Today’s Popular Virtual Training Software Trends

Technology changes as fast as the weather. As a result, it is critical to keep your virtual training software up-to-date and relevant for today’s learners. Read on to learn more about the current top virtual training trends.

Mobile Learning. Americans are obsessed with their mobile devices. About 95% of Americans now own a cell phone. And the number that own a smartphone is 77%, up from just 35% in 2011. In fact, the mobile device obsession is 24/7  — with 71% of Americans sleeping with their  smartphones — either by putting their phone on a nightstand, in their bed, or for 3% of people, holding it in their hands.

With stats like these, there is no question that mobile learning (also called mLearning) is on the rise. It’s all about the demand for flexibility, which means offering courses that run seamlessly on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Cloud-Based Systems. Cloud-based corporate training has been steadily growing in popularity. According to statistics, 42% of the most profitable companies in the world (those listed on the Fortune 500) are currently using e-learning tools for online training.

This is mainly due to the fact that organizations are beginning to realize the numerous benefits of virtual training, including reducing online training costs (find out your company’s potential savings using this in person training vs. online training calculator) and making training more accessible for all employees and customers. In addition, it is very easy to scale online training initiatives and update content to include new products and features.

Collaborative And Social Learning. Today, social learning is increasingly used by forward-thinking organizations to foster collaborative learning. This type of informal learning allows individuals to network, share, collaborate, problem solve and exchange ideas.

In fact, the Association for Talent Development’s study, Building a Culture of Learning, recently found that top companies are almost five times more likely than lower performers to have extensive learning cultures.

According to the report, “In high-performance organizations, employees share knowledge with their colleagues at a rate four times greater than that of workers in lower-performing firms. This communication is supported by rewarding workers for learning, providing tools and resources for creating and sharing learning content, and making knowledge sharing a performance expectation at all organizational levels.”

Measuring Learning Effectiveness of Online Courses. It is very important for organizations to understand which areas their employees are skilled in and which areas require additional training. But what’s the best way to identify these areas?

A good way to start is by identifying pockets of the business that are experiencing bottlenecks, lower-than-expected productivity, or is often the root cause of bigger problems. Once you find these pockets, use it as a starting point and dig into the details. What’s causing the bottleneck? Why is productivity lower than expected? And is there an event or process that is making this area a consistent root cause for problems? This investigation should shine a light on the areas where your employees require additional training. Then provide that training to the employees.

Finally, to measure the effectiveness of the training course, do a before-and-after analysis. If a department was the cause of bottlenecks before the training, are they still the cause for bottlenecks after the training? Or has the bottleneck been removed or improved? Doing this before-and-after analysis will yield results that show the effectiveness of the training course.

There’s no guarantee exactly which technology features and platforms will be popular in the coming years. But one thing is certain: staying up-to-date is vital in today’s ever-changing virtual training environment.

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