Lifelong learning is now more important than ever. Technology has brought about many changes in the world of work, and those who don’t adapt will be left behind. This creates a problem for many business owners.  The Future of Jobs 2020 Report by The World Economic Forum revealed: Skills gaps continue to be high as in-demand skills across jobs change in the next five years. The top skills and skill groups that employers see as rising in prominence in the lead up to 2025 include critical thinking and analysis as well as problem-solving, and skills in self-management such as active learning and flexibility. On average, companies estimate that around 40% of workers will require reskilling of six months or less and 94% of business leaders report that they expect employees to pick up new skills on the job, a sharp uptake from 65% in 2018. A significant expansion of remote work is expected in the next few years— employers see the potential to move 44% of their workforce to operate remotely. Since the pandemic started, online learning is on the rise. There has been a four-fold increase in the numbers of individuals seeking out opportunities for learning online through their own initiative, a five-fold increase in employer provision of online learning opportunities to their workers, and a nine-fold enrolment increase for learners accessing online learning through government programs. 50% of employers will speed up the automation of tasks, while over 80% are set to expand the digitization of their work processes. In other words, jobs will disappear, and new jobs will surge. Specifically, they predict around 85 million roles are set to be displaced by automation and 97 million new jobs will emerge by 2025. All these shifts happening so fast require employees to take greater control over their learning journey and at the same time, require employers to act fast to ensure learners have the right information at the right moment.  A lifelong learning approach cannot be forced. That's why there's a huge opportunity for leaders in companies to focus their L&D efforts on empowering employees to embrace lifelong learning and promoting self-directed learning. In the end, not only companies are the ones that will receive benefits for this... lifelong, self-directed employees are the ones who will thrive in a rapidly changing world. Prioritizing self-directed learning is key to developing an adaptive and flexible workforce that is prepared to navigate the uncertain times and the "jobs of tomorrow." 

Humans love visuals. In fact, we are wired to respond more to visuals than to words. That is why we are so hooked on Pinterest and Instagram. This is also the reason why Facebook posts and tweets with images get liked and are retweeted the most. But as an Instructional Designer, what should interest you more is the fact that the human brain can process visuals faster than text. So if you care about creating more engaging eLearning, you MUST include powerful and engaging visuals in your courses. Visuals take away from the burden of reading through tomes of text, navigating language ambiguities, and making sense of jargon and complex sentence structures. Learn the ten most useful tools that you can incorporate into your eLearning courses to get your content to stick and resonate with your audience: 

In an age where continuous learning is widely becoming a mutual goal for both employers and employees, it is vital for a company to supply learners with a structured eLearning environment. Part of what conveys a stable structure of the learning environment is the ability to optimize the learning time and efficiency. Workers, in general, work hard and are consistently busy people leading busy lives. Taking time to learn something new, either concerning their work or for self-improvement, may also be consuming time where the worker could be actively accomplishing a key task.

In the boom of online learning, one of the top priorities for HR and L&D leaders is driving learner engagement. But, what exactly is engagement? And how can you measure it? In this blog post, we'd like to shed some light on these questions. In addition, we will provide you with a list of metrics to consider in terms of student engagement beyond the typical ones (aka course completion rates). Sound interesting? Continue reading.

Today's learner has ample avenues to seek out information. As an eLearning designer, you have competition! You have to create online courses that will keep your learners engaged and constantly coming back for more; else you will lose them, and worse, they might move away to your competitor (Instagram, email, internal messaging apps, etc.) Here are ten ideas to create engaging online courses that your learners just can’t leave:

Isn’t eLearning supposed to be a hit? If this is true, why isn’t your eLearning course working? The answer to this question might be simpler than you think. Regardless of your size or industry, there are a few common problems that continuously seem to trip up eLearning professionals.

The short answer: it depends. eLearning courses can be a valuable tool to motivate your workforce. The quality and innovative level of the courses can be the difference between keeping them engaged, coming back for more, and wasting thousands of dollars on programs that employees never complete or even learn. Your organization should be regularly analyzing data and feedback from previous courses and constantly working to optimize them so that you can maximize their effect.

You have to schedule meetings with the SME. You have to speak with the business executives to figure out the learning objectives. You have to know the target audience. It seems you have your hands full. Why should you bother to rack your brains and think of a story? Why would you need to tell a story in an eLearning course? Stories hold enormous power over our minds and hearts for a reason. They are how we think, how we make sense of information, how we define ourselves, and how we persuade others. According to an article in Psychology Today, stories continue to hold power in this digital age because the human brain hasn't evolved as fast as technology and it's only through stories that we can connect to the various digital platforms and media messages out there today.  Stories can improve your eLearning courses, not only making them more instructionally-sound but also more engaging, thus more impactful.