The Leaders Championing the Virtual Learning Movement

The Coronavirus has accelerated virtual learning adoption, investments, and delivery while rendering in-person training temporarily irrelevant. While many companies had previously offered virtual learning courses to their workforces, in today's environment distance learning is the only safe and acceptable option. The virtual learning market has and will continue, to grow rapidly as companies focus on closing their skills gaps by upskilling and retraining their teams. Even though 33.5 million Americans are unemployed, there are still 6.9 million unfilled jobs, leaving a mismatch between the skills companies need and the skills professionals have. After studying the skills gap for many years, I've concluded that it remains regardless of our economic status and health, which is evident right now in this pandemic.

The global virtual learning market was valued at nearly $60 billion in 2019, is expected to grow by almost 19 percent year-over-year and is predicted to reach over $168 billion in the next seven years. This immense growth is due to a variety of factors including the availability of technology, the cost savings, the desire for flexibility, the surge in online education options, and of course, the impact of the pandemic. One online education option that organizations have turned to is Cornerstone OnDemand, which found a 103 percent increase in logins across their client base and a 75 percent increase in companies moving in-person training to virtual, online formats between February and March. Over the past several years, companies have taken a leadership role in educating their workforce, by providing them with more learning alternatives in order to help them fill their skills gap and prepare for the jobs that haven't even been created yet.

Since last November, I've highlighted the mental health, gender pay equality, financial wellness, and remote work movements. Today, I'm focusing on the virtual learning movement because it's become the only workforce educational option during this pandemic. I've selected some thoughtful leaders from some of the world's most admired companies, from a variety of industries, that have effective virtual learning solutions for their workforces. I spoke to seven HR and learning leaders in order to hear their perspectives around the topic. These leaders include Elizabeth Bryant (VP, Southwest Airlines University at Southwest Airlines), Meghan Welch (SVP, Head of Enterprise HR at Capital One), Vidya Krishnan (Chief Learning Officer at Ericsson), Rob Lauber (SVP, Chief Learning Officer at McDonald’s), Kim Newkirk (VP, Chief Learning and Talent Officer at Liberty Mutual), Adam Zaller (VP Learning and Development at Cardinal Health) and Ann Stott (Chief Learning Officer at Biogen).

Dan Schawbel: Classroom learning, events, and conferences are nonexistent during this pandemic so we are all getting used to only having virtual learning options. How has this impacted your ability to train and develop your workforce and what are the long-term implications?

