From the standpoint of a magazine that’s always talking and writing about the latest trends in corporate learning/training, it came as a bit of a surprise to us when we tallied the results of this year’s survey of readers.

You would think that social learning (of which mobile learning or m-learning is a part) would be the number one choice among learning professionals for passing on and exchanging corporate knowledge, especially those organizations that have an employee population that travels a lot. But according to our research, fully 40 percent of all training hours are conducted via the traditional instructor-led classroom scenario. E-learning or online methods are certainly competitive with 34 percent of all training hours, and blended learning (traditional ILT plus online training) is also popular with 22 percent of all hours.

Yet those online e-learning numbers are a far cry from what they could — and probably should — be. For all the talk among learning professionals about cutting-edge methodology and technology, those online numbers appear to be lagging.

Perhaps it’s because there’s not a good way to measure how much time employees actually are spending in online training, especially if the learning is self-paced. After all, managers can only take the word of their employees, and it’s only natural to suspect that at least some of that time on line is surfing the Web or not otherwise taking advantage of available training modules.

To hear industry suppliers/vendors talk, virtual classrooms, online meetings and informal social learning are taking off — or at least poised to take off — in popularity. But our most current numbers belie that supposition. Just 25 percent of training hours are self-paced, 19 percent in virtual classrooms or online meetings, and just 10 percent given to social learning. We obviously want to believe our vendors, so we’re assuming that the numbers just haven’t caught up to the actual trends yet. Maybe next year.

For government (including education) and non-profit organizations, the numbers aren’t much different: 41 percent ILT, 33 percent e-learning or online, 23 percent blended learning. And those numbers, too, are somewhat surprising, given the heavy investment that government has been making in telework and information technology.

Certainly, some progressive organizations are making speedy, significant inroads when it comes to e-learning, among them members of our Learning! 100, including Scripps Health, the American Heart Association, the U.S. Department of Defense (especially the Defense Acquisition University), Verizon and others. As their stories are circulated throughout the industry, our hope is that progressive learning methodology — including all e-learning modes — plays a larger and larger role in the overall learning philosophy of more organizations.

To read our original annual research, check out the April/May issue of Elearning! or Government Elearning! magazine. If you don’t get a copy in the mail, the online version is available at http://elmezine.epubxp.com/title/12078.

To find out more about the Learning! 100, visit the website http://2elearning.com/l100/.

Category: Business, e-learning, Government, Jerry Roche, Learning Technologies, Learning! 100 Award, Management, Mobile, Social, Social Learning Networks, Strategy, Talent Management
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Dr. Beverly Kaye, founder and co-CEO of Career Systems International, thinks that career development is a powerful and under-utilized lever to motivate employees.

She does not believe that IQ alone is a driver in individual success. In that regard, she’s not alone among learning professionals. But she does clarify in a unique way: “It’s FQ (fluidity quotient) and AQ (adversity quotient). It’s much more than just smarts that makes a success.”

Put more succinctly, she believes that people who can survive bad things happening to them and who are adaptible are those whose careers have the potential to really take off.

On the other hand, she says that five “immobilizing myths” (what we call excuses) are walls to personal success:

>> “I don’t have time.”

>> “We’ve got to protect the status quo.”

>> “It’s not my job.”

>> “When you have big expectations, you have big disappointments.”

>> “It’s only for high-potentials, not me.”

She believes that individuals must learn how to “own” their careers, but not in isolation and not without a framework within which to work.

One of the things that people — especially millennials — can do to advance their careers is a simple one: be curious.

“Curiosity is a priority,” Kaye says. “You cannot fake it. You might not have all the answers, but what’s not negotiable is that you have the questions. The greatest sign of respect is when a person is curious about what another person says. The more expert we become, the more we lose our apprentice mentality.”

Also, career-minded people must say good-bye to the so-called “career ladder,” an artifact of the “Mad Men” era.

“Onward and upward have to be replaced with forward and toward,” she concludes. “A learning event alone does not a marriage make. You must learn, apply and talk about it; they are opportunities for managers to capture a few minutes and learn more about the situation. It’s a sign of respect, and millennials are crying for it. These opportunities are a chance to spark something: reflection, insight, commitment, or action.”

Category: Business, Jerry Roche, Management, Strategy, Talent Management
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Technological advancements are causing us to re-define how it is we learn, measure learning, and even ultimately administer training across a variety of industries.  As these technological advancements become mainstream, they are quickly becoming the expectation, so that enterprises can better service the needs of their employees.

The opportunities available in this space are also attracting many entrepreneurs.  With expected growth in the LMS industry projected by us to be 10.4%, or more than $1.8 billion dollars from 2012-2013, you can see the attraction.  This is good news for everyone, as there are now many options coming onto the market again, while others are consolidating through mergers and acquisitions.

In looking through many of these advancements, I think there are three emerging trends that we need to pay attention to in our decision process:

1. Learning is open – and now the source code is too.  Back when the LMS industry started taking off, the source code was always proprietary, and in many cases, difficult to integrate with other technologies and applications.  Open source more easily allows an LMS to evolve to fit specific needs, as requirements change.   Features can easily be added, reduced, molded, modified, and tweaked to the specific audience and their enterprise’s goals.
2. Supported by Mobile devices.  In the late 90s, eLearning generally meant sitting at your desktop computer, clicking “next”, and passing a final quiz.   The mass production of laptop computers brought about the first idea of mobile learning, and now smartphones and tablet devices have opened up even more possibilities.  As I pointed out in our magazine, by 2015 mobile will be the predominant delivery modality for learning.  People are busy, but they are always connected. The newer LMS’s assist by enabling everyone to take their training anyplace, anytime, or anywhere. And best of all, the TinCan API allows us to effectively gather metrics on this mobile learning.
3. Adapts quickly to organizational needs or goals. Sometimes companies need to quickly pivot and go in another strategic direction, and so do their support systems.  LMSs that require support calls to add functionality, change layout, swap out content, and so on are not as flexible as some of the newer entries.  Adding functionality, changing branding, and the like are now becoming easier.

You will find that many LMS offerings are starting to contain these characteristics.  One that caught my eye that incorporates these emerging trends was a relative newcomer LearnDash.  I literally did a “double-take” when I found out that it was built on top of the [open-source] WordPress platform.   It never dawned on me that WordPress could be a software platform.  We would love to hear your thoughts on that particular direction.

As always, my caution is to always prioritize the most important features you need, and then base your search on those requirements.  There is always more to a choice than just technology, but with all of the changes on the horizon, technology shouldn’t be taken for granted.  Whatever you choose, ensure that it is well supported and committed to continuous improvement.

Category: Emerging, Joe DiDonato, Learning Technologies | Tags: e learning, Elearning, Joe DiDonato, LCMS, LearnDash, LMS, mobile learning, talent management solutions, TMS
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