Learning has changed…have you?

In this article, Gavin Woods, Client Services Director at Aurion Learning, explores the recent changes in learning; how it needs to be delivered going forward, and how an exciting new learning platform solution from Aurion Learning might just provide the solution to the new world learning challenges.

How has learning changed?

Even before the global pandemic, there was already an increase in the use and adoption of digital learning. Since COVID-19, there has been a significant surge in usage as organisations were immediately forced into adjusting, revamping, or even creating their digital learning strategies. This included how they delivered important training and information to their staff, customers, and other external audiences.

Almost overnight, organisations had to gear up and change delivery models through the rapid conversion of content.

Challenges to overcome

So, if learning has changed, have you changed with it? And, if you have, will the changes you have made enable you to thrive rather than just survive as you move towards a post-pandemic digital world?

The onset of the pandemic saw organisations quickly shift to online and convert a large percentage of classroom into digital formats to bolster capabilities and meet learners’ immediate needs.

These conversion activities were essential for meeting learners’ immediate needs at the onset of the pandemic, but, in the longer term, may struggle to deliver in terms of effort, quality and scale. Here’s why:

Conversion is not transformation

Good learning design requires instructional know-how and learner engagement demands a certain level of design quality for the best results. Simply converting a bad training session into an online delivery format doesn’t provide any better learning impact. In fact, not understanding the nuances of digital learning design can mean taking a bad session and making it instructionally worse in the online medium.

Learning is much more than a webinar

Maybe, like many, you hadn’t planned or delivered a webinar before 2020. Webinars are great and they are here to stay as part of a learning blend. However, as I wrote in a recent Institute of Directors article, modern learning technologies have so much more to offer in terms of impact and innovation than what can be achieved through repeat webinar sessions.

You need to scale effectively

Learners like the flexibility of online but training teams need to find ways to scale their efforts. You cannot continue in emergency mode. Running webinars takes time and effort; repeat sessions quickly lose their lustre for learners and trainers alike. (Yes - Zoom fatigue is real). Designing interactive eLearning courses can have real impact, but the threshold is quite high in terms of time, resourcing, and budget to create something effective, making it better suited to whole audience training needs or flagship projects.

Content overload

One of the biggest challenges that many organisations need to overcome is the sheer volume of content available to them, with many now taking stock of what is available and what can be used for immediate and future needs. Whilst this volume of content may have been relevant in a traditional sense, many now have the challenge to ensure that existing and imminent training is designed to meet and deliver learning objectives and the desired organisational outcomes. The solution lies in not what needs to be added to learning programmes and courses, but what needs to be taken out.

What do you need to do about this change?

It is essential to look at different types of learning that can be brought together into an effective blend, where our classroom and webinars form part of a scaled pathway of learning alongside self-directed learning, curated learning and other forms of activities, assessments, and tasks.

Part of the Aurion answer: ByteKast

There will be organisations that are happy with their current digital setup, but many I speak to are looking for sensible options to help them deliver their new learning strategy.

That is why I am proud to introduce ByteKast to the UK and Ireland. After 20 years of working in digital learning, it is a platform that I am genuinely excited about and one that I feel has real value and application for the post-pandemic world of learning.

What is ByteKast?  

ByteKast is an innovative learning experience platform that combines different types of content, remote learning activities and blended learning events together into a structured pathway of learning.

Learners navigate through a series of optional and mandatory activities that combine your existing training resources with the ability to create new learning assets or curate from the web and leading podcast and video experts in your topic area.

ByteKast allows you to structure and deliver effective learning directly into your learners’ hands through your own branded Apple and Android apps, as well as via desktop, all with a great learner experience and the engagement and training analytics you need to measure and monitor your training impact.

It lowers the threshold and increases the scale of effective digital learning

ByteKast frees digital learning from being the reserve of whole organisation initiatives. Individual teams and projects can now embrace the changes in the learning landscape.

Pathways allow you to engage learners in different ways and scale your efforts by allowing more learners to access learning while you focus on your next in-person intervention.

The creation of pathways is rapid, particularly if you have content materials and resources that are ready to go. ByteKast also publishes instantly and simultaneously to app and desktop versions so you can respond rapidly to content changes or new content needs.

It offers incredible cost value

For the price of the development of one custom eLearning course, you could be up and running with ByteKast, with your own branded app in each major app store, a desktop version and the ability to structure, deliver and track engagement with as many learning pathways as you need. The comparative value is staggering in our opinion, particularly when you add that low-cost training can equip your internal teams to be creating their own learning pathways from day one.

It extends digital to all parts of the organisation, not just L&D

As a learning experience, ByteKast can live inside or outside your organisation, making it ideal for training projects that run alongside or instead of traditional learning management platforms. The flexibility of reaching your audience directly where they are, regardless of who they are, is an exciting liberator for learning.

ByteKast will even allow you to report back on pathway completions to a central learning system if needed. Already, we have seen organisations adopting the platform for use cases outside of staff training development in areas as diverse as International Student Onboarding, Patient Education, Learning and Development.