Why Should You Try Personalized Learning In Online Training?
Personalization is taking over the world, as almost every organization across verticals is looking at complementing its services with a dose of personalization. The next time you shop online, place an order online from your favorite restaurant, or view videos on YouTube, observe the personalized recommendations.
A couple of years ago, you were okay with restricted choices when it came to shopping for a car or going on a holiday. Not any longer, as the market is flooded with a plethora of choices. Why then should you be content with standardized online training programs at the workplace?
In personalized learning, the pace of learning and the instructional strategy is optimized for the needs of each learner, or groups of learners. If you are involved in the Learning and Development needs of your organization, here is why you need to try personalized learning.
1. Delivers Targeted Learning
Personalized learning is targeted to the learners’ needs. A learner might be expected to have a certain level of knowledge before he takes a course. But what if he doesn’t? Targeting instruction allows grouping of learners based on their ability. This is done through a pre-test before taking the eLearning course.
Learners are grouped based on the results of the pre-test. Let us consider an eLearning course on basic, as well as advanced language skills. A simple online pre-test will decide whether a learner can go through the advanced course, or needs to complete the basic course before proceeding to a higher order skill. In this case, personalization makes it possible to target learning efforts toward a group of learners that actually needs the training program.
2. Provides Customized Learning
How about customizing learning to address different learning styles? You will have a mix of learners in your organization, with learning styles such as auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. You can include lots of animations and videos for the visual learner, and cover the same information using podcasts in order to appeal to auditory learners. Learners have the choice to watch the video or listen to the podcast. This is one way of providing a personalized learning experience.
It is also possible to customize learning content to suit the specific needs of your organization. Personalization is one of the biggest benefits offered by custom eLearning. If you have included scenarios in your eLearning course, make sure that they are relevant to the learner’s job role. For instance, an online compliance training would have a higher impact when the scenarios in the training program are relevant to the learner’s work environment.
When an organization needs an online training program for new hires, it makes sense to customize the training to include the organization’s culture, rather than opt for an off-the-shelf new hire training program.
One of our clients, an electronics manufacturing firm in Switzerland wanted an onboarding course. The training program was customized to include a virtual building which represented the office. New hires learned about the company – its vision, mission, values, policies, and more by exploring the virtual office. They loved the interactive learning process.
3. Increases Engagement
Often, online training programs are overlooked as employees are unable to sustain the initial burst of enthusiasm for learning. They tend to procrastinate their training plans. How can personalization help? Make the best use of learning analytics through the Learning Management System (LMS) in your organization, and track each learner’s progress.
Individual reminders can be sent to learners to motivate them to take the online training program. You can also have encouraging messages sent to learners when they make attempts to complete the training program. Personalization forges a connection with learners and helps them achieve training goals.
Personalization can do so much to boost the engagement levels of learners. If a learner is presented with a long list of eLearning modules to complete, he or she is overwhelmed. Instead, personalizing the content, and presenting it as a microlearning course works wonders for learner engagement.
4. Presents A Personalized Learning Pathway
A personalized learning pathway can be used to make training more relevant to learners. Consider the example of an online training program on an ERP software that needs to be rolled out to different departments in the organization. All the employees do not need to know all the functionalities in the ERP package.
A personalized learning pathway can be designed based on the department the learner belongs to. So, a learner from the sales department will go through a different learning pathway, as compared to a learner from the HR department. A personalized learning pathway ensures that learners view training content that is applicable to their role in the organization.
5. Implements A Flexible Learning Environment
Personalized learning is designed based on learners’ preferences, and hence offers greater flexibility in terms of pace and place. Employees can choose to learn on-the-go, and also learn at a pace that is comfortable to them. Learners do not have to waste time going through training content they already excel at. Instead, they can focus their attention on meeting their skill development needs.
Personalization of online training is trending in the learning space, and as eLearning becomes more popular, the demand for personalized learning will increase. Personalization of online learning does have a caveat as it requires more time and resources. But if you are looking to capture learners’ hearts, you must try the personalized route in online training.
