Avoid these 3 errors in your digital learning strategy

Online courses, virtual instructor-led training, webinars, digital books, learning apps, infographics, TED talks, YouTube videos, animations and ‘telestrations’ - there is no dearth of digital learning options today.

But just because digital learning options are available doesn’t mean that they’ll automatically benefit your organisation.

CIPD research found 64% of L&D professionals don’t have the capabilities to support learners online.

A new whitepaper by Hemsley Fraser found out three things to keep in mind which devising an organisation's digital learning strategy.

1. Choosing and curating the right content: Determining which digital learning options will meet your specific needs is not as simple as shoehorning your classroom content into an online course.

The challenge is to provide the right content in a format that people want to receive - depending the learning requirements.

One thing’s for sure: digital learning must be easy and fun to use.

Employees expect digital content to be well designed and instantly available, which means all content must be designed from the learner’s perspective.

Always consider how they’ll interact with the content and what experience they’ll gain.

Lynsey Whitmarsh, Hemsley Fraser’s head of digital and innovation, said: "Making high quality learning content more accessible, via smartphones and tablets, can excite learners and appeal to different learning styles.

"It also enables L&D teams to offer greater choice and demonstrate the impact and benefit of the learning."

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2. Neophobia, or the fear of something new: People are sometimes unwilling to try new things or break from their routine.

For example, procurement teams will have questions, particularly if there’s no precedent in the firm for buying digital learning: Will it work? Is it reliable? Can you justify the investment? Is it value for money?

Gaining an insight into the effectiveness of digital learning can help you show the impact of the initiative on the performance and motivation of learners.

3. The infrastructure impact: Will your digital learning be cloud-based, hosted externally, an app or SCORM-compliant content on your learning management system?

A range of choices are available and, reassuringly, some will have little or no impact on your IT infrastructure.

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