You Get What You Pay For: Why Companies Should Invest in Learning Solutions

Engagement is linked to real performance goals and is exactly why companies should invest in learning solutions for their employees.

Linear Learning

Read, click, scroll describes linear courses with plain click and read functionality providing little to no engagement. This is a common trap trainers fall into because the focus is solely to share information and it may be hard to move past this to consider the benefits of interactivity.

PowerPoint Authoring Tools

Then there is PowerPoint slides with audio voice over which can be said to bring a few new dimensions to learning solutions. This is usually slightly more expensive than a read, click, scroll solution but certainly scalable. The marketplace is flooded with authoring tool products and they can be found in many company learning and development departments as the sole learning solution for employees. There are user interactivity features that are adapted to improve engagement and are attractive because this solution is achievable by an in-house trainer or L&D professional.

Creating Engagement

There are three elements of interactivity that can be used as building blocks for engagement; click, hover and drag. While this is more on the design side of creating learning solutions, it is important to notice how infrequent these core elements are used. Even more relevant to how design affects interactivity, which then affects performance goals, is the use of custom learning solutions to achieve the best results through careful tailoring to the needs of the user and company.

There is a difference between the option to choose Button A, or Button B to take the user to the next part of the course, and putting the learner in control so they can choose how they would like to go through the learning experience. This requires a much deeper understanding of how design and interactivity in combination will enable the user to be more engaged and retain more content. Adaptive methodology is a key element to providing engagement and requires implementing algorithms and computer-based pedagogical agents. The presentation of educational material is adapted according to students' learning needs, as indicated by their responses to questions and tasks. An adaptive layout has its merits because it can be a more pragmatic solution that is cheaper to implement and easier to test.

Keep in mind; if it’s only an information-based course, then it may be easier to do a simple linear standard e-learning course than waste the learner’s time navigating an interactive module.

In custom e-learning solutions, real world simulations have strong potential to break down learning barriers that compromise achieving performance goals. Learners can interact with the content and make real-world decisions that optimize the learning experience to specific needs.  The content, design, user interactivity and overall experience can be tailored to achieve the most engagement from learners and solicit the best performance results through custom e-learning solutions. Read, click, scroll and PowerPoint authoring tools cannot facilitate the same learning experience and cannot be expected to return the same results as engaging customized learning solutions.

Genele Rose