Emerging eLearning Tools and Platforms Improve Results

As emerging eLearning tools and platforms evolve to exploitalways-connected mobile devices and changes in the way learners consumeinformation, L&D professionals get to enjoy the sense of possibility thatthose tools offer to push boundaries.

Just as phoning in a takeout order and actually going into arestaurant to pick it up seems quaint—and wastefully time-consuming—so too doesthe old paradigm of putting large numbers of learners through a predeterminedset of eLearning courses, pulling them away from their work to do so. Newoptions abound for providing information and problem-solving assistance in the workflow and on demand. Try the emerging eLearning tools and platformsidentified here. You will engage more learners and get better results.

• Augmented and virtual reality offer ways to immerse learners in experiences thatcan aid training in processes and procedures, provide realistic simulations todeepen empathy and build communication skills, or provide in-the-workflowsupport for skilled technicians performing complex procedures.
• Badgesand other digital credentials provide new ways to assess and validateemployees’ skills and mark their eLearning achievements, even if their learningtakes place informally or outside of the corporate framework.
• Chatbotsare proving an excellent tool for spaced learning, review of course materials,guiding new hires through onboarding, and supporting new managers with coachingand tips.
• Content curation enables L&D professionals to provide information andeducational materials from trusted sources that can deepen learners’ knowledgeand help them build skills.
• eBooks,a relative newcomer to the eLearning arena, offer rich features for portable on-demandcontent that learners can explore, review, and revisit as needed.
• Interactive videos provide branching scenarios, quiz learners on newly introducedconcepts and terms, offer prompts for small-group discussions, and do much moreto engage learners.
• Podcastscan turn drive time into productive time, allowing learners to enjoy a storybuilt around eLearning content.
• Smartphone apps, available wherever learners take their phones or tablets, can bedesigned to offer product support, info for sales personnel, up-to-dateinformation for repair technicians, and games and drills for teaching andreviewing content; the possibilities are limited only by designers’imagination.
• Social platforms like Slack, Yammer, or Instagram facilitate collaboration,sharing of ideas, networking, and social learning. Adopting social learningplatforms encourages learners to develop their skills and contribute to theircommunities of practice, whether inside their companies or more broadly.
• xAPIturns any experience into a learning experience. Adding xAPI capability to any suitabletool or platform means you can record learner activity and progress in alearning record store (LRS) and track it.

Leave behind a world whereeLearning is limited to what works in a company’s LMS; explore the brave newworld of emerging eLearning tools and platforms such as apps,chatbots, and other interactive and immersive experiences unimaginable only afew short years ago. To experience the future of eLearning more deeply, joinThe eLearning Guild—and hundreds of your colleagues—at DevLearn 2017 Conference & Expo, October 25 – 27 in Las Vegas, Nevada.