The LMS has become an important part of training now. Every company is doing so to impart the best level of education to its employees, which is pivotal for them to succeed.

Why is learning so important now?

The employees need such training because remote working is the now the rule for companies. Employees talk to each other online and even collaborate on a project which includes exchanging files. Such communication is also needed because employees need to talk to each other to know how to exchange information better, which has been necessitated by new technologies emerging every day.

The role of L&D is also getting reviewed in terms of its content. It’s because learning is paramount for employees in today’s dynamic environment. But the content should be accessible and effective at the same time.

Hence companies need to do much more than enable employees with information; rather, they need to provide continuous learning. This kind of learning should be implemented in the form of an ecosystem in the company that ensures that employees are always immersed in the required knowledge. Hence there should be associations between the senior and the junior employees to support the latter’s learning. Apart from such connections, the workers also benefit from the technology-supported learning required for this kind of role.

Meaning of a learning ecosystem

A learning ecosystem is more than having an LMS in the organization. It has five components: employees, content, data, technology, and administration.

Data here refers to the LMS analytics. This can help you understand what employees want to know and what mode they prefer, video or text-based. Hence the LMS admins can decide which content should be retained and which eradicated.

The technologies here refer to both LXP and LMS, either chosen by a business. The former has some advantages because it allows several content creators and provides better networking to learners with others leading to greater skill development. They can also get in-depth course data allowing employees to chart their personalized learning journeys depending on career progression.

Employees are at the best advantage when such a system is implemented because they gain from it. The rest of the 4 components are included in such an ecosystem so that employees learn. Hence an organization must include technologies, content, and data at employees’ disposal for a feasible learning experience administered by an organization.

As far as the administration of this ecosystem is concerned, it must be seen that the processes and content are in sync with your mission and vision. With time the organization must also see that this ecosystem is progressing and new elements in terms of technology and content are added but under control. So, the organization should check whether new content is added but only by authorized members.

The learning ecosystem may or may not be accessible outside the organization (organization-centric). But it should be amenable to change when the need arises in terms of content and easiness of technologies facilitating interaction. Such an ecosystem with varied kinds of content and easy access can easily lead a company on the path of innovation.

Hence, in such a learning ecosystem, the learning and development team always has to be at work. It should conduct a needs analysis after finding out the work-based problems. Then it should design the solutions for such problems and determine whether they will impact solving them.

The learning ecosystem is a must for every company that wants its employees to be in sync with the latest set of skills. Such an ecosystem has 6 parts, including management of talent, skills management, support for work, reaching out to experts, the association among individuals, and systematic learning. Hence each of these 6 parts enables an organization to make employees deliver a better performance.

Talent management

Talent management is an important concept that includes the opinions about an employee’s performance gathered through 360 degrees feedback. It includes evaluating employees’ skill gaps through other mechanisms such as self-assessment as well.

Skills management

Over time, organizations have realized the importance of learning to become players in their field. Hence instead of firing less knowledgeable employees, they are willing to reskill and upskill them. The employees are provided with ample guidance for their work through chatbots and mentors. Hence the employees don’t suffer from any absence of information. They also have access to software for decision support. Hence there is the management of skills for providing upskilling and reskilling.

Support For Work

Employees have access to a wide knowledge base that can be searched for important content. Hence the employees have access to information such as company policies, products, and the mandatory standards. They also have an understanding of how the tools work.

Reaching out to experts

The company employees must be able to reach out to experts to solve all their problems. Hence the knowledge of experts must be widespread throughout the company. This is only possible when experts are available as consultants and directories contain expert resources.

Association among individuals

The association among individuals is also a part of this ecosystem. It ensures that employees have various opportunities to benefit from the knowledge of their peers.

Systematic learning

Systematic learning, which is the last component of this ecosystem, includes teaching employees skills through elearning, microlearning, etc. They must also have assessments so that the learned information is reinforced.

To conclude:

The companies must make sure that they have a learning ecosystem created so that employees are not burdened with the learning responsibilities. For example, employees can be assisted with their sales duties when they are informed about each sales process step. They have a knowledge repository that has ample research done for their use. Of course, while creating this manual, competitor analysis is also done for their sales techniques. Employees must have a sales manual that can be used for crucial meetings with prospects. And when all that is not enough, they get chances to try their sales tactics on company employees. Then mentors guide them as to what is wrong with their sales pitch after reviewing their performance.

Organizations don’t need to include all these components in an ecosystem; they can include them one by one after checking how successful the last one was.

Modification of any type begins with how we have a knowledge of things and review assumptions. Sometimes, reevaluating things makes sure that lives are saved. This kind of rethinking can make sure that mental efforts are reduced which can happen later when the project needs to be designed.

Research has been done on efficient learning techniques such as underlining and highlighting the learning material after reading it but they have proven to be ineffective in research as learning methodologies.

These are the following learning techniques that are quite effective:

Elaborative questioning: There should be an explanation for why something stated is considered correct. The learners should try to ask questions to themselves about facts.

Explanation: You should try to explain the steps which are required to solve a problem.

Summaries: It’s also important to write summaries of whatever you have learned.

Highlighting: Highlighting can prove to be useful when the important sections of the material are marked for reading again.

Mnemonics: These mnemonics are quite important so that you can remember better. It requires forming keywords for verbal materials. Using keywords to remember text is useful because it involves using brief reminders.

Reading it again: Reading the material again after going through it once.

Practice testing: It’s important to do practice tests for the learned material.

Practice regularly: Make sure that you practice the entire study material. This should be planned over some time. This includes revising the material.

So, it has been concluded that the most important techniques for learning or retaining information are quizzing and practice tests. It’s also important to explain concepts to yourself. When we explain things to ourselves or quiz ourselves about them, we are not just putting the information into our heads, we are trying to put some logic into it.

Reflections

So, sensemaking out of the information we have just learned is important, that’s why, it’s important to have reflections, another crucial technique for learning.

Reflection is increasing your awareness. It’s important to make sure that you discover wrong assumptions about whatever you have learned.

It’s also important to think of reflections because the HRD professionals work on them.

They make sure that individuals can derive sense out of whatever is told to them. The HR professionals also make sure that the company procedures are meaningful. This is done by researchers in the company also who make sure that employees can make sense of learning documents.

We survive where the world is constantly changing. The tools and skills that we gathered so much information about may evolve. So, reflection is a process of asking questions to oneself about the utility of such tools and asking for change. When we ask for change, we take action to bring about those changes or someone else responsible does. When we think of taking action, it asks for more research, which is necessary in these evolving times.

Reflection enables organizational success because it makes sure that employees take actions due to which organizational goals are attained. These reflections also enable employees to delve into their own thinking and those of others, because they are trying to sync actions with solutions. They then re-understand the problems if actions don’t match solutions.

This is how innovation happens when employees question assumptions and reframe problems to get the right solutions for them. Hence, employees must reflect on the learned material to know whether the actions suggested will cause the needed changes.

This is how learning methodologies can be adapted by employees to guide an organization toward success.

Tag: learning

What is a learning ecosystem?

What are those learning methodologies which can drive innovation?

Research has been done on efficient learning techniques such as underlining and highlighting the learning material after reading it but they have proven to be ineffective in research as learning methodologies.