The Lack of Use of Innovative Training Technologies in Canadian Companies
Yesterday Pathways Training and eLearning and Canadian Management Centre (CMC), hosted a 1 hour webinar entitled “Raising Your Learning and Development Game: Making the Quantum Leap into the Future of Learning Solutions”.
The theme of the webinar was on how organizations can make a quantum leap and use digital mediums such as: virtual reality eLearning, micro-learning, training videos and eLearning to take an organizations’ learning strategy to the next level.
Here are some shocking stats and slides from the webinar and keys points that should inspire Canadians companies to consider innovating their learning strategy, to ensure productivity gains in the future:
Can you guess Where Canada ranks on the Global Innovation Index?
Our experience, with Canadian companies is similar. Some companies are trying to innovate but most are sticking with the traditional training methods. In Canada, what we are seeing most of our clients consider innovative, is whiteboard animations or short micro-learning videos. We are not seeing a lot of Canadian trying some of the really innovative technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality) that are now available. This is not really surprising though as the researcher shows that Canadian companies are slow-adopters of new technology. We tend to be second generation adopters. What this means is that we tend to adopt technology after other countries are fully using it. We therefore don’t the gain the productive gains that first generation technology adopters do.
According to work done by a UK firm Towards Maturity… a study which looked at over 600 companies over a 13 year period showed a strong correlation between an innovative learning strategy and the bottom line. Which is why Canadian companies should consider trying some of the new technologies available.
Training Videos and Micro-Learning
Engagement is a key driver of more and more organization attempting to incorporate digital learning mediums into their training strategies. For example, videos and animations are naturally engaging and with the advent of things like Netflix and YouTube, we all spend time absorbing multimedia content in our personal lives and increasingly people expect it in their professional lives as well.
That’s why increasing learner engagement should be a significant motivation for many companies to adopt digital learning strategies.
Learning Games and Gamification
Another way that companies are increasingly engaging and motivating their learners is through learning games. Statistics supporting the efficacy of gamification include the fact that learning games can produce a 9% higher overall retention of information, 11% higher knowledge of facts and 14% higher knowledge of procedures than a non-gamified approach.
Gamification has become an increasingly popular learning tool for learning due to engagement level also. When you are engaged in a learning game, you can’t just drift off when you are trying to gain points which means learners are usually 100% engaged in the learning process. The other thing that makes games so effective is the dopamine rush that comes from the rewards and praise of obtaining points or winning the game which make it a very engaging and addictive learning tool, in a world which is often pressed for time.
Virtual Reality eLearning
For most organizations, videos, micro-learning and eLearning are going to be the most widely-applicable digital learning methods at this time however there are other new and innovative technologies available for developing learning. Virtual reality is a new learning tool which is particularly useful in situations where hands-on training is vital but either prohibitively expensive or dangerous to provide and can’t be replicated in the classroom, such as operating heavy equipment or responding to a medical emergency.
Virtual reality allows the learner to replicate the environment in which they will apply the new skills. Research shows that virtual reality can result in as much as 90% recall of information as it allows the learner to understand how the new skills will be used in their workplace.
Two years ago when we created our first virtual reality simulation with St. John’s Ambulance and we expected to also see many Canadian organizations experiment with this innovative learning tool too. Even though the cost to develop 360 video eLearning and VR simulations for learning has dramatically dropped (the cost to develop a VR simulation for learning is only slightly more then the costs to create an eLearning module) – Canadian companies continue to be wary of new learning technologies and are slow to adopt this innovative and extremely effective learning tool.
We would encourage all Canadian companies to consider using some of these strategies, to innovate your learning and to take the quantum leap into the future!
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