trends
7. Mobile: the personal channel Data from benchmarking organisation Towards Maturity suggests that the use of mobile for learning is steadily growing in the UK, with infrastructure issues being currently the main drag on growth. Acceptance of bring your own device (BYOD) is seen as fraught with danger by many IT departments. Enterprise technology for authoring, publishing and distributing is in an immature state (with, we would claim, the exception of certain beacon products such as LINEstream). However, logistical difficulties should not blind us to the size of the opportunity. Learning is an intensely personal thing, in that it takes place within the brain – inside the human body. Surely the more personal the medium, the more powerful a tool for learning it can be. Perhaps the most important thing to say about mobile here, however, is that enables and accelerates all the other trends we have identified. In this it is both enabler and driver. If you truly want to transform learning in your organisation, enabling the mobile channel is one of the most important things you can do.
8. Personalisation Personalisation is a broad trend seen in all types of learning systems. It has two main threads. First, in the context of learning ‘pull’, it allows self-directed learners to be selective about the learning and information content they access, based on their own needs. Many systems empower this types of self-directed learning with bookmarking and other personalisation features. Second, in a ‘push’ context, systems are increasingly allowing online course-based materials to be reconfigured according to prior knowledge that the
The trend is for the length and depth of learning interventions to be driven more by what the learner needs at any given time and in any particular location
system has about the learner, or data that the system collects from the learner’s interactions with learning content.
The benefits of these two trends are compression of learning time (which in a large programme can equate to huge savings of time and money) and increased learner engagement.
Evolutionary not revolutionary Although the change in learning we are seeing is transformative, it is happening at an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary pace. New forms are coming in, but they are not replacing the old directly. Instead, the overall pattern of provision is being extended and reimagined. The result is that L&D is a more complex and various field than ever before, which can cause challenges for L&D staff. They have to cope with this complexity – and also a good deal of volatility, uncertainty and ambiguity. Modern L&D is itself a VUCA environment.
Steve Barden is lead consultant at LINE Communications
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