Tell Us Your Thoughts! Are You Adopting Up and Coming Elearning Technologies in 2017?
This is the time of year for reports to come out; Docebo and ATD each recently released their reports of the state of the training industry for 2016. One aspect that stands out is technology trends, especially for elearning.
The majority of elearning that’s commonly encountered in the wild follows the self-contained module/LMS model. E.g., “Here’s a package that you can buy/must take, and it’s hosted in a learning management system that tracks progress and captures data for reports.”
And then there’s the cutting edge. Gamification, social media, xAPI for tracking, virtual reality—elearning trends that hold so much promise for effective, engaging, powerful learning. And yet, how are they compatible with existing processes, tools, and skills? Processes, tools, and skills that are the result of hours of investigation and massive amounts of investment?
Should we replace our current elearning investment with new technologies? There’s a lot that can be done within established technologies to enable new theories and trends—aspects of gamification can (with a little work with actions, a little magic with variables) be embodied within a self-contained package approach and hosted in an LMS.
Is there a point where that’s just not good enough? Where a video on how to fill out a form is clearly inferior to just-in-time guided practice as someone fills out the form themselves? Where virtual reality showing how to perform a manual task is clearly superior to a step-by-step click-next elearning solution that is viewed months before the task is performed?
At what point do you decide to overturn the old and replace it with the new? At what point do you engage the creaky machinery of change, and begin to move learning and performance in new directions?
I’d like to hear your thoughts. Leave a reply below with your story or perspective. Responses may be quoted in a future blog post, newsletter, or social channel.
Until next time,
Kevin Gumienny
Microassist Senior Learning Architect
Note: This commentary was originally published December 2016 in our monthly Learning Dispatch enewsletter. In addition to L&D commentary, the newsletter presents snippets from related industries to inform and enhance your learning and development expertise. Subscribe below!
Contact our Learning Developers
Need to discuss developing e-learning? Creating curriculum for classroom training? Auditing and remediating e-learning for accessibility? Our learning developers would be glad to help.