How Online Training Software Is Changing the Face of Learning

Online learning is now an easy and efficient way of training and learning for varied audiences – be it school children or corporate employees. In corporate circles, online training software has been fairly accepted as it saves a lot of time and money. But as   technology advances, the expectations from online learning are increasing as well.  While until a few years ago, simply making learning available and accessible to learners through a trusted online training software was enough. But today e-learning and online training software is changing how corporate employees choose to learn and more importantly, bringing significant changes in how training is perceived in the corporate sector.

• With online training systems, it has always been possible to monitor and store learner responses within the course. But with advanced learner analytics technology of modern learning systems, it is now possible to record how much time a learner spends on a page, how many external links he or she clicks within the course, how many times does he or she refer a course. This gives a comprehensive report on the efficacy of the course – which emerges from different experiences within the e-course and not just the result of a quiz or test which measures retention.

• From the exhaustive learner data churned out by the online training software it is also possible to identify if an e-course or a portion of an e-course is not working very well. So, if the learners are taking too much time over a portion or just skipping it due to disinterest, that section can be revised and redesigned. Instead of revising the entire course, developers can quickly change the content to create ‘adaptive’ learning for the new-age learner. The changes make a remarkable change in how the e-course is received by the learner and the participation automatically increases as well.

• From studying user experience analytics, it is also possible to identify learning activities that are successful for the majority of the learners. L&D professionals can then provide learning, which provide these activities to all learners and encourage them to succeed as well.  For instance, in social learning, the number of posts or contribution a learner makes is indicative of how involved he is in learning. More learners can be encouraged to follow the same path to ensure success of the whole group – within the platform and at work, where it matters the most.

• Newer technologies ensure that comprehensive learner data can be transferred from the online learning management system to other systems within the organization, for instance the HRMS. This helps in creating better compensation packages and takes supportive measures for employee retention as well. 

Making use of learning analytics is beneficial for learners, managers and the organization as well. But at the same time it is important to consider that this is not a completely fool-proof system. Along with the voluminous data churned, there will be emerging patterns which may not have much relevance to learning preferences or impact of learning. Correlation between emerging trends has to be scrutinized before making changes in the learning objective or the course itself.  While online training software has a multitude of benefits, they have to be utilized intelligently to create online learning for the modern learners. Only then can the online trainingsoftware truly be a viable solution for the corporate organization – through positive ROI and better work standards through sustained training.