• Elizabeth Bryant (Southwest Airlines): A significant focus within the Southwest Airlines University (SWA U) Department is to ensure initial and recurrent training compliance for many of our operating departments. For several years, our new hires have traveled to Dallas for training. Our training approach has since quickly shifted during this unprecedented time. New hires can’t travel to Dallas—they have to be trained in our stations locally without traveling. With employee safety and well-being top of mind, we determined that virtual training was the best course of action given the unique situation. Our instructors and employees have embraced this new training approach and we’re working to convert our learner guides to make them more mobile accessible. We will identity additional distance learning opportunities and continue to evaluate how this may impact our training approach in the long-term.
• Meghan Welch (Capital One): At Capital One, we’ve been deeply focused on embedding learning into the flow of work. We recognize that most learning happens in the moment and on the job, not in a formal classroom setting, so most of the learning approaches we’ve embraced are already work-from-home friendly. Additionally, for classroom learning, we have been delivering in virtual classrooms for years, so we already had the structure and talent in place to transition in-person experiences to a 100% virtual learning delivery model. From a long-term implication perspective, navigating a global pandemic has tested our learning & development experience in many ways, but it’s also presented us with an unexpected opportunity to dream big about our vision for future learning. From high potential development cohorts to asynchronous people leadership development challenges, we’re harnessing the power of this moment to experiment and innovate with learning content, modalities, and measurements. 
• Vidya Krishnan (Ericsson): The future of work has always been about forging learning and development through real, global connections—whether they happen virtually or otherwise. Our ability to train and develop our workforce—and more importantly, our workforce’s ability to develop and train themselves—has intensified significantly as we respond to this pandemic. The pandemic demands that we use virtual tools for connection, and everyone is rising to that challenge. We see how people are speaking up, turning cameras on, experimenting with new approaches, and fostering creative learning connections that are both digital and human. We call this combination of ecosystem and engagement our Empathy Engine, and it has expanded our ability to train and develop our people on a shared learning journey. Everyone now realizes how much they can and must keep learning through these challenges, so building our future critical skills will be more vital and virtual than ever before.
• Rob Lauber (McDonald's): In the context of the pandemic, it's presented some interesting challenges to us. Given the U.S. as an example, we probably put 30 to 35,000 people a year through classroom experiences. It's been pretty disruptive from that perspective. We've been able to follow the curve of the pandemic where virtually all activity stopped like in most places as the pandemic began. But quickly we were able to pivot into existing virtual connectivity platforms that we have like WebEx to be able to pivot our instructor-led programs and be able to reach that workforce again. As a simple example, one of our key programs for shift leaders within seven days of standing up 90 sessions, we had more than 3,000 people enrolled in those sessions participating. It’s definitely been disruptive and definitely forced us to pivot. We have that plus we had a longstanding existing digital platform that we were using as well. That largely was uninterrupted in terms of people's ability to learn online previous to the pandemic. So that part of our platform and part of our strategy has basically stayed consistent. Really the classroom pieces have been most disrupted and for that, we've shifted largely to virtual sessions or even some of them are more packaged sessions where it's multiple sessions across a few days as an approach. That's the short-term pandemic issue. The longer-term implications for us are actually positive because I think it adds another accepted delivery method to the arsenal of how we can help people learn in the organization. In our system, we have a very widely distributed workforce obviously with our number of locations and where people are globally as well. The virtual learning options now present us with another piece that people frankly had been enforced to get used to and are finding much more accepting then compared to our face-to-face preference from the past. I think that opens the door for us from an implications perspective to leverage it a lot more in the future, which enables us to reach more people more frequently with a lower barrier to entry going forward. 
• Kim Newkirk (Liberty Mutual): Up until two months ago, the majority of our core programs were delivered either partially or fully in-person. We had to pivot quickly and flip our large foundational leadership development program from a lab-like classroom to entirely virtual in a matter of weeks to continue to support our leaders. While this is a significant challenge for us, there is a silver lining.  We have already created quick-turn designs on virtually-instructed classes to support our managers during this time that has been very well received.  The fact we had no choice allowed us to move faster, get to pilot quickly, and to a great result.  Ultimately, virtual facilitation gives us the opportunity to implement lower cost, more targeted learning to leaders, managers, and employees that mixes cohorts globally. It’s always a challenge to keep attention virtually, but it is a challenge we are up to.  I am confident that we will ultimately be able to drive the same level of capability building virtually as we drive in the classroom.  The other silver lining of the COVID situation is that we are quickly getting our employees comfortable with virtual classrooms, video and successfully moving them to platforms such as LinkedIn Learning that deliver bite-size learning in the flow of work rather than seeing training as a moment-in-time event. Over the past two years, we have made great progress in partnering with internal stakeholders to deliver mixed modality and shift learning from an “event” so something that is more of a journey in the flow of work. We partner with many functions to create impactful learning paths. Even mostly virtual programs can be complemented by a live webinar with Q&A or a group discussion.  This allows employees to reflect on learning, make it social, and feel more engaged. I liken it to a book club, in which our learning program provides employees with the opportunity for discussion that broadens their insight and awareness beyond what they might have gotten on their own.
• Adam Zaller (Cardinal Health): Much of our existing learning offerings are already set up for virtual learners. We’re fortunate that our platform has allowed for our learning team to continue supporting the business. And where needed, we have been able to successfully pivot to provide remote training.
• Ann Stott (Biogen): Biogen has been very fortunate to have a strong learning team that was able to convert live training to virtual training in a short period of time. Our ultimate goal, which we achieved, was to be able to provide all scheduled essential learning to ensure business continuity. For example, we converted our New Employee Orientation (NEO), previously hosted live, to a virtual event and were extremely pleased with the level of engagement from the new employees. Since March, we have hosted nine virtual sessions for NEO and trained over 246 new employees globally. Based on a course evaluation, 98% of attendees either strongly agreed or agreed that they felt prepared to start their job at Biogen. Prior to the pandemic, Biogen was already exploring converting leadership and management training to virtual programs to support multiple time zones as our company has expanded our global footprint. I think the long-term implications will be a change in mindset. Programs that we previously felt had to be live may become virtual based on the success rates we’ve been having thus far. Using virtual technology, we can offer more programs and reach more employees.

Dan Schawbel: Can you describe the components of your virtual learning offering and the insights you’ve uncovered from how effective the program is in supporting your workforce development?

