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Curate Learning: Up-Skill and Re-Skill to Stay Relevant

Curate Learning: Up-Skill and Re-Skill to Stay Relevant

In January 2020, The World Economic Forum announced: “The world is facing a re-skilling emergency. We need to re-skill more than 1 billion people by 2030.” The underlying message was that organizations, governments and society need to work together to ensure people around the world are not left behind.

This crisis was looming for quite some time as the nature of work is impacted by technology innovation.

In a recent L&D mash-up, a common point of discussion was on re-skilling and up-skilling. It seems, everyone is gearing up for surprises and bracing for the impact. I did a quick search on Google for “Up-skilling and Re-skilling”.  Believe me, it yielded about 66,000,000 and 10,700,000 results within half a second. That’s astounding.

This made probe a little deeper and someone was kind enough to explain his dilemma, “See we have two main goals, equip workers with the current job skills and the skills that will help them advance in their careers and serve the needs of the organization. However, in present landscape, the skills are changing all the time. It’s not enough for workers to learn how to do their jobs, and then learn how to do the next higher role. Today, workers need to keep learning and adapting continuously to stay effective.” He concluded by mentioning that up-skilling and re-skilling is my number one priority. It not only provides employees with the adaptability and growth needed to thrive in the present work environment, but also help organizations on long-term competency preparedness. 

The change is inevitable with growing demand for new competencies, changing employee expectations, shifting workforce models, and evolving regulatory changes. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic has speeded up the rate of digital transformation and flexibility in workplaces. Also, the millennial and Gen Z working from remote has emerged as the norm,. This is making HR professionals embrace up-skilling and re-skilling of the workforce and revamping their existing HR practices to stay relevant.

There is a demand of learning transformation that can connect between the continuous re/up -skilling within the L&D framework. A framework centered on skills and capabilities of Individual, team and organization tied together for performance. A framework powered by data and integrates learning as part of day-to-day job creating a resilient and adaptable workforce who can challenge the current and future workplace technology disruptions.

This growing need also raises some pertinent questions around Learning Modalities, Technology Adoption, Mobile First Design, Micro-skill Framework, Certification Framework, Performance Content Repositories, Learning Experience Platform, Personalized Learning Paths, Micro Content Packages and so many.

L&D Practitioners are looking for systems and platforms that can help them sail through the tide. The time to start is now.

These L&D Practitioners are searching answers for some common questions.

  • Do we have a dedicated platform for re-skilling and up-skilling?
  • Will the platform meet my L&D goals?
  • What features are mandated by the experts?
  • How should the platform work?
  • How fast it can be implemented?
  • What would be the licensing model?
  • What about benchmarks?
  • Will it be future ready and interoperable?

At EnhanzED, we have the answers that can help organizations manage this transformation.

Our thought leaders are working towards these pain points to build and offer a SaaS based platform that

  • Empower learners to forge their futures by envisioning a career path that aligns with their skills and life plans.
  • Provide visibility to learners to explore their possibilities within the company and build career paths tailored to their competencies and goals.
  • Provide data points and insights for agile matching of learners with roles to increases internal mobility helping organization retain their talent.
  • Empower learners to set their sights on a career path by acquiring kills that are demanded by their role.

We help an L&D Practitioner convert the employee’s learning data to a Talent Profile with qualified insights. Our Micro-learning platform offers personalized learning paths and serve as a source of legitimacy of a talent’s past, present, and future capabilities. It can track skills, experiences, qualifications, career goals, certifications & credentials, documented work activities, potential readiness, assessments, development plans and other important L&D metrics. A path to insights for informed decisions.

Times are changing, so does your workforce. Never be unprepared again.

Sirsendu Das

Senior Learning Architect, Excelsoft Technologies.

EnhanzED Education – An affiliate of Excelsoft Technologies

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Learning Pathways

Learning Pathways

Step outside your comfort zone and take a path that can help you change, grow, and transform.
Paths that allow you to fail fast, learn faster, and recover fastest.

We are experiencing this phenomenon everywhere even with large organizations. Digital adoption with swift transformation is keeping businesses alive and fueling their future. Organizations and their leaders have responded by driving end-to-end change through service design, product innovation, operational improvement, technology deployment and talent development. So it’s high time that L&D leaders realize the disruption and adopt strong learning methodologies to address the need of such transformative changes. The question is how these transformative changes are getting translated to the last mile, “Talent”.

In 2010, I recollect a CLO Summit panel discussion where my colleague raised some pertinent questions. Binu hope you will not mind to quote your example where you asked,

Mobile learning is just round the corner and these days, we have access to unlimited information at our fingertips. Traditionally, the learning was conducted through macro learning opportunities like classes, degrees, and classroom training programs for specific groups.

