5 Innovative Ways Companies Are Using Online Learning Platforms

Manpower is an important factor in determining the success of any organization. Professionals who are skilled in their careers are likely to perform more effectively and be optimistic in their occupations. Therefore, companies these days want their employees to be up-to-date on their knowledge and skills. Staying ahead of the digital era’s challenges and trends would be impossible without a system to facilitate continuous learning. Digital innovations are what furnish the tools for training and education in an organization. 

E-learning is growing rapidly in the business world, with new prospects coming up one after the other. Organizations can increase their market competitiveness by implementing e-learning. The following are some innovative ways that firms can adopt to maximize the perks of e-learning.

1. Using a Learning Management System (LMS) to connect employees

When it comes to training and achieving career ambitions, orientation programs can prove to be productive. This is especially true for situations wherein a novice is paired up with an experienced professional.

This framework is carried out in a virtual environment through a learning management system (LMS), which provides coaching, mentoring, and information-sharing features. Many businesses make groups out of the workforce in the form of class sessions, crews, or branches, allowing for unrestricted interaction. This also boosts new employees’ confidence that they will get the assistance they require and learn from the knowledge of their more experienced workmates. 

2. Making training more effective through microlearning

Writer Art Kohn, who is also a professor and corporate training consultant, describes in his book ‘Brain Science: The Forgetting Curve’ a situation that many organizations encounter during employee training. An employee who has been trained well in all the necessary areas comes back to their department and realizes that they’ve forgotten a major part of what they had learned, despite performing magnificently in the modules. Kohn suggests that the remedy for this forgetfulness and how employees can retain these machine learning shoots is to apply appropriate techniques and routine validation via microlearning—smaller modules finished through multiple trials.

3. Making a clear direction with gamification

If you were given an option to either play games or work, you would most likely choose the former, right? Games are entertaining and fun, so it’s no surprise that the advent of gamification has brought a new motivation and engagement to LMS systems. This has proven to be very effective in training employees in a professional setting.

Let’s look at what Cisco, a global leader in IT and networking, did. In 2014, the company invested in a social networking training session for employees in the workforce. The participants became overwhelmed with the 46 courses that were part of the program. Most of them were unsure where and how to begin learning, so the company decided to gamify the process by introducing additional levels of credentials. They developed three primary levels—Specialist, Strategist, and Master—as well as four sub-levels for external communications, sales, and HR teams. These team events fostered friendly competition and inspired participants, who were given a concise series of steps to follow to complete the program. Finally, over 650 Cisco employees managed to complete over 13,000 courses and received credentials—all thanks to gamification.

4. Using skill assessments to grow accustomed

LMS systems have made it easier to capture, hold, and sort skill sets in order to ensure that employees are fully utilized. At the 2017 Pluralsight Live End User Conference, digital media software giant Adobe explained the benefits of employing an LMS to enhance its employees’ learning. Using their e-learning system, the company was able to train up to 25% of its professionals in assisting in a new venture.

Companies, particularly those in fast-paced industry sectors such as technology, must be capable of adapting new systems in the face of new opportunities. An LMS enables organizations to stay flexible and innovative. They can quickly evaluate a database of the workforce for the desired skill sets or identify areas where training is needed. The same system can also facilitate that very training to bridge the void. Without the assistance of e-learning, these processes would have taken much longer and been even more cost-prohibitive.

5. Providing flexibility to aging workers

According to a 2018 AARP study, out of the 170 million people who are anticipated to be in the workplace by 2026, 42 million will be 55 and above. Because it allows them to work in remote locations when needed, e-learning has developed a distinctive scenario for these older workforces. It allows older employees to stay conveniently employed without the imperatives of a full-time job.

Many organizations place older employees in training duties, which they can oversee online, right from home. This also enables competent employees to express their knowledge and contribute towards the retention of trained workers. But that’s not all—there are additional advantages to e-learning for senior citizens. 

Education shows to help people overcome depression by providing them with social interactions that they would not have otherwise. This has the potential to meet the challenging socio-economic needs of the elder generations. This is just one of the many ways in which businesses are utilizing e-learning to improve their operations and the livelihoods of workers.

Conclusion

The introduction of e-learning has paved the way for learning and professional training. Nowadays, tools can be adapted for people of all ages. They transform the way we learn things and have the potential to create job possibilities for those who would otherwise have been unemployed. It’s a powerful example of how technology can improve our lives. 

The development of a learning culture in an organization is necessary for the successful implementation of e-learning programs. The following are the key general criteria for e-learning in corporate training:

• Openness to learning among HR teams;
• Taking the methodologies involved in e-learning sincerely;
• Intensifying understanding of digital learning processes;
• Discovering e-learning tools and techniques;
• and HR training in e-learning.

E-learning is the latest technique of transferring knowledge that can also be used to establish the competencies of staff members. With e-learning, you could perhaps improve productivity in corporate training and even throughout your organization. As more entities join the bandwagon, the latest innovations will propel e-learning even further into the limelight. It will be interesting to see where we take it or, rather, where it takes us.