Yesterday we looked at a few E-learning trends like micro-learning, content curation, and virtual and augmented reality. Today we’ll look at a few more like gamification, open and customization learning platforms, and xAPI.
Gamification
Today’s employee learners are driven by technology and want opportunities to learn that aren’t stale and static. They want to interact with their learning content in real time. Gamified learning uses game mechanics to keep employees engaged and provides them with the instant results they want on a consistent basis. They’ll know they’re learning a skill as they move to a higher level or earn badges for their performance.
Social and Informal Learning
With the popularity of Facebook and Twitter, people are getting used to sharing ideas and chatting with each other online all the time. Now, they want this in their work settings, too. It’s a great and easy way for them to learn from others and to collaborate. Offer employees the opportunity to use chat boxes to communicate, post and compare notes in forums, and send message via intra-mail servers. Many LMS systems also offer community dashboards and social learning options that you can use. Social learning is the best way for employees to share best practices, find mentors, and learn from one another.
Open and Customizable Learning Platforms
Organizations are seeking out more open and flexible LMS options. They’re seeking out free open-source options (where the LMS source code is nonproprietary and public), as well as LMS vendors that allow them to customize and integrate their LMS with everything their specific organization needs. The ability to customize an LMS is one of the top concerns of organizations in 2018.
xAPI (Tin Can)
Tin can technology allows your LMS to integrate with other systems in your organization, such as your talent management system and other systems used by the Human Resources department. This technology is crucial to long-term career planning, succession planning, and performance management within your organization. It also allows you to distribute tailored content to each learner based on his or her learning path and performance metrics from active learning modules. This technology offers the best way to ensure your training and L&D programs are always relevant and effective.
Mentoring and Coaching
Mentoring and coaching programs will flourish in e-learning because of all the other technology trends mentioned above. Mentees will be able to get instant feedback from their mentors via social learning and robust LMS capabilities. And managers and trainers alike will be able to better track what their employees need to focus on when they see real-time results and metrics from their better integrated LMS systems.
If you want the talent in your organization to stay engaged and prepared in 2018, pay attention to the e-learning trends listed here, and apply as many of them as you can to your L&D programs.