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The future of learning

Academee is at the cutting edge of the learning arena, constantly evaluating and developing our services to meet your needs. We believe that the transformation and change that organisations experience will drive the change in the delivery of learning and development, and consequently of elearning as a single mode of learning delivery.

Knowing how the future of learning is going to develop is invaluable for any organisation involved in the provision of training and development. And in order to predict the future of learning, it's important to look at the key developments so far.

There are three significant trends that will influence the future of learning:

• Granularity of training - how it is broken down
• Integration of different training units into a coherent programme
• Individualisation of learning programmes.

What is driving these trends?

These trends are driven by the needs of organisations - the need for efficiency, for productivity and ultimately for greater competitiveness. These needs constantly drive change and transformation, consequently changing how training, learning and development are provided.

How have these trends been driven in the past?

Granularity

Until a few years ago, organisational training was delivered primarily through three to five day training programmes, generally delivered off-site. While this type of event can bring real benefits, it is not always appropriate for every learning topic or every learner.

Similarly, technology based learning, including CBT (Computer Based Training) and elearning itself (from the mid to late 1990s onwards), was delivered in large, lengthy units. Some of Academee's own early elearning courses took eight hours to work through, primarily because they were attempting to reproduce all the content delivered by a face-to-face event.

Integration

In the past, a training programme would most likely be delivered through one medium, often the traditional 'chalk and talk' face-to-face event. Occasionally, there would be some pre-workshop notes. At this time, CBT and elearning were thought to be alternatives to face-to-face methods or were treated as add-ons, supplemental to face-to-face training and not fully integrated. Initially, elearning was predicted to save organisations millions of pounds by entirely replacing face-to-face training methods.

Individualisation

In the early to mid 1990s, one programme would typically be delivered en masse - you attended the same management training programme as all your colleagues. Although these programmes would often have a measure of effectiveness, it's now evident that they often failed to meet the individual's needs both in terms of learning style and actual training requirements.

Where are we now?

Granularity

The duration of training programmes has been significantly reduced. One day programmes are now commonplace and generally considered to be highly effective. For some Academee clients, successful face-to-face events last no longer than half a day. Organisations are becoming more and more reluctant to take their workforce from their place of work for more than a day - the driver for this being the need for productivity and efficiency.

elearning has become an increasingly popular mode of training: units have been reduced to an hour or less, and workers can be trained sitting at their desk - in the case of some customer service applications, units have been broken down into just 10 minute sections.

Integration

The early predictions of elearning as a replacement for face-to-face events were misplaced. Instead it's been recognised that an integrated programme of face-to-face events and elearning modules can be both highly effective for learners and economical and efficient from the perspective of the organisation. The buzz word today is 'blended' learning.

Balance Learning and Training Magazine's Transatlantic Blended Learning Survey 2004 claims that the increased use of blended learning will be accompanied by a reduction in pure instructor-led training, which currently accounts for nearly half of all organisational training. This figure is set to fall to 42% in 2005 and to 38% in 2006.

Blended learning is seen as the most effective and cost-efficient form of training by a significant majority of US respondents. The results also project that blended learning will comprise 29.4% of all corporate training and 22% of training budgets by 2006.

The survey also found that most respondents favoured the blended approach with 80% saying that elearning worked best when combined with traditional methods of training. Currently, 13% of all organisational training is currently delivered in this way - a figure predicted to rise to 19% in 2005 and 24% in 2006. The survey also found that one of the main reasons behind the predicted growth in blended learning is that 67% of organisations are seeking to reduce participant time away from the workplace by 50%. The blended approach offers a range of benefits and still represents savings for the organisation.

Unfortunately, many blended learning approaches are simply elearning programmes shoe-horned into an existing face-to-face programme - they are not tailor-made to run together.

Individualisation

The development of programmes into shorter, more concise modules makes it easier to tailor programmes to organisations and individual. Putting the correct components together is another challenge. More and more this is being facilitated by the development of more sophisticated, technologically-based training needs analysis and diagnostic tools.

Academee is now designing and developing an increasing number of online profiling tools, online versions of client 360-degree surveys and online development needs diagnostics. The technology is key here, since it allows sophisticated analysis of respondents' answers to the diagnosis to determine their individual learning plan or training programme. The technology also allows this to be carried out for large numbers of individuals - a whole organisation if necessary.

Where are we going?

Nowadays Academee sees a more intelligent approach to learning and development emerging. First, there is usually an intelligent diagnosis of an individual's needs based on identification of their current skills gaps, and development needs, in relation to their job role.

Then there is the intelligent provision of learning and training through so-called 'multi-touch' learning delivery modes, allowing the delivery of knowledge, understanding and practice through the most appropriate methods at the most appropriate time. Consequently the learner's progress can be supported as the learning is applied, with the learner being helped further through coaching and community learning.

In summary, Academee sees the future of learning as a bespoke and blended activity. Learning units will be miniaturised and intensified to integrate fully with work life. Programmes will be fully individualised, based on learners' needs and following an in-depth, intelligent diagnostic of requirements. Finally, training and development will fully integrate face-to-face programmes and elearning courses into a seamless process that blends into one satisfying educational experience.

Bite-sized elearning to buy online

Academee is firmly established as one of the UK's leading elearning specialists. Now we have distilled all our management development knowledge, research and innovation into a range of more than 70 bite-sized elearning modules - accessible, affordable, and directly available, this really is instant learning.

Covering the areas of managing people, information, activities and resources as well as diversity and equality, bite-sized elearning offers you enormous freedom and flexibility. Buying one module will cost you just £20 - and costs reduce dramatically as your volume of users and registrations increases.

To make these bite-sized elearning modules even more accessible, you can now purchase them directly from our new online shop, which gives you instant access not only to elearning but also a range of other learning tools. Click here to learn more.

Dr Jo Cheesman
eLearning and Partnership Manager
Academee
jo.cheesman@academee.com

This article first appeared on TrainingZONE.co.uk, September 2005