Selecting and Implementing Learning Technologies: Methods and Skills Used by TD Professionals

Technology application is one of the 23 capabilities in ATD’s Talent Development Capability Model, which guides TD professionals in what they need to be able to know and do to drive success in their organizations. Today, businesses are experiencing rapid disruption via technology with significant implications for TD functions and the people they develop. TD professionals should be able to identify and select learning technologies that serve learning and organizational goals.

In Selecting and Implementing Learning Technologies: Methods and Skills Used by TD Professionals, 362 talent development professionals answered questions about how they identify and select learning technologies, as well as questions about their skills in conducting organizational needs assessments and defining functional requirements for learning technology projects.

Key findings include:

• Organizations most commonly use a learning management system (LMS), e-learning authoring tools, and assessment tools.

• A majority of organizations have not yet implemented artificial intelligence–enabled learning technologies, but most have at least started exploring.

• About 60 percent of TD professionals are skilled in conducting organizational needs assessments to explore the potential need for a new learning technology.

• Nearly two-thirds of TD professionals are skilled in defining functional requirements for a new learning technology.