Leveraging learning technologies is not an L&D strength, two independent studies conclude.
It should come as no surprise that one of the findings from Learners of the Future: Taking Action Today to Prevent Tomorrow's Talent Crisis, a research report by the Association for Talent Development and the Institute for Corporate Productivity, is that technology will play a greater role in talent development in the future. Yet, the report also reveals that learning functions are not making the kind of progress future learners' needs will demand.
According to 70 percent of respondents, blends of live and electronic learning will characterize delivery mechanisms in 2020. Sixty-five percent predict e-learning will be used to a great extent, with most content being chunked for easy consumption.
In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that social learning is fast becoming a need-to-have rather than a nice-to-have. The study finds that L&D leaders view unfettered access to social media as an important aspect of the learning function's contribution to that collaboration. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said that L&D should make access to social learning easy and fast, and 60 percent advised removing barriers to social media's effective use. Enlisting the help of organizational influencers to model use of social technologies and involving users in designing learning opportunities garnered responses of more than 50 percentage points.
A troubling fact from the report: More than 70 percent of participants acknowledge that L&D's abilities to leverage technology effectively are largely lacking. "Those lagging capabilities don't negate the fact that technology-enabled learning products and strategies play increasingly important roles in designing and delivering content to learners worldwide," explains ATD Research.
What's the outlook across the pond? Preparing for the Future of Learning, a recent report from Towards Maturity sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development that draws on data from more than 600 L&D leaders, finds a similar scenario taking shape. While the need for technology-supported learning is growing, only 23 percent think their teams have the right skills to exploit technology for business advantage.
Half of the respondents in the Towards Maturity report say that L&D staff lack knowledge about the potential use and implementation of technology. And L&D leaders report that only 34 percent of the people on their design and development teams have the skills for live online delivery and 20 percent have the skills for facilitating social and collaborative learning.
Clearly, a majority of learning organizations across the globe are at risk of being ill-prepared to achieve optimal effectiveness as learning evolves. "The skills gaps identified shed some light on the issues faced by the innovative L&D leader, keen to embrace the opportunities that the technology can offer, but not yet in the place they need to be to make the most of them," write Laura Overton and Genny Dixon in the Towards Maturity report.
What's the solution? "At best, some degree of experimentation with new technologies is healthy and engenders a spirit of enthusiasm for new ideas amongst L&D staff and their learners," say Overton and Dixon. They are quick to caution, though, that "learners bear the scars of their attempts to introduce the latest whizz-bang gadget and become jaded and reluctant online learners" when organizations move too quickly and deliver second-rate solutions.
Rather, ATD recommends that organizations make continuous improvement of the L&D team a fundamental strategy to ensure that the function "has the knowledge and skills to capably handle the demands learning is likely to present in the years ahead." L&D professionals should consider getting training in mobile, social, and other evolving technologies, along with updated design and development techniques that are required to fully leverage these new modes of delivery.
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