News story

New research reveals the realities of digital learning in 2017

Cirencester, UKLearning NewsFosway

Fosway Group, Europe’s #1 HR and learning analyst, reveals the realities of digital learning in organisations today with insights from over 1000 learning and development professionals. These are interim results of Fosway’s ongoing digital learning realities research, conducted in partnership with Europe’s leading workplace learning event – Learning Technologies, and its supporting community, the Learning and Skills Group. The headline results were unveiled in the opening address at the Learning Technologies conference in London.

Some key headlines from the interim analysis show that the key drivers for digital learning are increasing learning availability (87%), speed of learning (84%) and learner engagement (83%). Both digital learning platforms and content are seeing an increase in investment, accompanied by increased investment in the digital learning team. The areas of digital learning that are seeing most new demand are video learning (77%), mobile learning (76%), and learner engagement (74%) from a platform perspective.

Despite the rapid growth in interest in non-traditional digital approaches, commitment to the LMS remains very strong with 96% of organisations maintaining or increasing their use. On a negative front, there is concern from learning buyers regarding the quality of solutions for virtual reality and serious games, and MOOCs have the lowest customer experience. The data also explores where digital learning has the most impact, the technology that’s in demand and changing investment for the year ahead. More extensive analysis will be available from Fosway after the research has closed in formal reports to follow.

‘We are passionate about bringing clarity to what can be a market dominated by hype, fads and pseudo-trends,’ explained CEO of Fosway Group, David Wilson. ‘It’s important to uncover the realities of digital learning to get to the heart of what’s really working – and not working – for organisations in practice as well as their experiences with digital learning suppliers. It’s about more than just the tools and technologies. Whilst learner engagement as a whole has risen, there are still significant issues concerns over the quality of the customer experience and creating a strategy that delivers sustainable business impact.’

Mark Penton, Learning Technologies Event Director adds, ‘We know from our attendees and over 10,000 members of the Learning and Skills Group that there is huge demand for insight on what already works in L&D – and what’s coming next. The increased participation in this research means we are able to provide a comprehensive picture of what’s really happening in workplace learning today, with the aim of supporting learning professionals in practice.’

With data already taken from 1060 respondents, the Digital Learning Realities research remains open until after the Learning Technologies event. The full results will be published in a freely available report in March 2017. An interim infographic is available via the Fosway website and is also available in the Fosway Analyst Lounge on Stand R20 at Learning Technologies on 1-2 February 2017.