Trainers and managers have known for decades that employees who are motivated to learn will more effectively consume training materials and perform better at their jobs. But what exactly motivates employees today? And what are the best ways that eLearning courses can impact and motivate modern learners, including millennials — a group that will make up more than half of the workforce by 2020? The truth is that people are motivated in different ways. It’s very tough to find a “one-size fits all” training solution that will meet the needs of your employees’ various personalities and personal drivers. However, eLearning and training professionals can consider these common sources of motivation to design engaging online learning experiences that keep students wanting to learn more:

Mobile platforms are no longer the future; it’s where we’re at today. Our on-the-go culture isn’t slowing down. Whether learners are waiting for their lunch in a line at the deli or for an appointment at the doctor’s office, they want the most up-to-date information readily available across all different platforms but, most particularly, on their smartphones and tablets. Your employees expect their workday to be as mobile as their lifestyle. Developing a mobile learning strategy will be imperative to have more engaged, efficient, and connected employees in 2022 and beyond. Creating mobile courses for workers to turn to any time, anywhere, will guarantee your training is part of the movement. The purpose of this blog post is to help you develop a framework on how to start implementing a mobile learning strategy for your company or your client's company. Take note! The ingredients and mindset to design a mobile course are VERY different (check out the differences here). It’s all about getting your toes in the mobile learning waters and start experimenting. Once you identify what works, scaling up will be a given.

Isn't it natural that eLearning courses should be designed around what the learners are expected to do? This is called backward design, where you keep the end in mind before developing the course. It is radically different from the traditional way in which eLearning courses are designed, which is to "dump" knowledge on the learners and hope they will find "some" use for it.

Students today expect courses to be designed to accommodate multiple devices; do your courses deliver? Long gone are the days when students would only use desktop computers to access a fixed eLearning course. Today’s students are using devices of all sizes and shapes — their mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and personal computers — and they’re often switching between them multiple times per day depending on their location. Nearly all millennials (87%) say they use two to three devices per day, and employees from all generations are expecting to receive training and learning on their mobile devices. Is your course meeting their needs? If you haven’t yet implemented Responsive eLearning, then it’s likely many students have, or will soon, move on to somewhere else.

Training is an essential part of any company’s success in the 21st century. That’s a fact. But instead of simply settling by training your employees and hoping for the best, you should aim higher. A well-planned training program will lead to higher retention rates among employees and faster results for your company. But what makes a successful training program in 2022 and beyond? Some companies are still a decade in past — relying only on long eLearning courses or even worse, depending on instructor-led courses to bring their employees up to speed. This is an ineffective, and time-consuming way to train your workforce.

Mobile learning is a popular (and effective) trend in today's learning realm. When it comes to the format and design of mobile learning, as a designer, you will have many elements to consider. Here are our top ten strategies for designing nuggets of mobile learning goodness:

Chief learning officers, learning leaders, and training coordinators everywhere are well aware of the need to increase mobile training programs. After all, 74% of employees say they access resources from their smartphones to do their jobs— and that number is expected to continue to grow.

Let’s be honest: your employees use smartphones and tablets every day, everywhere — including in your workplace.