How to build a learning technology for your organization using the 5i framework

What is learning technology and why is it important

The art of Learning is a science that has been practiced and perfected over generations. Although learning as a concept has remained a constant in the context of an organization, our approach towards it has changed immensely over the ages. Learning technology, which broadly refers to the technological tools that assist in Learning, has also evolved with time, adjusting to and accommodating the way learners prefer to consume learning material.

The natural question to ask ourselves is, what should be the objective of learning technology?

According to Top Hat, "Any learning technology should help students increase their self-responsibility, act as an extension of their individual and collaborative learning and empower students to participate in higher-order learning to understand how knowledge is used beyond the classroom."

That definition holds even when we replace 'students' with 'employees.'

Any organization that is mindful of its employees' skilling needs should embrace learning technology in a way that enables the latter to access and consume learning material faster and better.

In other words, agile learning technology is a definitive step towards facilitating autonomous Learning.

However, even before we implement a specific learning technology, we must understand how people learn.

The 4 D's of Learning: Modern Workplace Learning 2020

Jane Hart points out that learning at work is not just about being taught or trained but happens in many different ways, which she calls the 4 D's of Learning―

• Didactics: Being taught or trained; what we usually refer to as formal Learning.
• Discovery: Informal Learning where learners find things out for themselves through browsing the web, reading articles and blogs, listening to podcasts, watching videos, etc.
• Doing: This is when employees learn from their day job. In other words, learning from working or experiential Learning.
• Discourse: Learning that happens through interacting with others, that is, social Learning.

Quite naturally, none of these happens in a silo.

When pictorially represented, the 4 D's inaction would look like an image with overlapping Venn diagrams wherein the various learning methods mix and merge to offer learners a holistic experience, what we may even call 360-degree Learning.

The evolution of the learning industry: What's changing

A careful analysis of the 4 D's would reveal that how employees learn or prefer to learn now is very different from how they preferred learning, say, five years back.

To make learning a seamless experience, it is essential that we don't 'position' it as a separate activity but rather 'merge' it with the overall content consumption behavior of an individual learner. In other words, while introducing and adapting learning technology into an organizational framework, we must understand that learners today neither have the time nor the patience to sit through the content-heavy learning material. Bite-sized easy-to-digest is the way to go, and our learning technology must support that.

 The learning culture, methodologies, and resources we must focus on are:

• Self-directed Learning 
• Continuous Learning in the flow of work 
• Developing collective team capability 
• On-demand microlearning 
• Multiple content libraries 
• Continuous learning opportunity 

As a direct result of the above, learning technology and platform should include:

• Mobile platform, Integrated experience platform
• Social and collaboration, Market Place model
• Intelligent recommendation, Chatbots, Tutor bot
• Adaptive Learning, mentoring, data lakes 
• Microlearning content, adaptive assessment

Learning technology reference architecture: A framework to follow.

A natural progression from understanding how workplace learning happens to make resources available to learners necessitates a robust framework. Here is a framework that I recommend, and you may use it while implementing learning technology in your context.

The 5 I's of a learning technology reference architecture: A reference model for a modern learning technology ecosystem.

• Interface: How a learner communicates with the learning material.
• Interaction: The various avenues and methodologies in which a learner can consume and contribute.
• Integration: Making Learning, assessments, and cognitive experience seamless and holistic.
• Intelligence: Adopting the latest in technology to enhance the learning experience using data drive insights.
• Integral: The various systems, tools, and platforms that facilitate Learning management

Adopting and implementing the 5 I's is a gradual process best deployed over several years. It is an ambitious approach closely linked to where you stand as an organization from a learning technology perspective. In the following reference capability model, I have identified five different levels for each of the I's. 

The idea is to move from one level to the next, keeping pace with the maturity of your organization's learning technology model.

With the right learning technology in place, learners are encouraged to consume content and contribute actively as mentors and SMEs in a marketplace framework. This, in turn, makes learning a more enriching and evolving concept both for mentors and mentees. This also keeps the model alive and thriving as more and more enthusiastic learners graduate into mentors, thus bringing in their fresh ideas, newer perspectives, and better content.

What to consider when implementing this framework: 

the 4D model strategy

One of the first questions to ask yourself before implementing this framework is: where do I stand?

Analyzing the present is an essential pre-requisite because this approach is closely tied to the maturity level of an organization from learning perspectives.

Once you know the answer, consider the following 4D strategy model:

Discover: Understand more about your organization's learning philosophy.

• Is Learning in your organization driven by compliance?
• What mode of learning to you emphasize upon? Formal, blended, or self-directed?
• Is your learning content user-generated or developed by the L&D team, or do you count upon external learning partners?
• Is Learning democratized with everyone having free access to learning material, or is an access restricted?
• What is the preferred modality of Learning?
• What is the skilling approach that you resort to?
• What challenges do you face as an organization from the learner, management, and HR perspective?
• What tools and technologies do you use the most?
• What is your HR IT landscape?

Define: Draw out the objectives. What is it that you are trying to achieve?

• What is your overall organization's goal, and how is Learning assisting that?
• What are your talent, development goal, and strategy?
• What strategy describes your learning culture, training, skill assessment, etc.?
• What is or should be your organization's learning philosophy?

 Design: Formulate how you want to approach the implementation of your strategy.

• How will you create the content?
• What platform would you use to deliver the content?
• Who would be the key people responsible?
• What will be the roles and responsibilities of each person involved in the process?

Deliver: Put the plan into action.

• Create milestones of the delivery plan
• Review and implement
• Assess performance
• Market the various platforms and resources among employees

Understanding and implementing the right kind of learning technology is crucial to the success of any learning strategy in an organization.

What is your approach? I am very keen to learn more about it.