Towards Maturity and Skillsoft Report Highlights Disparity Between L&D and Modern Learner
‘Modern Learning Content for Modern Workers’ explores the characteristics of successful learning strategies and offers best practice advice
Skillsoft, the global leader in corporate learning, has teamed up with research organisation, Towards Maturity, to publish a new report to help L&D leaders review and modernise their learning content. Titled “Modern Learning Content for Modern Workers,” the report explores what learners want from digital learning content – which, for many, is in stark contrast to what they receive.
This new research also uncovers the tactics of top performing organisations, 100 percent of which are prioritising the customer experience to ensure they deliver excellent content that is enjoyable and engaging by using video, audio, images and animation appropriately as well as text.
The report, which includes easy-to-digest chapters, covers topics such as the characteristics of successful content strategies, sourcing smart content and delivering the best learning experience. Every chapter concludes with a checklist, written by Skillsoft, to help L&D leaders put the report’s findings into action within their organisation.
Key findings from the learners’ perspective included in the report are:
- 65 percent of learners like to learn, and 69 percent believe it will help them do their jobs faster and better
- 45 percent believe generic online learning is not sufficiently tailored to their needs, while
- 41 percent think there is a lack of high-quality digital content that supports their business goals
- Learners are still not fully engaged as 35 percent report that they face uninspiring content and 25 percent state they cannot find what they need or that content is not relevant
- 77 percent of learners want to be treated like consumers and receive content that is relevant and timely to their life/work situation.
- 61 percent are motivated by using technologies that allow them to network and learn together.
Tactics employed by the most successful L&D programs, as outlined in the report, include:
- Regular reviews of content to ensure they support and enhance organisational goals, removing content that is no longer needed.
- A focus on providing an engaging and inspiring learning experience that both meets learners’ needs and delivers a ‘consumer-like’ experience.
- Understanding that relevance, ease of use and searchability of content trumps complicated, expensive, large-scale content solutions.
- Curate, don’t create. Curation strategies help to increase learning’s efficiency and effectiveness.
Steve Wainwright, Managing Director, EMEA, Skillsoft said, “This latest report is a must-read for all leaders. It tackles one of the most fundamental changes we’re seeing in L&D today - the shift from the learner being a passive participant to one where he or she is the customer calling the shots. This report delivers new insight into what the modern learner wants, what constitutes a successful learning programme today and how best to deliver a learning programme that engages learners and delivers long-term benefits to their organisations.”
Laura Overton, CEO and Founder of Towards Maturity, said, “With a growing dependency on technology across all walks of life - business, leisure and learning - L&D teams are being left behind without the capacity to embrace modern methods. In this year’s Towards Maturity Benchmark we’ve seen a steep rise in user-generated content. Whilst this is encouraging, with an abundance of new technologies, tools and platforms L&D leaders are overwhelmed by choice. This report is here to help L&D navigate today’s landscape and ensure they’re on point when it comes to addressing their learners’ needs.”
The full report, available to download - Modern leearning content for modern workers, features data drawn from:
- The Towards Maturity 2016/17 Benchmark™ research with over 600 L&D leaders, reported in Unlocking Potential which is free to download thanks to the support of Towards Maturity Ambassadors.
- Data from the Towards Maturity Learning Landscape™ research, gathered online during 2016 from a sample of over 4,500 workers, published in The Learner Voice: Part 3. Findings from this research are highlighted in purple.