Tech Guided Learning - the future of human resources development

Accelerated by the Corona pandemic and the ubiquitous home office, technology around (corporate) learning has once again evolved significantly. Nevertheless, the potential of Tech Guided Learning in personnel development is still in its infancy. My friend Martin Moehrle also published an exciting article on this topic in the EFMD Business Magazine and pointed it out to me: Digital transformation and corporate learning.

With platforms such as udemy.com, it is now possible to book a very good learning course for comparatively little money and to continue learning efficiently at your own pace. No more thick "How does MS SQL Work" tomes to go through at home. Everything is online in excellent video quality and didactically prepared step by step and also mostly available in German. The fact that content providers compete with each other also has an extremely positive effect on quality. In most cases, only the best-rated courses are booked, which means that the standard of the courses is continuously raised.??

For example, you can listen to a course in Java Script programming on your way to work and get an initial understanding of the structure and functionality of the programming language. Later, equipped with this basic knowledge, you can sit down and program the examples executed in the course itself. Nowadays, individual learning can hardly be more efficient.

As for more personal guided learning, Google has been invested in Cuemath, a provider of long distance learning for kids the subjects math and coding, for some time now.

We tried this "Personal Math Trainer" concept, especially because it is quite cheap with about 8€ per hour and it was very exciting to get to know the concept. Linguistically, the lessons are held in quite simple English.?The curriculum is good and also an app on the cell phone with "gamification" parts is certainly going in the right direction for the children.

At the same time, the relationship component is somewhat lacking in Long Distance Learning. The feedback from the students, the student's "data feed" if you will, doesn't always arrive via the small webcam with sometimes less than ideal Internet connections between India and Germany. The establishment of a relationship between teacher and student then unfortunately comes somewhat too short, which can have an effect on the motivation of the students. If the transmission is only limited, the trainer cannot directly assess the emotions in Long Distance Learning and provide positive support accordingly.

Capturing students' "data feed" technologically and integrating it into the learning experience can be the future of learning to achieve faster and better learning outcomes.?In China, there are examples where the emotions of the children in the classroom are captured by three cameras. While the critics outline the surveillance aspect of it, it could be very much used to ideally match the students' abilities to the learning concepts with the help of artificial intelligence and might be done in the future.?

What if, in a future with an even greater focus on knowledge work, optimal technical learning support is essential for advancing in international competition? In his fascinating and entertaining book "AI 2041" Kaif-Fu Lee, former head of Google China, and Chen Quifan tell several short stories such as this of two twins "Golden Sparrow" and "Silver Sparrow" whose only friends are two artificial intelligences. These AI's are their "virtual learning buddies". In doing so, the artificial learning buddies can be completely personalized and customized to the abilities and needs, as the AI has access to the students' "data feed", that is, captures all their emotions and also has access to their online data.?A bit scary, but maybe not so distant future.

Regarding data collection and analysis and personal privacy, our attitude has changed in recent years and we have become accustomed to different things. For example, I own a Garmin watch as a meter and motivation for my sporting activities and for coordination with my training program. My vital signs are recorded and - obviously - stored on a server abroad. In the first few years, I was quite cautious about this topic. In the meantime, I have become accustomed to the situation and accept it.?

"Hey Siri, tell me a joke" is a popular game with the first AI application in our cell phones. So it may be a matter of time before AI can playfully delve into the depths of education with us and execute an agreed learning program in tune with our strengths and weaknesses and our emotions.

The fact that each individual learns differently can be taken into account. So it will no longer be that students and course participants have to adjust to the course and its content, but just - freely after Montessori - the course is adapted to the data feed and the progress of the learners.

Currently, learning offers like the ones mentioned above are still operating in the niche. They do one specific thing - like learning math or Java Script - very well.?

The integration of more data, emotions, vital signs, comprehensive knowledge tests, resumes, coursework, etc., i.e., the ability to provide more data can lead to completely new learning concepts which, similar to the world of fitness, promises to change the landscape of (corporate) learning fundamentally.