• Elizabeth Bryant (Southwest Airlines): From a delivery standpoint, virtual training was a method that challenged our traditional approach. Our teams have been thoughtful about student engagement, activities, and demonstrations for training programs meant to be delivered in-person to ensure content is still effective. We’ve received great feedback from our instructors and employees who have participated in virtual training. To date, we’ve held virtual training classes for several operational workgroups including our ramp agents, provisioning agents, and customer service agents. It’s been an incredible team effort and we’re excited about the potential applications of virtual training for other training programs, departments, and workgroups!
• Meghan Welch (Capital One): There are two central platforms that power our virtual learning programs: Learning Hive is our social, informal learning platform, where associates can consume, create, and share learning content by building paths and collaborating with each other. Last year, we expanded Learning Hive across the company and integrated LinkedIn Learning to help us deliver socially-led, timely, relevant, and on-demand content for learners. OneLearn is our newly launched Learning Management System (LMS) that houses instructor-led training, virtual instructor-led training, eLearnings, and compliance courses. Its modern interface, learning recommendations powered by AI and data, and system integration with Learning Hive, were all key factors in our decision to upgrade our capabilities to deliver a more personalized learning experience.  
• Vidya Krishnan (Ericsson): Our virtual learning offerings all share an emphasis on building critical, differentiating skills. Several business-critical reskilling programs that were entirely face-to-face have been redesigned to become virtual. Our data so far show that people are responding effectively. What’s more, they’re helping us improve. For the real-time sessions, we are using Microsoft Teams and Adobe Connect, and they both have breakout-room capabilities. I also see an uptick in people using PowerApps and Whiteboards to make things easy and engaging. Our Learning NEXT team is doing some incredible things with VR, AR, and 360 Video to create “visceral virtuality”—the enhanced ability to experience something you perhaps never could otherwise. I think these will rapidly become mainstream learning experiences in our 5G world! There are self-paced and team-based learning pathways on Degreed (the learning experience platform Ericsson uses) that go hand-in-glove with virtual programs. The biggest insight of all is that people make time to connect with the content and community that are most relevant to them. It’s not just about what these virtual offerings contain but also whom they are designed to serve. 
• Rob Lauber (McDonald's): We have a standalone self-paced eLearning that people can go through that cover a variety of different subject areas critical tasks and procedures that they need to cover and perform in the restaurant. There's also on-the-job learning pieces. We have a learning journal approach where we ask people to go out and practice on their own, in the real work environment and then reflect on their learnings and insights out of it. Those pieces have remained largely the same. Then we've introduced the virtual component where we're reaching people as a substitute for the classroom. The first two components that we have we've seen are pretty effective. We get good feedback on that process. It flows in the natural way that people are learning in our restaurants anyway, which is typically on the job and through experiences and through others. We try to match the way people are actually learning and the closer we get to that, the more effective we find that we are in terms of supporting their learning.
• Kim Newkirk (Liberty Mutual): Our goal is to embed learning in the flow of our employees’ work as much as possible. We have seen terrific employee engagement in virtual learning via LinkedIn, which we launched about 18 months ago.  We see much higher usage and return users when we create learning paths tailored to their function that can accelerate performance in an immediate way. I see a parallel to how my son uses YouTube to figure everything out.  
• Adam Zaller (Cardinal Health): We buttress synchronous learning with pre-workshop knowledge development through asynchronous means, as well as sustainment through the Axonify technology platform.
• Ann Stott (Biogen): Traditionally, we used virtual learning for knowledge transfer and live learning for application. However, in an effort to continue to push forward while maintaining our high standards for certification, we have continued to train our medical scientist liaisons and commercial field employees with disease state and product training worldwide. I am very proud of our team for converting live training to virtual training in such a quick manner. Over the last seven weeks, we have certainly progressed in our skill of virtual training, adapting to platforms that offer an engaging and interactive learning environment for our employees. We chose platforms that could support multiple cameras on the screen at one time that also allow breakout sessions for smaller group exercises. Activities that we would normally do in a classroom like role-playing are now being done virtually via cameras and it has been working well. Our learning team meets weekly to continue to share best practices, ensuring we leverage these learnings with each new virtual training. To me, a big part of our success has been the mindset of the student and their willingness to participate and engage in these virtual trainings.

Dan Schawbel: There’s research from Brookings that shows that virtual learners have worse outcomes and I’ve spoken to executives over the years that promote ‘blended’ learning. What do you think is the most effective combination of learning tools and delivery options to support a workforce?

