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Tech-enabled learning delivers the personalization learners crave

Sarita Fernandes
1 Nov 2022

Leveraging a data-driven approach to learning helps you transform the interactions between your learners and instructors to drive a more personalized and progressive learning experience.

There are some crafts and disciplines, usually involving manual skills, in which there’s no substitute for experience, often gained slowly and over many years. But most roles in business aren’t like that. They involve an accumulation of knowledge, both of information and of process, they also entail developing the capacity to decide what to do in both general and specific circumstances.

In the past, new recruits would often learn by “sitting next to Nellie” – in other words, by learning the ropes from someone with years of experience. But organizations these days can’t afford newbies to shadow someone for six months. They need to be up to speed in around ten days, and that means that new approaches are in order.

Yes, there are formal onboarding programs, with classroom tutorials and training videos and induction manuals and what-have-you, and all these have value. For instance, by bringing people together for training sessions, organizations help to foster a sense of belonging.

But these formal and collective approaches are generic, and supplier-led. What people also need is to immerse themselves in knowledge that’s relevant to their role – and what’s more, they need to learn on their own terms. It’s a customer-led proposition, in which they engage where, when, and how it suits them.

How learners benefit from tech-enabled learning

This is why tech-based learning is changing the landscape. Organizations are developing and using learning management systems (LMSs), learning experience platforms (LXPs), and learning record stores (LRSs). Some of them are going further, and investing in virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), and the metaverse, which provide opportunities for more immersive content.

Using these technologies to simulate work scenarios means people can learn by doing, and not simply by copying Nellie or following the manual. What’s more, they can practise continuously to suit their own schedules – and because these approaches broaden the delivery options, people can pursue their own preferred learning styles. Instructors become facilitators, and learners take greater control, monitoring their own progress.

Tech-enabled learning doesn’t just give people greater autonomy. It’s also more interesting for them. Paper-based quizzes can be replaced by digital gamified learning, which is more attractive, more interactive, and faster to do. Also, because it’s online, it’s easier to build groups of people drawn from different geographies and different business areas throughout the organization.

Together, they can form digital communities, network, compare notes on progress, and share best-practices, increasing the pool of learning beyond the trainer or subject matter expert (SME).

The business benefits of tech-enabled learning

If people are more engaged and also learn faster, that’s, of course, good for the business. But there are other, more direct employer benefits to tech-enabled learning.

Using a data-driven approach means organizations can analyze people’s capabilities and progress more easily than by using more traditional approaches – and they can use this knowledge to respond with more personalized learning, transforming the interactions between learners and instructors and enhancing the learning experience.

In the next article, we’ll look in a little more detail at elements of tech-enabled learning.

To learn how Capgemini’s Intelligent Learning Operations can drive a personalized, frictionless, and continuous learning journey across your talent management cycle, contact: sarita.fernandes@capgemini.com

About author

Sarita Fernandes

Intelligent Learning Operations Leader, Capgemini’s Business Services