Failure To Personalize eLearning Leads to a Lack of Results
Most businesses these days have moved to eLearning for their employees. It’s simply easier to monitor, track, score and manage eLearning than it is reams of paper or hardcopy training materials. Of course, eLearning has evolved a lot from what it once was, and chances are good that your organization is behind the times in several areas. This is particularly true when it comes to personalization.
Not sold on the need to personalize eLearning in your organization? Consider the fact that a lack of personalization leads to a huge disconnect between your learners and the learning material. Not only that, but today’s employees expect a degree of customization and personalization in training materials. One-size-fits-all learning systems do no one any favors, least of all your employees. In fact, it’s been proven that human beings learn better when they have a voice in the process – when they are able to choose what they’re learning. That’s what personalization is all about.
How to Add Personalization
So, how do you ensure that your employees get a personalized experience? It’s actually not all that hard. There are several small steps that can be taken that can add up to big differences. Let’s look at a couple of the more important ones.
- Games: Gamification has become immensely popular, and for good reason. It’s incredibly engaging, and when done correctly, employees can enjoy individual routes through the game, and even individual outcomes depending on how the training game is set up. Companies like Delta have seen incredible benefits from adding gamification to their training options.
- Foster Engagement: One enormous mistake being made with eLearning is forcing employees to follow a single line of study material. They progress from one section to the next with no deviation and no way to provide input other than the occasional answer to a question. Instead, personalize their experience by letting them provide input. This can be done with gamification, but it can also happen with social interactions within the training material, through forums and message boards, and even through role-playing instances within the eLearning program itself.
- Create Active Experiences: Why should eLearning be static? You have the tools to create an active, immersive experience, so why stick with what’s gone before? You can create active experiences in any number of ways. For instance, before and after a video segment, you can provide a “moment of reflection” in which the learner can write down his or her thoughts. You could have them create a blog post as part of the wrap-up after a unit or lesson. You could create an animated sequence that allows learners to “build” the answer to a question. The options are virtually limitless.
- Advanced Technologies: Another interesting way to personalize your employees’ learning experience is by implementing advanced technologies, such as augmented reality or even virtual reality. Of the two, augmented reality might be the best suited for an office environment, and can allow each learner to enjoy a personalized experience tied to their specific environment.
- Learning “Bites”: An interesting way to provide a feeling of personalization is by opting out of the full-scale course education model and going with learning “bites.” Essentially, learning will happen through micro-moments that build on one another to create a seamless whole. Each moment is instigated by an action taken the learner.
Personalized eLearning has been proven to have a direct impact on information retention for employees. Better informed and trained employees have a dramatic impact on the bottom line of businesses and organizations. It’s really a no-brainer.