• Elizabeth Bryant (Southwest Airlines): Learning is not a one-way experience—there is classroom training, distance learning, on-the-job training, mentoring, etc. The needs of learners are changing and will likely be a blended experience with technology and in-person. At Southwest, we train in a highly regulated environment and need to measure proficiency. It’s more of a performance-based model with training materials at their fingertips on an iPad or similar device which equips employees with everything they need to know to learn at their own pace. Our instructors are hands-on, acting as coaches, and give them the tools they need to be successful.
• Meghan Welch (Capital One): We are constantly testing new learning methods - whether that’s social learning, learning nudges, virtual or augmented reality, simulations, and more - with the goal of optimizing how different methods can be used together most effectively. We leverage data to hone in on the best approaches, and we’ve found that a blended approach to learning is often the most effective, while also acknowledging that it’s not the modality alone that impacts learning. As far as virtual learners having worse outcomes, it can be tough to isolate the potential failure point without having a full view of all the variables. Is it because the courses weren’t designed well for virtual delivery? Were the learners distracted in their environment? Was the facilitator’s focus split trying to run the technology and teach at the same time? There are many contributing factors that could be at play.
• Vidya Krishnan (Ericsson): The Brookings finding was that continued improvement of online curricula and instruction is necessary to strengthen the quality of virtual learning experiences, otherwise they fail the participants most in need. With that, I wholeheartedly agree. Blended learning means that it takes a virtual village to raise a learner: content, context, curriculum, community (learners and teachers), and contribution (demonstrated impact). Thoughtful, empathetic, engaging interactions with a facilitator and teacher can make a learner feel the collective belonging and individual drive. There is untold power in a simple check-in on IM or email that secures an authentic human connection before delivery even starts. We see that self-paced content is captivating in its flow and form, but it should find you through the power of AI search, versus you always having to discover it. For high-powered workforce learning, I believe PBL (Project-Based Learning) is an effective approach to put work and learning in the flow of one another. Especially in the context of intensive re-skilling, we are infusing PBL into our evolving portfolio.
• Rob Lauber (McDonald's): I always think about the delivery modes or the modality that you use relative to what it is that you're trying to accomplish. You can't substitute virtual learning for on-the-job experience because it'll always drive a worse outcome because practice builds mastery, forty web conferences don't build mastery. I think the most effective combination is around tools you can use to drive mindset. So what can I do virtually that incorporates video that helps people to think differently? I can use a lot of virtual and online tools to be able to do that. We've looked at the classroom pieces and the on-the-job pieces as skillset builders. For instance, the ability to practice a coaching session or a practice giving someone feedback or practice an on-the-job session, like maintaining a piece of equipment. The most effective combination is really how we look at mindset and then how we look at skillset.
• Kim Newkirk (Liberty Mutual): Research shows that just dumping vast quantities of online learning options leads quickly to learner overload and disenfranchisement.  Offerings need to be relevant to the learner on the job, easy to understand, and recall. We use basic neuroscience principles in all of our programs to help ensure the learning “sticks,” so it ultimately manifests in capability building. We work to create experiences, regardless of modality, that is relevant to current performance, and that includes a social element and time for reflection.  A shift to more virtual actually provides more flexibility to deliver shorter, right-sized learning opportunities to employees, at the time of need, within the flow of work.  Where possible, we work to connect them to others (regardless of physical location) in order to foster connections and shared experiences.
• Adam Zaller (Cardinal Health): I think what’s most important is that you align the program to success criteria from the business, focus on application and skill-building, as well as have a plan for a high degree of virtual workshop interactivity and post-workshop sustainment so that you can meet or exceed in-person results. Cardinal Health is seeing that today.
• Ann Stott (Biogen): From my perspective, blended learning is still the best approach. It should include self-paced study, knowledge transfer, and application. Some programs try to teach an employee everything they will ever need to know in a condensed period. Learning should be an ongoing process based on a progression of competencies. It is more important to teach skills as they will be used and in smaller components to allow practice and application.

Dan Schawbel: Over the past few years, there’s been a shift of companies teaching their workforces what colleges don’t, and despite 33.5 million Americans filing for unemployment, there are millions of unfilled job openings. Whose responsibility is it to close the skills gap (companies, the government, schools, or individuals) and what has your company done to address this?

