Digital-led learning: Upcoming trends in the Ed-tech sector – Arun Rajamani, Pluralsight India

2016 has been the year of digital-led learning. Starting from schools to professional learners, every segment started adopting online learning in a big way. With India’s desktop and mobile internet usage growing rapidly, learning solutions are going the SaaS way and are being provisioned in easy to access cloud learning platforms. Online learning platforms have also created virtual variants of physical learner experiences – online assessments and virtual labs are replacing physical tests, online mentors are replacing physical consultation sessions and learners are now looking to leverage online platforms to create learning playlists for themselves, take down notes online and also share their learning progress with the peer group. With India moving from being an ILT-driven learning market to an online learning market, here are trends that we foresee in 2017

Learning will become operationally mission critical

Enterprise Learning will become increasingly mission critical as companies across different industries are leveraging technology to give them the competitive edge. An increasing number of employees will be re-skilled and upskilled in 2017.  Chief Learning Officers will find seats in executive decision making more than before. For individual, skill development will be a key career catalyst helping them find jobs in the new tech-led services market.

Digital-enabled Digital learning

Digital-enabled learning will provide enterprises with scale that instructor-led training cannot. In 2017, Indian enterprises will shift more of their learning investments to digital-enabled (online) platforms. With digital-led services being the next growth lever for the Indian IT industry, online platforms will be used to re-skill employee base on digital technologies via talent transformation initiatives. Individuals who are already used to consuming content in a multi-channel environment (desktop, laptop, tv, mobile) will welcome digital-enabled learning platforms

Segmentation and Hyper-personalization of learning

Leveraging data and analytics from online learning platforms, enterprises will invest in segmenting their employee base based on their learning styles (for example – just in time learners, byte sized learners, sequential learners) and delivering hyper-personalized learning experiences for them for maximum effectiveness. Enterprises will also look for custom learning solutions for the entire Hire2Retire cycle – new hire onboarding, role-skill mapping, skill transformation, zero bench, cross-skilling, up-skilling etc. One-size-fits-all will be less relevant in 2017. Individual learners will use the flexibility provided by online learning platforms to adapt to their individual learning styles

Gamification and Social Learning

Enterprise learning will incorporate gamification to make learning fun and interesting. CLOs will recruit game designers to bring in elements of competitiveness, pride and prize into learning programs. Gamification will also bring in the social element to learning. Enterprise learners will be encouraged to show-off their skills and learning progress to their peers. Learners will also assess themselves against the skills of their global peers to determine their current skill levels and tap into the expertise of their colleagues with online enterprise mentoring networks. With India already one of the world’s leading gaming and game development markets, learners will welcome gamification features in learning platforms as an extension of what they are used to in the online entertainment sector

Broad access vs. Course-based access. Push vs. Pull-based learning

Enterprises will seek greater flexibility in designing learning programs for different segments. This would be possible if they take up subscription-based learning services vs. course-based. Enterprises will balance between prescriptive learning and a learn-as-you-wish approach and a push vs. pull approach to learning. This will give enough freedom to learners to explore skills on their own while sticking to employer guidelines on target skills. India is quickly becoming a hot digital media market where video and music content is being provisioned in an all-you-can-eat subscription mode with few restrictions. Learners will quickly appreciate and adapt to the subscription model of learning

Journey view vs. Milestone view of Learning

Technology skills have a two-year half-life which means only half the skills that an individual has today will be relevant two years down the line. Enterprises will encourage employees to take a journey view of learning aka continuous learning versus a more milestone view or short term view. With the Indian tech industry on the cusp of a transition to new-tech driven services, continuous learning is the need of the hour