What’s the next big trend in e-learning training?

Published by Carole Bower on

What's the next big trend in e-learning and corporate training?

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Digital learning for corporate training is now a well-established tool of today’s businesses. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a rise in its popularity. E-learning has been shown to benefit both the employees of a company, as well as the employers and the company itself. It benefits employees by making training more interactive, engaging and easily accessible. However, not all e-learning solutions are created equal and it makes sense to do your homework before making a decision. 

The pandemic has changed the way we work. Remote working and hybrid teams have become more common. In the same way that we’ve had to re-think our ways of working, we’ve also had to adjust how we learn. In the corporate training industry, companies have started investing more in digital corporate training software. This is a huge shift from spending on travel expenses for in-person training sessions. 

The pandemic has reshaped and revolutionised the workplace. Consequently, it’s also changed the onboarding experience for new employees and corporate training. 

Although it’s harder to quantify than the shift to home-working over the last two years, there’s also been a shift in our attention spans and how we think about work. The biggest example of this shift is the so-called ‘great resignation’, which has shown that employees will simply quit jobs that aren’t intellectually stimulating. 

What this means for learning solutions and corporate training is that boring online training won’t work. Instead, employees will want immersive and engaging digital experiences. 

Rising trends in e-learning and corporate training

The aim, therefore, is to make e-learning activities engaging. So, how do you make workplace training as entertaining and engaging as possible? Some examples of popular employee training tools that achieve the best engagement levels are: gamification, virtual reality and augmented reality.

Learning Roundtable predicts that 2022 and the following four years will see companies increasing their investments in virtual reality and augmented reality technology. As well as increasing employee engagement and productivity, VR and AR also promote employee knowledge retention. This is because the high levels of immersiveness make these kinds of technologies captivating. Essentially, the more engaging an e-learning technique is, the higher levels of employee productivity.

Gamification is another increasing trend in corporate training. It consists of incorporating game-style techniques into e-learning by including things like rewards, points and different levels of achievement. The intent is to transform common daily tasks into a more exciting and engaging experience. 

a woman with a VR headset on topic of digital trends

Microlearning and videos

One of the latest big trends in e-learning and corporate training is microlearning. Microlearning takes the average human attention span into consideration. In fact, some say it might be shorter than a goldfish’s attention span. Microlearning focuses on breaking learning down into more “bite-sized” pieces. Ultimately, it’s in everyone’s best interests to respond to this by adapting our learning methods in line with our attention span. 

According to Learnosity, the future of corporate training lies in e-learning through short video content. Video-based learning goes hand in hand with microlearning. The optimal solution is to deliver corporate training through short videos. This type of content is also more engaging and user-friendly because of its flexibility. Employees can easily access these videos even if they have a small amount of time available to do so.

Digital experiences inspired by behavioural science

While we may all be using VR or AR in the future for corporate training, at the moment the best solutions rely on digital experiences. Digital experiences allow users to walk through specific scenarios and learn how they should act, and the repercussions of making the wrong decisions. 

These digital experiences are powerful tools, but the best on the market are designed with a knowledge of how we learn and how our brains work. 

At BAD, we know behavioural science. We build bespoke digital technologies to help companies train their teams and change behaviour in the workplace. We can help you implement the best digital corporate training in your business.

Get in touch today to find out exactly how we can help you improve your corporate training experience.

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