What if the secret to life existed but was locked in a box that no one could open? Well, you’d pretty much just have a box, wouldn’t you? And that is also what you have when you design an eLearning course without taking usability into consideration. It matters little how relevant information in a course might be if your audience can’t access that information. While engaging students and making sure content is entirely covered are critical parts of course success, it is just as important to go through and make sure your user interface (UI) ducks are in a row. Taking the time to go through and check for user-friendliness will help ensure that your students don’t lose out just because the course is difficult to navigate. Keep in mind that an eLearning course often isn’t a choice for most people. They are taking this because they have to and will have little patience for guesswork. Make it clear what the user needs to do in order to advance in the course. Learning is difficult enough without the added annoyance of having to hunt for what to click on.

Consumers of corporate training and eLearning (aka. your employees) are changing – fast. Their priorities, training needs, preferences, and learning patterns are diverging from the well-beaten paths we've mapped out in the past. So, as you're probably wondering from the title, what do today's employee learners want from workplace learning? Well, we're glad you asked...



Workplace learning used to be different. In the last decades, learning was considered just an event. People studied four-year careers only, pursued a job for life, and then retired. But times have changed—and today’s employees no longer see learning as a one-stop shop for a job. Lifelong Learning is now more important than ever. And that’s more true for Millennials and Gen Z workers than just about any other group. These are the modern learners who are vastly different temperamentally, attitudinally, and psychologically than their predecessors, the Baby Boomers.

Anyone can create an eLearning course. But creating an eLearning course that works, and has an impact takes time and effort. Of course, good design, an intuitive user experience, and relevant content are key elements to factor in. However, despite the course turning out to look amazing and despite the eagerness of your employees to absorb all this information, they may forget what they’ve learned as soon as they get back to their desks. The problem at hand has a name and goes by learning decay. It’s the natural process of forgetting things we don’t use over time. Our minds register them as useless and drop 'em. However, if specific strategies are used throughout your eLearning course to indicate that the information is important, it’s deemed valuable for long-term memory.

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.