LEARNING-TECHNOLOGY TRENDS 2018
It’s a new year and everybody wants to forecast what they think the trends will be. On that note, Guru Interventions decided to add our opinion to the mix.
After reading a few reports from learning and development experts in the industry, there seems to be general agreement that some of the main trends to watch include:
- Microlearning
- Mobile Learning
- Gamification
- Wearable Technologies
1. Microlearning
Microlearning is a trend that that has been spoken about for a while now and adoption rates are increasing. If you think about it, it makes sense. Considering generational theory, learning and development practitioners find themselves dealing with a progressively more techno-savvy audience, socialising on social media such as twitter and facebook. Human attention is split among many things and to hold attention in training session for more than an hour, for example, seems challenging these days. This is backed-up by studies that show that knowledge retention rates are poor when training sessions last for more than an hour. It is therefore logical to rather provide learners with daily bite size chunks of information, which increase knowledge retention and allow for implementation time and social learning.
Another, often forgot benefit of microlearning is the fact that it has a positive effect on productivity. You no longer need to have a learner in a classroom for a day and there are a host of benefits to this strategy.
2. Mobile Learning
It is a fact now that more people access the internet via their mobile devices than traditional desktop platforms. Indeed, making calls from a mobile device is no longer one of the top 10 functions of your phone. Have you noticed this? To capture your audience you have to be in the mobile space. This means you need technology that lends itself to mobile learning. If you consider microlearning methodologies, a mobile delivery platform makes perfect sense.
3. Gamification
It is undeniable. We are a generation of gamers. We like competing and our egos are boosted if my performance can be tracked against others and myself. Gamification of almost anything is possible these days and the newest frontier is to link this to productivity targets. Combining certain achievements with personal rewards (like a day off work or activation of a gift voucher) seems to be the “sweet spot”; allowing self-motivation which could in-turn increase adherence to a programme of any kind; from increased production to improved customer service levels.
4. Wearable Technologies
Wearable technologies are still in their infancy. I strongly believe this is an important trend to watch, but these devices are still expensive and the technology is still being developed. Although there are relatively low cost hardware options like Google Cardboard for a Virtual Reality (VR) experience, the availability of content is currently limited.
What is exciting are the possibilities that technology like AR (Augmented Reality) brings – the best part being that various options to use this technology are available. Specialised hardware (such as glasses used in VR) are not required . Most smartphones are capable of allowing the user to start experimenting with this technology.
It is incredible that we live in a world where, today, we are able to deliver learning experiences which combine all these trends and deliver learning experiences like never before. Just imagine, a daily, microlearning intervention, delivered to you or your learner, on his/her phone, layered with AR and gaming elements.
In our next article we will explore ways in which Guru Interventions provide integrated solutions incorporating these trends.