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Top Corporate Learning Trends to Watch in 2023

By: Rachel Kolman • May 18, 2023
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Corporate learning is a crucial part of any organization’s strategy for growth and success. Corporate learning helps your workforce acquire and develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies they need to be successful. A more skilled and engaged workforce can lead to increased innovation, productivity, and adaptability.

Each year, companies make huge investments in the latest trends and technology to keep their workers trained and agile. Last year, it was reported that US companies spent an average of $1,689 per learner in training costs. In addition, as much as 18% of that training was conducted via mobile devices, with that number rising each year.

Keep up with training demands by implementing some of the top corporate learning trends below.

  • Personalized learning. Creating a more personalized learning experience has great potential to engage your users in your corporate training course. Personalized learning means to pace the course to the learner’s unique needs and learning preferences. This means that the objectives, delivery, and method of instruction may vary. One of the best ways to implement personalized learning is by creating a learning path. A learning path can be created by introducing a short quiz at the start of the lesson and, depending on the outcome, directing the learner towards a certain set of lessons to complete. This can create just the right challenge in your training program to keep your learner engaged and interested.
  • Microlearning.  With attention spans becoming shorter and shorter, online training has had to adapt to meet users where they are. However, this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, microlearning – quick lessons hyperfocused on one singular topic – have proven results in retention and engagement. The key here is to chunk topics into meaningful segments and to quiz or test the learner in some way by the end of the lesson. Ideally, the lessons should build upon one another, whereas a corporate training course is actually completed in ten to fifteen mini-lessons, rather than one or two long units.
  • Gamification. Gamification elements such as forums, activity streams, badges, leaderboards, and progress bars can be used to support engagement in training material. It’s proven that adding simple gaming elements can help keep learners engaged and achieve flow, where learners are neither bored nor anxious while learning. Gamification is being seen more and more in training courses, especially as technology allows for more immersive experiences.
  • Virtual reality and augmented reality – What if you could use virtual and augmented reality to help your learners identify actual concerns and issues in the workforce? For example, employees could use an augmented reality simulation to draw attention to workplace danger zones, learn new equipment, and even review diseases in medical workplaces. This is an emerging technology that global companies and large corporations have been investing in heavily over the last few years and is becoming more commonplace.
  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning. One way to enhance corporate pieces of training is to take advantage of machine learning. Machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence that helps computer systems analyze data sets while performing certain tasks, and then gradually improve performance based on that data feedback without the need for further programming. This means that your automated tasks actually change and improve based on how a user interacts with them. This can be used to create personalized feedback or automate tasks based on a learner’s performance in a training course. A lot of attention has been paid recently to how AI improves routine tasks, and it looks like this trend is here to say for the foreseeable future.

How to Support New Corporate Learning

When integrating trends and new learning methods in your corporate training program, there are two main ways you can continue to support these efforts: through data and analytics, and through social learning.

Data and Analytics

While implementing new corporate training tactics like those above, it’s important to use data to track learner progress and engagement. Predictive analytics can help identify potential roadblocks in learning.

Your needs assessment should indicate what the intended outcome of training is. Whether it’s a reduction in customer service complaints, higher employee satisfaction scores, or lower scrap and rework costs on the factory floor, having a measure for success can validate the project, or show ways in which it might be improved.

Social learning

For the most part, people like to interact with others. They want to be part of a community and feel like what they are learning matters in a practical sense. Incorporate social media and collaboration tools in corporate learning to create a collaborative feel. Peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing can help provide that sense of community and make training less tedious.

Community and engagement are a huge part of online learning. Encouraging your learners to connect with other learners increases the value of your course and gives learners more reason to stay around. It also takes some of the pressure off you to be constantly creating new content.

Stay Competitive with Continuous Learning

With rapid changes in technology and industry demands, there is a need for continuous learning and upskilling. Continuous learning and upskilling your employees will help you maintain a competitive edge above the competition. It’ll also ensure that employees are up-to-date with the latest industry trends and technologies, which is essential for growth.

If you’re ready to try out trends like learning paths, gamification, and microlearning, LearnDash can help. Our WordPress LMS solution provides a variety of features to support the latest in corporate training. Enhance your courses by adding in challenge quizzes, forums, mini-lessons, badges, and more with our easy-to-use backend. Plus, building on WordPress means you own 100% of the content you create.

You can try LearnDash for free today and take the first step towards implementing a mobile learning solution for employee training.

Rachel Kolman

Rachel Kolman has over 10 years of experience writing and editing for a variety of clients and brands. She is passionate about education, social change, pop culture, and video games. She lives in Seattle, WA with her husband and two cats.