The coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns led to a rapid rise of current trends in learning and development. But even under normal conditions, interest in elearning had been actively growing year by year. Let's try to understand and foresee the nearest future of elearning.
AI in Education
Artificial Intelligence will be playing a key role in bringing to life the idea of personalized learning – adapting learning, content, and pace to the specific needs of each student. AI provides the ability to take data from a variety of sources, validate that data, and analyze it using tools such as predictive analytics and machine learning.
Immersive Learning
Immersive learning is a method that uses an artificial or simulated environment through which students can become fully immersed in the learning process. It not only eliminates distractions, but also kills monotony in the learning and development process by providing stimulating visualizations. Immersive learning increases student engagement and therefore makes learning more productive and valuable.
Microlearning
Microlearning is already an obvious and obligatory phenomenon in elearning. Its principles are:
- The duration of each piece of content is one to 15 minutes;
- The focus is on the result of the learning process;
- Possibility to broadcast the content on any platforms and devices.
The learner is not distracted by extraneous things: the working memory of the brain experiences no overload. The learner self-regulates the workload and can go back and review what has been learned at any time.
Each unit of microcontent is a concentrated value. While recording the material, the speaker does not go into lengthy detail. This optimizes the learning time.
Organizers of major international events train tens of thousands of employees and volunteers through microlearning. Mobile access to materials makes training even more convenient.
User-Generated Content
The number of people willing to train their peers in specialized or flexible skills will increase. Users can prepare their own material (videos, presentations) and upload them to the system. Students can cross-check each other’s work.
Synergy of HR Processes for Talent Management
Training is also firmly connected to other HR processes in the company. Increasingly, learning management systems (LMS) are connected to other human resource management (HCM) systems: for example, adaptation systems, KPI assessments, talent pool management, or several at once.
While remaining self-contained, these systems enrich and reinforce each other by sharing information. This allows you to see all your HR data in one place and understand the relationships. For example, you can see how training has affected KPI performance. This allows you to properly reward your employees and prepare the talent pool.
With this approach, HR becomes systematic and more weighted in the business. Training, while retaining autonomy for full development, becomes part of a complete talent management system rather than a separate process.
Video Content
Pedagogical psychology distinguishes three ways of learning the world: through vision, hearing and abstract thinking. Information from these channels is the most understandable, which means they need to be involved in the learning process. Video content satisfies all three conditions: it activates attention, helps present the material in a visual form and memorize it. Therefore, videos as an element of online learning will be in demand for many years to come.
Gamification
Gamification is no longer treated as a standalone motivational tool, and is increasingly associated with educational content. Being awarded with points stimulates personal achievements.
Gamification also gives birth to a natural social process — competition. Competition in the corporate training system evokes a psychological need for an employee to prove their professional level to themselves and to those around them. It helps to assert oneself, to experience joy and pride.
Personalized Training
In 2021, personalized learning has caught the attention of many managers. It manifests itself in a desire to set developmental boundaries independently. All a company needs to do is allow the choice of learning tools.
Emphasis on Soft Skills
In the pursuit of demand in the labor market, specialists upgrade their hard skills while soft skills are left overlooked. But in the future they will be decisive when applying for a job.
Mobile Learning
The BYOD (bring your own device) system, which gives new opportunities education for life and promotes the use of personal smartphones for work and professional development, is actively increasing in popularity.
Switching to BYOD will make training affordable and give companies a bonus in the form of saving on classroom equipment.
There is a catch, though: the teacher has to consider the psychology of content consumption from cell phones to make the course understandable and engaging. This means reducing the texts on presentations, adding more interactivity and thinking through cues.
Conclusion
The trends listed above are not a complete list. AR and VR technologies will be actively implemented, communications via chatbots and unified space learning will develop. And let's not forget that trends do not work alone: each of them seamlessly complements all the others. If you need custom elearning development, you can contact our company.
