Lifelong learning is now more important than ever. Technology has brought about many changes in the workplace, and those companies that don’t adapt at the speed of change risk being left behind. The Future of Jobs 2020 Report by The World Economic Forum revealed: Skills gaps continue to be high as in-demand skills across jobs change in the next five years. The top skills that employers see as rising in prominence in the lead-up to 2025 include critical thinking and analysis as well as problem-solving, and skills in self-management such as active learning and flexibility. On average, companies estimate that around 40% of workers will require reskilling and 94% of business leaders report that they expect employees to pick up new skills on the job, a sharp uptake from 65% in 2018. A significant expansion of remote work is expected in the next few years— employers see the potential to move 44% of their workforce to operate remotely. Since the pandemic started, online learning is on the rise. There has been a four-fold increase in the number of individuals seeking out opportunities for learning online through their own initiative, a five-fold increase in employer provision of online learning opportunities to their workers, and a nine-fold enrolment increase for learners accessing online learning through government programs. 50% of employers will speed up the automation of tasks, while over 80% are set to expand the digitization of their work processes. In other words, jobs will disappear, and new jobs will surge. Specifically, they predict around 85 million roles are set to be displaced by automation and 97 million new jobs will emerge by 2025. All these shifts happening so fast require employees to take greater control over their learning journey and at the same time, require leaders to act fast to ensure workers have the right information at the right moment. A lifelong learning approach cannot be forced. That's why there's a huge opportunity for leaders in companies to focus their L&D efforts on empowering employees to embrace lifelong learning and promoting self-directed learning. In the end, not only companies are the ones that will receive benefits for this... lifelong, self-directed employees are the ones who will thrive in a rapidly changing world. Prioritizing self-directed learning and embedding it into a well-integrated ecosystem is key to developing adaptive and flexible workers that are prepared to navigate uncertain times and the future of work. A lifelong learning approach cannot be forced. Lifelong, self-directed employees are the ones who will thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Tom sits down to do his sales training online. He has been asked to complete three lessons each week adding up to 30 minutes of online training. Tom is dreading it, but he is delightfully surprised at how quickly he can navigate the page and how well the content has been paired with the graphics and features. He gets through 4.5 of the lessons and leaves the 5th lesson bookmarked for the next chance he gets. Mary has been trying to find the lesson that the Fraud Department has assigned her. She has barely gotten passed lesson one in the time she had expected to complete at least 3. Her screen has frozen a few times on the graphics, she has had to re-read some of the text-heavy slides, and isn’t sure if the lesson she is on is going to help her with the issues she is meant to address. Which of the two people mentioned above had a better user experience with their eLearning course? Who is going to continue with their eLearning course?

When was the last time you took a long hard look at your company’s training strategy? If employees forget things you taught them back in onboarding or, worse yet, they’re leaving in droves to seek other opportunities — chances are your outdated training program needs to change, and fast. So, how does your training strategy stack up? Is it stuck in time? Or are you keeping up with the ever-changing needs of today’s modern employees? Let’s find out.

The modern work environment is very different from what it was just a year ago. Companies are now challenged to offer more and better eLearning programs that adapt to the new context and workforce needs. Without a firm basis in the needs of their workers, eLearning programs don’t succeed—in fact, some completion rates for online courses are as low as 4% because of this reason! How do you make sure your employees, with their 21st-century attention spans, are finishing learning effectively, and actually enjoying your courses? Be sure to pay attention to these trends. As technology advances, employee employees, and the business context also continue to evolve rapidly, forcing companies to continually revamp and adapt their existing eLearning courses.

Embracing and adapting to a changing landscape is not easy unless you know the rules to play by. Times-they-are-a-changing. As it is with everything else in life, change is imminent also in the field of corporate learning. The modern L&D scenario is vastly different from what it was just a decade ago. In this rapidly-changing landscape, the old order has given way to the new, and only the agilest and adaptable can survive and thrive.

As learning leaders, if we want to improve engagement, create impactful learning experiences, and improve ROI from our training initiatives, we need to get even more creative in capturing our audience’s attention and keeping them coming back for more. Instead of simply coming up with a course and telling people to take it, we serve ourselves and our audience better by finding ways to inject a learning spirit into the company.

They know that they make the best burgers in town, but McDonald’s still spends billions of dollars on marketing. If it is fried chicken, then it has to be KFC, but the makers still market aggressively. The truth is that your learner has choices, so they won’t come to you. You have to take your offerings to them! Marketing is no longer a dirty word in eLearning. In fact, now it is not even an option. As eLearning designers, you HAVE to take your courses to your audience and convince them of their value. Else there are just 0-5 percent chances that they will take them. The time has come for you to double up as a marketer. Below are some smart marketing tips to make your courses fly off the blocks:

Looking at all the things that are involved in creating an eLearning course could make you feel like your first step should be to “Give Up.” However, with these 12 steps, we break down the process into manageable chunks, which is a big part of what makes for a killer eLearning course design. Sounds good, right? Read through these steps, and soon you’ll have a good handle on what is needed and where to start to create your first eLearning courses.