With the unprecedented changes the world has seen in these recent times, eLearning in every sector has gained more importance than before. Organizations have had to look at alternative options for their onboarding, training, and operation needs since the physical office spaces shut down. Once only remote employees were trained virtually. Today, with all the workforce working from home, corporate eLearning has become the norm. Corporate eLearning is here to stay as many organizations are looking at doing remote work and working from home as a permanent option.

What is the eLearning definition?

It can be defined as the acquisition of knowledge through electronic means. It includes the use of various multimedia. When used in the organization, corporate eLearning goes a long way in the different aspects of functioning.

Corporate eLearning: Approaches

Last year has shown us that we need a much better and faster way of training our employees. Let us look at a few approaches to eLearning that can make your corporate eLearning modules better and well received by your employees.

1. Approaches to Corporate eLearning: Web eLearning

Web eLearning is the most prominent corporate eLearning method where employees gain knowledge and skills through the website content made available to them. The employees only need a good internet connection to access the websites at their own time and pace. Plus, they can access content from wherever they like. The only drawbacks of web eLearning are that the content may be unengaging, and the employees may lose interest. Also, there is no personalization in the content, and if the employees have doubts, there is no way of clearing them.

2. Approaches to Corporate eLearning: Virtual Classroom

These are just like the physical classroom, only online. Since they are virtual, the organization saves on the cost of space. They include a higher degree of learner engagement as they are conducted by an instructor and promote factual learning. Also, collaboration and discussions with peers are possible as everyone is learning the same content. This also helps in building healthy workplace relationships. This year saw some unexpected working situations. Many organizations have quickly converted their Instructor-Led Training (ILT) and Virtual-Instructor-Led Training (VILT) material into the blended or entirely online mode. It gave the employees the flexibility to learn, personalized their learning, and led to trainers’ upskilling to use the latest technology.

3. Approaches to Corporate eLearning: Social Media Learning

Most of the world spent a majority of their time in the quarantine on social media sites. What if the eLearning material was put up on these? The employees would not have to open separate sites or apps to learn! This is precisely what social media learning aims to do. This way, the employees would learn in an interesting way and also be able to socialize with one another.

4. Approaches to Corporate eLearning: Microlearning

Microlearning breaks down the complex content into bite-sized chunks and runs for a short period. It is action-oriented and targets specifically on-the-job skills. Employees easily understand the content in this way and also retain the information and skills learned far longer. It is also an excellent method to access the workers’ basic knowledge and can be adapted to test the learner or reinforce and recap the learning experience.

5. Approaches to Corporate eLearning: Gamification

Many corporate eLearning modules are modeled as games that entertain the employee and convey important content. Through avatars and narrators in the games, the employee is immersed in the world of information and earns rewards. There could be leaderboards to showcase the progress of the employees, which build healthy competition among peers.

An organization that uses gamification in its learning methods successfully achieves higher training completion rates and higher engagement for learners. Also, employees are quicker to apply what they have learned in their daily tasks. Additionally, the practice helps the employees gain mastery over skills and leads to higher productivity and increased business growth rates.

A competent organization would integrate all of these methods in their corporate eLearning and provide their employees with a learning experience than just dull, drab content. Opt for customized learning solutions that suit your needs and see your workforce transform and increase in productivity than ever before.

6. Approaches to Corporate eLearning: Scenario-Based or Story-Based Learning

Scenario-based and story-based learning are both used across corporate eLearning in various sections. They allow the learners to be in the situation themselves and understand the real-world impact of their actions. Higher retention and recall rates are often reported, and this leads to a better learning experience. Employees can be sensitized using scenario-based learning, and desired positive behavior can be reinforced. Also, abstract concepts can be easily conveyed through interactive story-based learning sessions.

How would corporate eLearning benefit an organization?

eLearning can transform any industry, be it Healthcare, Retail, Information Technology, Banking, Finance, and so on. The eLearning culture has been adopted by most companies today and has been reported to yield good results for their workforce. But how would it be suitable for any of these exactly?

1. Cost Saving And Quicker

Corporate eLearning is economical for organizations as it saves on physical classroom costs and items involved in them. Gaining access to an online platform and making it available to the employees would be an investment that would cost much lesser. Also, since eLearning would break information into sizeable chunks, skills and knowledge would be absorbed faster by the employees, saving time on training.

2. Evaluation Options

Evaluation plays an essential role in any training as the performance needs to be analyzed to know the improvement scope. Various quizzes and MCQ questions can be included after completing a chunk of information to check if the learners have grasped the knowledge.

3. Ease Of Use

Since everything is online, the employees need not be present in the same place at the same time. They can take the eLearning modules in their own time and wherever they wish. Also, learners need not prepare notes or even need physical learning material since they can access all they require on their smart devices and go through the content.

4. Improved Retention

When information is conveyed through various audio and video means, it has a long-lasting effect and enhances retention. Exciting content that engages the learner is always retained for a more extended period than dull content.

Thus, corporate eLearning saves a lot of time, effort, and money for any organization. But the question remains. How does the future look for corporate eLearning in the coming times? The trends of eLearning in 2021 look positive for the overall growth of business organizations.

Continuous learning: Since corporate eLearning offers much flexibility, the organization can focus on the employees’ continuous learning through various virtual means. It also creates the habit of learning for the employees.
Improved content for learning: With the technological world changing constantly, there is always some content that is to be updated and revised. Corporate eLearning allows the organization to update its learning material easily.
Learner-centered: The focus is on the learners. What and how they learn are studied, and specific content is uploaded for their benefit.
Allows for learning to happen in the 70-20-10 format: With corporate eLearning focusing on engaging the learner in the content, they are provided with social or experiential learning opportunities and gain valuable job experience in real-world situations.

Another year during the pandemic will be made productive with these trends in corporate eLearning. They would be around for a long time.

Corporate eLearning: Trend of the Future

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