Personalized Learning: Why Giving Learners More Autonomy is the Way Forward

We are living in a world where personalization has become a driving factor to influence user behaviour. Right from ecommerce to media, every business is rendering its services with dollops of personalized recommendations. If we were to draw parallels to the Learning and Development function, the adoption of digital transformation has allowed the function to implement the concept of personalization in day-to-day learning scenarios to make training a fruitful activity. The one-size-fits-all method of implementing training initiatives has become a passe. Putting learner needs on a higher pedestal and crafting online training aligned to those needs is an effective way of ensuring the success of your training initiatives. In such a scenario, personalizing online training plays a pivotal role ensuring learners are getting the most value from the training programs.

Personalized learning simply means aligning learning content to address the needs of the learners catering to their preferences and interests. Personalization comes with its own share of benefits. Right from increasing the relevance of learning, encouraging learners to complete courses to improving overall productivity. Let’s deep dive into how personalization can be implemented in the training programs.

1. Implement Blended Learning

To put it in simple words, blended learning is a mixed bag of a variety of training modalities. It is basically combining Instructor-led Training (ILT) or Virtual Instructor-led Training (more relevant to the current times) VILT with online training. Blended learning is the whole package consisting of guided learning, classroom training, eLearning, microlearning and mobile learning. Implementing a blended learning approach allows your learners the flexibility to choose the type of learning that they are most comfortable with. Learners are not restricted to just one modality of learning. They can pair up a VILT session with microlearning nuggets. They can control the way they want to learn.

2. Harness the Power of Social Learning

Let’s admit it, work can get stressful at times. Giving employees an opportunity to interact with each other in an informal setting can certainly help reduce the stress. While personalizing training, you can foster collaborative learning by providing platforms to learners where they can identify what others are learning and the level of personalized training they are experiencing. Discussion boards, communities, friending concept along with social media platforms are some of the effective avenues for implementing social learning.

3. Craft Personalized Learning Path

By creating a personalized learning path, you can make learning more effective and relevant to the learners. Personalizing the learning path gives you an opportunity to assign relevant training to targeted functions in the organizations. Based on the department the learner belongs to, you can craft the necessary learning content. A Sales rep will go through training pertaining to sales while an HR will view training related to their domain. Creating a personalized learning path makes sure your learner views only those training nuggets which are applicable to their role.

4. Allow Self-Paced Learning

Transferring the reins of learning in the hands of your learners can be an effective way to get your learners to give the much-needed focus on their own learning. Adults learn better when they are in complete control of the pace of their learning. Having said that, you as an L&D professional will obviously provide the general sense of direction, in terms of crafting the learning paths and deciding the timelines. Personalizing the learning experience however can give your learners the flexibility to choose the time and method of learning. So, how can you do that? A Learning Management System is a great platform that hosts courses, automates learning and most importantly personalizes learning to a great degree through technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. With mobile app functionality, learners can access learning anytime and anywhere or even download resources on-to-go. You can also incorporate various microlearning formats to deliver similar training. This will give the learners the freedom to choose the preferred format of learning easily.

In Conclusion

Every employee has different learning goals and has their own way of learning. Analyzing their learning needs, their strengths and weaknesses is the first step towards crafting a personalized experience. New-aged learners learn better when they are given the flexibility and freedom to educate themselves at their own pace.