To celebrate the start of the new year, we’ve explored some of the top eLearning trends for 2017. Keep an eye out for these rising trends and see if you can incorporate them into your eLearning strategy.
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The power of video
Most of us are already using video in our eLearning but we’re likely to see an increase. Why? Video has been proven to boost engagement due to its interactive nature which keeps us awake at our desks.
It’s a visually stimulating medium that helps the learner to understand complex topics with ease. It also makes it easier to tell a story in a short period. Something that might have taken 20 PowerPoint slides may only take 2 minutes to convey in video format.
But what works even better? Blend the video format with a variety of learning methods – traditional formal courses, gamified learning or classroom training, just to name a few.
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2-way eLearning engagement
Gone are the days when you enrol students onto courses and leave it at that. 2017 will see an upward trend of managers capturing feedback once learning has been completed. Learning management systems that allow feedback forms to be added to the end of courses will enable thoughts and suggestions to be easily captured and reviewed.
What’s more, there’s an additional trend towards social learning. This incorporates forums, polls and social media into eLearning to allow learners to provide opinions on learning offerings and share concerns. This can provide valuable insight for managers as well as making the learning a fun experience.
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Microlearning
2017 is set to be filled with technology that will continue to dominate our lives. Most of us are used to absorbing information through social media snippets and conveying our deepest thoughts through emojis. Unfortunately, this means that our attention span is shrinking but learning and development teams can take this on board and interpret it in this year’s strategy.
This trend will see learning become “bite-sized” – breaking large lesson plans into manageable chunks. This will ensure learners stay interested and learning objectives can become more defined and relative to that course.
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Simplicity is key
Here’s an eLearning trend for instructional and graphic designers. The rise of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to work means that mobile learning is becoming increasingly popular. This influences eLearning as it needs to be designed responsively for mobile devices.
What does this mean for designers? Where possible, eLearning layouts should use clean designs without too much clutter. Not only will this avoid designs not formatting correctly on mobile devices, but it will ensure that users will be able to concentrate on the content and complete learning with ease. This doesn’t mean eLearning designs should be boring, just well-planned, thought-out and simple.
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Personalised learning
There is no simple way of describing the day-to-day movements of all employees. This is because some people will be purely office-based whilst others will be part-time, field-based and all combinations in between. So, what does 2017 have in store to deal with this ever-evolving work environment? We need to make a shift towards personalised learning.
This means ensuring there is a variety of learning formats that fit in with the lifestyles of modern workers. This could be completing learning on mobiles on the train commute to work or whilst out of the office on business.
To fit in with the rapidly increasing casual learning trend, offering gamified learning also suits those who take time in their lunch break to learn. This fun format ensures learning look forward to exploring the game in order to develop their skills. Finally, offering microlearning will ensure that workers can always fit in important learning no matter how tight time is.