-technology-has-on-teaching-learning/
[3] https://www.peoplematters.in/article/training-development/augmenting-learning-development-through-moocs-12378?utm_source=peoplematters&utm_medium=interstitial&utm_campaign=learnings-of-the-day
[4] http://aframe.com/blog/2015/11/why-successful-training-teams-put-video-at-the-heart-of-learning/
[5] https://trainingmag.com/5-trends-future-learning-and-development

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