What Companies Can Learn From COVID-19 Remote Learning "Experiments"

Around the globe, the COVID-19 outbreak is changing the way people work and learn on a massive scale. To reduce the risk of contagion and keep people healthy, organizations are reducing in-person interactions in favor of greater use of virtual platforms. Over the weeks and months ahead, these “experiments” will likely yield lessons with a longer-term impact.

In the case of remote work, companies will see if and how productivity and efficiency can be maintained when large numbers of employees work offsite. Measures and outcomes such as deadlines and production schedules, work quality, and customer satisfaction will need to be tracked and evaluated.

The same rigor needs to be applied to virtual training and e-learning. To weigh effectiveness, companies need to go beyond merely tracking the number of employees who complete e-training. What employees are actually learning and how they are building their skills and competencies will determine the relative success or failure of virtual learning experiments.

As a recent Harvard Business Review article observed, COVID-19 is likely to result in a “changed world,” including in online education, as well as online shopping, public health investments, supply chain configuration, and less dependence on a few mega-factories. As the authors observed, “When the urgent part of the crisis has been navigated, companies should consider what this crisis changes and what they’ve learned so they can reflect them in their plans.”

Remote Tests on an “Unprecedented Scale”

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, widespread remote work has become a “gigantic test” conducted on an “unprecedented scale”—in China, Italy, Japan, and South Korea. The same is happening in the U.S. in areas where outbreaks have been reported. For example, in Seattle, employees of Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google were instructed to work from home to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus.

Virus-related disruptions are also happening in education. Stanford University, for example, has canceled in-person classes for two weeks and is switching to online instruction. Similarly, Boston University announced Monday that it has asked faculty to be prepared to teach classes remotely in the event of an emergency shutdown of its campus, should that become necessary.

On the corporate front, IBM this year has decided to hold its “Think 2020” client and developer conference and its “PartnerWorld” for business partners as “a global, digital-first event” with a combination of live streamed content, interactive sessions, certification, and locally hosted events. In addition, Google has changed its Cloud Next event, which attracts some 30,000 attendees, to a digital-only conference this year. “Innovation is in Google’s DNA and we are leveraging this strength to bring you an immersive and inspiring event this year without the risk of travel,” the company said in an announcement.

Disrupting Corporate Training

Beyond such marquee events, training and corporate education are also going increasingly online in response to the public health threat. Companies across the globe are looking at remote learning platforms as a way to reach employees who may very well be accessing the training as they work from home. While the delivery platform and technology are important, of equal concern are the quality and suitability of the learning content.

Merely putting PowerPoint decks and other “handouts” from training courses online will not suffice. There is ample evidence of the shortcomings of “static” e-learning, including learner fatigue and disengagement. Poor instruction also means very little new knowledge is retained.

As has been shown, despite more than $300 billion spent globally on corporate training and education each year, much of it is considered ineffective–and most likely is ineffective. One survey found only 8% of CEOs saw a business impact from learning and development (L&D).

Instead of following the same path to suboptimal results, corporate learning officers (CLOs) and their L&D teams need to be empowered to devise workable, longer-term solutions. By working closely with business unit leaders and the C-suite to identify the most important business objectives, CLOs can deliver corporate training that meaningfully moves the needle on employees’ knowledge and skills.

To accomplish that goal, it is not enough to know what employees need to learn. CLOs also must lead the way in ensuring that instruction is effective in helping employees learn. That means adopting approaches, such as personalized learning, to meet people where they are, with their varied backgrounds and differences in education and experience, and to help them acquire the knowledge and skills that will make an immediate impact.

Lessons for the Future

More online learning may be among the results of workplace disruptions due to COVID-19. But as operations go back to normal in the future, the experiments in remote learning should inform practices in the future. For example, successfully launched e-learning with a personalized approach can impart the knowledge that employees need to get up to speed quickly. Then companies can weigh how to incorporate in-classroom experiences for a “blended” approach in the future, such as with exercises in collaboration, role-playing, and providing feedback to foster more learning.

The circumstances of COVID-19, without question, are painful and disruptive for individuals, families, communities, and companies. As a global public health crisis, it has caused widespread fear and uncertainty. Yet in the midst of it, as governments, organizations, and individuals try their best to maintain normalcy, there are important teachings for how we can continue to live, work, and learn.

Article by Ulrik Juul Christensen