Trainers and managers have known for decades that employees who are motivated to learn will more effectively consume training materials and perform better at their jobs. But what exactly motivates employees today? And what are the best ways that eLearning courses can impact and motivate modern learners, including millennials — a group that will make up more than half of the workforce by 2020? The truth is that people are motivated in different ways. It’s very tough to find a “one-size fits all” training solution that will meet the needs of your employees’ various personalities and personal drivers. However, eLearning and training professionals can consider these common sources of motivation to design engaging online learning experiences that keep students wanting to learn more:

Training is an essential part of any company’s success in the 21st century. That’s a fact. But instead of simply settling by training your employees and hoping for the best, you should aim higher. A well-planned training program will lead to higher retention rates among employees and faster results for your company. But what makes a successful training program in 2022 and beyond? Some companies are still a decade in past — relying only on long eLearning courses or even worse, depending on instructor-led courses to bring their employees up to speed. This is an ineffective, and time-consuming way to train your workforce.

Let’s be honest: your employees use smartphones and tablets every day, everywhere — including in your workplace.

As the workplace moves faster, Learning & Development leaders must keep up to ensure employees can adapt. High-impact learning is the answer to this. It is not only fast-paced, but it also involves strategies to increase retention rates, so your students aren’t just learning quickly, they’re able to retain and apply that knowledge. A large part of a high-impact eLearning program’s success is that it involves people in leadership and management positions which help encourage and enforce learning. Results can be recorded and continual, leading to real changes in job performance.

They often forget dates and end up missing social engagements or the kid’s soccer matches. The smartphone rings and they lose the thread of their thoughts. An email notification pops up, and they stop typing a report to send to their boss. This is your average employee (and probably you feel identified too). This is how people work—answering phones in between drafting reports, updating Facebook statuses while writing codes, and attending sundry meetings in between their daily tasks. Now would you be surprised if you knew that people usually forget 90 percent of what they learn within one week after the training event? (More stats here.)

Standarized and "one-size-fits-all” eLearning courses are no longer relevant in today's context. Personalization has become the norm. Modern learners are used to Netflix, Spotify, Alexa... and they expect their eLearning courses to work the same way. Designing personalized courses is all about offering the right content, to the right audience, at the right time. For this to happen, designers need to pay attention to a series of elements: Content formats (e.g. audio, video, textual, graphical, etc.) The sequence of the content and the different possible learning pathways Where content will be delivered How students will be evaluated. and many other factors In this post, we will share some proven ways for creating more personalized experiences.

The end of the year is a time for envisioning a better YOU and setting intentions for the road ahead. It is a time for making resolutions so that you can be your best version, both personally and professionally. As an instructional designer and/or eLearning professional, this is your chance to look closely at how you work and set resolutions that will help you become more effective in your field.

We are living through disruptive times, where the pace of social, technological, economic, political, environmental, and demographic changes shows no sign of slowing in 2022. This creates an urgent need for organizations and individuals to keep up to date with the latest trends if they don't want to become rapidly obsolete. In terms of business continuity and resilience, for L&D teams this means one thing: They must make a pause, analyze the current situation with an open mind and start adopting the latest trends in their industry without fear or worry. The actions leaders make today will define which doors are open to them tomorrow. To take corporate learning experiences to the next level this new year, L&D leaders must start asking themselves some key questions: