What's next for elearning and workplace training?

In the past year, there's been a surge in demand for virtual learning, not only as a replacement to in-person training but specific courses around COVID safety, remote working and employee mental health.

This is an industry we spend a lot of time partnering with for translations (take a look at our case studies). That’s why we wanted to speak to the training experts and find out what impact this has had on their day-to-day and what it might mean for the future of elearning and workplace training. 

*This is a slightly shortened version of the blog, to read the full article head to our website.

“The pandemic gave elearning a voice.” – Andy Walton, elearning Designer at Bright Horizons

In the past elearning may not have been the go-to preference for employee training. As John English, former Learning & Development Lead at Poppulo told us, from clunky technology to problems logging in, there were always obstacles to people completing and engaging with digital learning. But any remaining elearning sceptics had to put their reservations aside as remote working left no other training solution.  

“It's really becoming an ecosystem within the organisation. That virtual learning experience is so, so important”, says Monika Mikulionis, Instructional Designer at Century 21 Affiliated. She believes that during the pandemic the perception of elearning as just watching some Powerpoint slides has completely shifted and that “organisations are seeing the importance of the learning and development team more than ever.”

“My biggest insight would be to start working on mental health wellbeing for employees.” – Sangeetha Menon, eLearning and VLE Manager at Dogs Trust. 

Interestingly, it’s not just the frequency of elearning that has grown during this time but the types of courses being produced. Sangeetha told us that, “initially, there was a lot more compliance training and a lot more role-specific training. Now, there is a demand for mental well-being courses.” Sangeetha and other experts shared how there had been a rise in training around managing stress, adaptability, mental wellbeing, anxiety and unconscious bias in their organisations.

Sangeetha goes on to say that, “we started developing a lot more courses during the pandemic that have been about resilience. It's been about mindfulness. It's been about dealing with anxiety. I think most of it comes with the fact that a lot of us are working from home.” 

Sangeetha believes that the importance of training around mental health is here to stay. “I think one of the key elements is that mental health and wellbeing of employees should be an area of focus in the next couple of months. In the long run, it does impact employees, it does impact their work.”  

“When you're trying to get people to do elearning courses you're competing with everything.” – John English, former Learning & Development Lead at Poppulo 

The rise in screen time for workers hasn’t only impacted mental health but also L&D teams’ struggle to capture their attention. John English shared with us how whilst working from home has had its benefits, learning providers have a tougher job than ever.

“People are time poor at the moment. Now that every single engagement for work is in front of the computer screen, you're just competing with everything. It's white noise, and it was hard enough before Corona. It really feels hard now, even though the need (for elearning) is really strong.”

For those producing learning programmes, there are two battles: the demand to produce more content and how to avoid learners becoming distracted or fatigued by screen time. Monika said that this is something she is working on at the moment: “the focus is on how can we make that experience more interesting and more engaging.”

Engagement for learners is something we feel extremely passionate about here at Comtec. If you’re providing L&D and elearning materials for an international workforce – then your learning content should reflect that language diversity. This study by Forbes found that 67% of executives said a language barrier caused significant inefficiencies and poor engagement.

Whilst the pressure may be on to produce high quantities of training rapidly, it shouldn’t be at the expense of learner engagement, particularly when the fight for attention is at an all-time high. Working with an experienced translation partner will allow you to localise your learning content helping you to not only connect with employees of a linguistic and cultural level but bolster ROI and learner engagement, without putting deadlines at risk.

“We’ve seen a forced digital transformation.” – Andy Walton, elearning Designer at Bright Horizons 

The learning industry has come under huge pressure this past year, but demand breeds innovation and that’s what we’ve seen from all of the experts we’ve spoken to during this time.

The last year has shone a light on the elearning industry and its vast potential and capabilities, but as people begin to trickle back into offices it is the blended learning approach that our experts feel is the future. As Andy said to us, “there’s obviously still a need for face-to-face. In time, I think we’ll find a happy medium.”

If you’re producing learning content for a global workforce and need help with translations of localisation please do get in touch with myself or the team.

Thank you to all the experts who gave their time and insight for this article:

●    Sangeetha Menon, eLearning and VLE Manager at Dogs Trust.

●    Andy Walton, elearning Designer at Bright Horizons

●    Monika Mikulionis, Instructional Designer at Century 21

●    John English, former Learning & Development Lead at Poppulo

P.S. If you want to find out more about translations, take a look at our ultimate elearning guide.