There is no doubt that 2016 has seen huge progress in the field of e-learning. Based on what we know now and by closely following new and innovative e-learning technologies that continuously evolve, we believe the following e-learning trends will be established or further developed in the near future.
Career Frameworks
Employees are increasingly taking more control of their own career. Employees are looking for more flexible career models. Where opportunities in the business are clearly communicated, employees understand how to position themselves on a trajectory that will realise their ambitions. 2017 will see HR increase their focus on this area and how the organisation can help employees navigate opportunities and develop themselves with guidance from management in line with opportunities that are of interest to the employee and the organisation.
Learning Evaluation
For a long time, evaluation processes for evaluating learning initiatives have shown little progress. Concentrating on Kirkpatrick Level 1 (learner reaction to the learning) and Level 2 (learning achieved) evaluation, there has been little movement to Level 3 (behaviour change as a result of learning) and Level 4 (impact on results, return on investment). 2017 will see organisations look closer at Level 3. With technology support it is now more manageable to assess the impact of learning on their role. Level 4 will still somewhat elude many practitioners but we are seeing a growing trend where more value is being placed on the impact of learning, as in how a person does their job. Level 3 is where we should be concentrating to ensure that learning programmes are making a difference outside the classroom or the LMS.
L&D Manager as a Business Partner
L&D Managers are becoming more of a partner to the business. As part of this, we are seeing a more concerted effort to look at how learning is being embedded into the employee’s day-to-day work life. This will continue in 2017 with L&D Managers leaning on the LMS to ensure learning programmes consider how learning is embedded in the employee’s duties, with the support of their line manager and other support professionals such as coaches.
Instant Feedback as the New Appraisal
Feedback in the workplace is vital. Nowadays employees, especially the Millennials, expect timely and constructive guidance. For feedback to be constructive, it needs to be empowering and move away from the feeling of apprehension often associated with annual appraisals. Both the manager and employee need to be able to keep track of targets and objectives, reassess and adapt them on an ongoing basis to deliver results. The continuous feedback will allow employees to efficiently correct their shortcomings, improve their performance and better map-out their career path. User-friendly and responsive tools are now been used to help professionals in their performance management process. 2017 will see an increase in this trend.
Gamification
Gamification in e-Learning is fast emerging as an effective technique to engage and empower learners. From our discussions with L&D professionals during 2016, organisations will be investing more in creating gamified learning content with serious games to enhance workforce productivity. Enovation recently completed broad research in this area with the help of a large retail client and overall, this research demonstrated that gamification can be successfully implemented in an organisational context. Improvements in attitudes, motivation and engagement were also demonstrated. The research reported that the inclusion of gamified elements such as points, badges, leader-boards and levels resulted in positive effects on learner motivation among their retail employees. We anticipate that gamification will continue to evolve over the coming year. We look forward to providing this kind of strategy to our clients – Learning Management Systems (LMSs), eLearning courses and their serious game requirements.
So that’s it, all wrapped up for another year. Five prediction, and perhaps aspirations, to watch for. Are you prepared for 2017? Is it going to be business as usual for you and your Training department? Or is there exciting changes happening within your organisation? Either way feel free to drop us an email to have a chat about 2017.