• Elizabeth Bryant (Southwest Airlines): At Southwest, we hire for attitude and train for skill. It’s proven true for our almost 50-year history. Our SWA U Department plays a pivotal role in the development of our people. As the work environment changes, we’ll continue to evaluate what skillset our employees need to stay on top of it. We believe that skilling up allows us to stay competitive and remain relevant in an environment that is constantly changing. Learning opportunities can not only support the organization but the employee’s advancement too.
• Meghan Welch (Capital One): With the shift in job opportunities as a result of the technology revolution, everyone must be all-in on this challenge to ensure Americans can upskill and re-skill for the jobs of the future, and that graduates emerge with the skills they need to be successful in today’s job market. We have an industry-leading Technology College that offers more than 250 courses. It’s available to all associates, not just technologists, and 90%+ of associates have leveraged it to upskill or to pivot their careers to technical job opportunities. Additionally, our Propel Career Mobility program helps associates in branches, call centers, and our back-office build additional skills towards roles across the company. Associates have access to networking panels, mentors, job shadow opportunities, assessments, learning paths, and career counselors. Internal Recruiting Advisors help them find and prepare for open positions across the company. In the last year, 87% of Retail Bank Associates have engaged with the program, and we’ve seen an increase in internal mobility. 
• Vidya Krishnan (Ericsson): The reskilling emergency widened by this pandemic is critical to address, and the gap is everyone’s responsibility to fix. Platforms like People + Work Connect are demonstrating how companies can partner to facilitate continued employment. To address these shifts, Ericsson is executing in these areas to help our people grow their skillsets and mindsets: 1. Evolving our ecosystem to make it an Empathy Engine: easier and more intelligent, relevant, and personalized in driving people’s growth. 2. Evolving our culture system to know, show, and grow the people who demonstrate a growth mindset, teach for Ericsson, and lead as learning drivers. 3. Evolving our business system with intensive upskilling and re-skilling programs aligned to our most critical growth areas in technology, sales, sustainability, and more. The 100 Year Life asserts that society has shifted from a three-stage life (college à professional life à retirement) to a multi-stage life (we shift in different directions throughout our lives). A multi-stage life demands that companies, schools, individuals, and institutions take the responsibility to offer teaching, practicing, and experiential pivoting. That means more internships starting in high school, professional externships for teachers, teaching externships for professionals, rotational programs, project-based learning, apprenticeships at all stages of life, skill sabbaticals, learning blockchains, gig assignments, and intrapreneurial accelerator programs.
• Rob Lauber (McDonald's): The skills gap piece continues to get amplified. I can remember working on this in 2003, for example, where we had a similar situation right after the dot com bust of 2001. It's not a new problem; it's more persistent. And conversely, when we had record low unemployment, this is a persistent problem too, where we had millions of unfilled job openings get people in the workforce who couldn't fill those jobs. Responsibility first lies with individuals. The second responsibility then lies with companies, governments, and schools that create opportunities for those individuals to address skills gaps or basically to be capable of gaining employment and sustainable employment in the economy. I don't think you can pin responsibility on any one company, the government or schools. But I do think that the ultimate responsibility lies with individuals to take advantage of the opportunities created by the other three. Our company has taken a position around our Archways program to provide opportunities and to break down the barriers to assess to those opportunities to tens of thousands of workers in our system now to be able to close the gap by furthering their education. If you work for McDonald's and you haven't finished high school, we have a high school diploma program and an accredited high school diploma program that you can take advantage of funded by McDonald's. If you want to go and pursue a degree, even if you already have one or if you don't have one, and you want to pursue a degree in any other industry or any other profession like healthcare, McDonald’s provides the financial opportunity, academic access, and counseling for people to be able to work through the process and get through the process of furthering their education. We committed in 2018 that we were going to put $150 million against that over the next five years. We'll probably hit that mark in the spring of next year. We'll probably do it a couple of years early and we think that's an important part of the value proposition that McDonald's can bring because we have a reach like no other and the population that we have in our organization, particularly in our restaurants, are people craving for the opportunity to close the skill gap on themselves to be able to be more successful economically for the future.
• Kim Newkirk (Liberty Mutual): With technology’s ongoing evolution, keeping up our up-skilling to meet the changing needs of our business is a joint responsibility between corporations and their workforce. At Liberty Mutual, we encourage our employees to be lifelong agile learners by providing the technology solutions they need to continuously evolve their skills and engage in relevant and timely learning in the flow of work and life. We do this by offering online learning through platforms such as LinkedIn Learning as well as provide 100 percent reimbursement of tuition and fees related to undergraduate and advanced degrees. We also pay for the required courses and exams related to the insurance industry or other professional designations. Over the past decade, we have invested $100 million in education reimbursement – an investment that will help us as a company deliver the products and services to our customers that meet their needs today and tomorrow.
• Adam Zaller (Cardinal Health): Cardinal Health’s Learning COE focuses on skill development to meet the business’ needs and objectives. Sometimes that might equate to building a new skill, others it may be about refreshing a previously built skill. 
• Ann Stott (Biogen): I think that companies that try to close the skill gap have a competitive advantage. For example, Biogen is working with a North Carolina technical community college to create a “Bio Boot Camp.” This program, to be launched later this year, is for manufacturing associates who have technical skills but limited experience in biotechnology manufacturing. By providing skill training, we will have a wider pool of candidates for new positions. 

