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How to Enhance your Online Learning Experience with Personalization
Structured learning programs can be a highly effective way to increase employee retention, especially if they personalize the experience with the right training method for each participant. This level of personalization can be further increased through the use of online learning, which unlocks a whole other level of tailored options.
This article reinforces the power of online, custom-tailored training. You’ll learn how to use available online tools to maximize the personalization of your organization’s learning experience. By the time you’re finished with this post, you’ll have a better understanding of the specific tools and functionality that can help uplevel the personalization of your trainings, and how you can put them to use to increase learning engagement in your organization.
Tools for building a learning ecosystem
As you build out your personalized online learning program, you’ll need to get a solid understanding of which tools are available to help you stay organized and work efficiently. A few essential tools include:
Learning management system (LMS)
Learning management systems act as your one-stop learning destination. They organize and deliver content, manage participants, and offer valuable insights about the effectiveness of your efforts. With the right learning solution, you can personalize their learning thought a range of features. Look for solutions that allows for social and self learning features that motivate your learners. Some providers will offer additional support through a Customer Success Manager that will share a personalized results strategy so you can hit the ground running.
Content authoring tools
An authoring tool is software that enables you to create and arrange content into a standardized course structure. This structure can then be exported in several different multimedia types. For those in online Learning, the most common output is to the SCORM format.
Virtual webinar software
The perfect avenue to connect and engage with learners in today’s hybrid world, webinar tools have become an integral part of so many businesses’ learning strategies. Zoom and Microsoft Teams are some of the most popular tools.
How to create a personalized learning experience with an LMS
As mentioned above, learning management systems should basically be seen as a necessity if your goal is to offer a personalized, highly engaging learning experience for your organization. While some of the functionality could be cobbled together with assorted non-specialized tools, there are three specific objectives that are difficult if you’re not using an LMS.
Offer a learner-first experience
We all have a host of different priorities and challenges, and that can often result in training not ending up at the top of the priority list. In order to maximize the likelihood of learners actually engaging with—and retaining—the learning content you’re offering them, you need to make sure that the learning experience is optimal.
At the top of the list is to make sure the platform puts the learner first by being easy to use, and accessible across different devices without having to backtrack. It’s also important that the platform you’re using offers interactivity, and personalized learning. Both of these factors can bolster engagement, knowledge retention, and learner satisfaction.
Centralized training management
For most organizations, learning is a team sport. That means it’s critical that multiple people can create content, make revisions when necessary, and configure time-saving automations. Just as important as being able to accomplish these tasks, is making sure that all of this work is easily accessible to other team members in a centralized place. This is one place where LMS’s really shine as they dramatically reduce the likelihood of duplicated work and wasted time.
Actionable analytics
Qualitative data can only get you so far. Even if all your organization’s learners say they enjoy the content, it’s important that the metrics say the same thing. Learning management systems unlock an unmatched degree of reporting that can uplevel the personalization offered by your learning experience in a data-driven way.
Online learning strategies
Once you build out your online learning technology stack, it’s important to review the different learning theories that are at the foundation of effective training efforts. A few recommendations of resources to start with include:
- What is Information Processing Theory?
- Applying Cognitive Learning Theory to Your Corporate Learning Strategy
- What is Adult Learning Theory?
Beyond gaining a solid understanding of learning theory, it’s also important to reflect on what is necessary to reinforce a culture of learning in your organization. Maybe this is already present in some form, or maybe it’s up to you to lay the first bricks. Either way, it’s essential to get the buy-in of leadership, and to figure out additional components beyond a formal L&D program that can also contribute to a culture of learning.
How to access a learning ecosystem
In order to successfully build out a personalized, successful learning ecosystem at your company, it’s important that you are supported by leadership across your organization. These efforts take time, and there are likely to be setbacks along the way, so leaders that understand that investment is required to achieve desired results is paramount. You can’t just expect everyone to understand the power of learning.
It’s likely that you’ll need to spend some time educating internal stakeholders about how learning efforts tie to business outcomes, provide ROI projects, and also show how learning can improve the efforts of marketing, sales, customer success, and other teams across the organization.
With a little hard work and the support of your peers, you’ll soon see an upleveling in the online learning experience offered by your organization, and the results will likely follow suit.