Dan Schawbel: How do you think the virtual learning movement will evolve in the future?

• Elizabeth Bryant (Southwest Airlines): We want to continue being mindful of our audience, providing the tools they need, and meeting them where they are. It will be important to push the envelope when it comes to technology and learning in the future. The needs of our employees may continue to change, but there will be setting expectations and an understanding that engagement still needs to happen regardless of the training environment. We will also need to continue skilling up our learning designers and producers to think about the virtual landscape as they create training. They need to ensure the tools are available to create in this way and ensure the training they develop is efficient, effective, and engaging in the virtual learning space.
• Meghan Welch (Capital One): Virtual learning will continue to be an essential part of our learning strategy. When serving a geographically diverse footprint composed of 50,000+ learners, each with their own needs and interests, virtual learning allows us to scale to reach people faster. For large organizations, it is becoming essential to democratize learning by enabling experts to interact directly with learners through virtual learning environments and peer-to-peer learning, while also creating more “just in time” learning where multiple experts can be available at the moment of need. To improve the experience, data and technology will become even more integrated, personalizing the way a learner interacts with virtual learning, and Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will become increasingly more important to the assignment and selection of learning within the experience itself.
• Vidya Krishnan (Ericsson): The advent of 5G is a watershed moment for the virtual learning movement. The virtual learning movement will attain a new level of authentic human connection, with advances in real-time AR/VR/360 immersion, holographic projection, human and artificial intelligence, and empathetic education. These advances will combine to pull us in as learning goes beyond the confines of our phone and laptop screens. Virtual reality will become, well, reality. 5G use cases correspond to industry evolutions that will require constant skill and role reinvention, and virtual learning will be the powerful means for connecting lifelong learners to “virtual villages” of great teachers, content, community, and experiences.
• Rob Lauber (McDonald's): The virtual learning movement is 25 years old. My first virtual session that I did as a learning and development professional was in 1996 on a platform called Centra 95. I can remember doing some stuff on PlaceWare in the early 2000s that I think ultimately got acquired by Microsoft and then disappeared. The virtual learning movement is not new. I think the opportunity will be for platform companies to evolve it to drive more in-person-like features than you see today in the marketplace. For instance, collaborating on a whiteboard more effectively. Today, some of the usability on that is a little clunky and exporting that is certainly a challenge in many cases. The security issues that come up, for example, with Zoom and others are things that will improve pretty substantially in the future. On the platform side, I'd expect that we'll see an evolution towards greater usability, and a greater feature set, that tries to more closely replicate the in-person environment. The barrier to adoption is pretty much gone. I think that will then drive sustained utilization as a normal way of working at a level that probably wasn't at before.
• Kim Newkirk (Liberty Mutual): Advances in AI and other user-centric technology advances will increase our ability to bring relevant learning and content to employees in the flow of work. The thing that we need to remember, the one thing that won’t change, is our need for human connection. My hope is that AI enables us to enhance this.  I expect that while the number and frequency of our virtual connections will increase, we will still need to continue to foster in-person connections – even if over virtual classrooms. This will enable us to keep engagement high.  
• Adam Zaller (Cardinal Health): I think virtual learning will increase in usage. Additionally, for those companies that look at the program and tailor the content, they will help employees reskill/upskill faster and be a more strategic tool for the business. 
• Ann Stott (Biogen): I think in the past there was a stigma about virtual learning being very solitary. If you needed to network or practice skills, live training was the only option. I think the last seven weeks or so have proven that we can effectively build relationships and practice new skills in a virtual world. 

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