  • 1. How will an e-Learning program address the challenge of information dump?
  • 2. How should L&D team structure learning out of this information?
  • 3. Should we take information dashing from all directions and create a structure around it?
  • 4. Will that be optimal for a learner or it will be overwhelming?”

At that point, a panellist hit the common chord and proposed Learning Pathways as a solution and emphasized how it can offer personalization. But the house was divided on implementation as technology was elusive. The solution requires faster Internet, AI, Data science, cloud infrastructure and others.  

The world has changed over in a decade.

Advancements in technology have approved two disruptive innovations to emerge Micro-learning and Personalized Learning. These two innovations are of great interest to L&D professionals who aim to equip their employees with the most relevant information while reducing the time and money spent on workforce development.

Both Micro and Personalized Learning are the cornerstones for designing and implementing a Learning Path. But, why is Learning Path Relevant Now?

I think, Learning Paths are much like a road trip, starts with goals, then directions, next shifts to interests, then experiences positive or negative, but overall I am able to adapt to changes in road conditions.  In order to do this, I rely on Google maps, map suggestions, mile stones, exit signs, and even a local help to arrive at my destination.

The big question is “Are there other ways to take a road trip?” There are lot of options… but a prepared plan is always better to save time, effort and cost.

A good learning pathway looks a lot like a structured road trip where a person has the ability to control which direction they take within their journey towards professional development. Learning pathways can help the learners see where they have come from and where their learning path is expected to go.

What is there for organizations?

For organizations, there are tangible benefits of Learning Pathways at Work. In a fast-changing workplace, it can increase employee engagement and retention, fill open company roles with internal talent, and close skills gaps. For employees, it can help you advance within your organization, get greater accomplishment and enjoyment at work, and stay up to date on evolving industry skills.
To develop Learning Pathways for your workforce, start by categorizing a framework for each learning path with:

  • Purpose and Goals
  • Progress aka Milestones
  • Diagnostic Assessment for Learning Path Validation
  • Content modalities and Diversity
  • Social Learning with Learning Buddies
  • Formative Assessments with Feedback
  • ChatbotGPT Support for Coaching and Mentorship
  • Opportunities for POA (Point of Application)

It’s time to think of Learning Paths as the backbone and the guide of every L&D initiatives as it can find ways to exclude waste, and variability in training, leading improved results and reduced costs.

Are you ready to walk the PATH?

Call us for a demo to see how a learning tool based on AI help you create personalized yet scalable learning experiences. That will guide your workers take the right the right learning path.

Also, talk to our Business analyst to experience the platform’s capability to understand the level of experience of each learner and how the recommendation engine modifies the Learning Path.

Sirsendu Das

Senior Learning Architect, Excelsoft Technologies.

EnhanzED Education – An affiliate of Excelsoft Technologies

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Engaged Onboarding Transforms the New Hire Experience

Engaged Onboarding Transforms the New Hire Experience

You know engaged fresh hires start better.

However, only one in six employees strongly agree that their organisation does great job Onboarding new employees.

During Pandemic, a HR partner was complaining about the Onboarding process and its intricacies… lengthy paperwork from contracts to benefits to resources, information overload, unrealistic expectations, orientation content access, manual induction formalities, no role clarity, tech knowledge gap and on top, the pressure from the hiring managers.

The conversation extended for the next 5 minutes with newer queries:

  • …can we onboard employees in bulk using the mobile number?
  • …is it possible to collect all required documents from the employee through the system?
  • …how can I collect documents from the employee after basic registration?
  • …what are the modes of communication used by the Onboarding platform?
  • …does the platform offer multilingual support?
  • …can employee details be collected through API?
  • …do we have pre-loaded FAQs?

How can you help?

I replied, “I think you need a solution for moving the entire Onboarding process to digital and I have one proposal for you.”

I can feel the need to revolutionize Onboarding that allows a new hire go through the phases of Excitement, Attachment Adjustment, and Alignment.

World over organizations want to help new hires Onboard and integrate into the organization and start appreciating about the organization and its vision, mission, structure, culture, and values. In addition, it should list a series of events that enable new employees to learn what they need to do to meet the responsibilities.

Leveraging the power of Digital L&D transformation, organizations aim to build connections between new hires and their managers, teams and the larger organization. Building such cohesive ecosystem can allow managers check-in on new hires to see how they’re doing. Later, these interactions or check-ins can be built into performance conversations.

With the changes in the business landscape, savvy corporate L&D leaders have understood from their experiences to modify the Onboarding program to meet their long-term goals. They are willing to take the effort now to create an excellent Onboarding experience for new employees that reflects and builds on the new environment and, as a result, improves the organizational culture.

At EnhanzED, we have experience helping companies devise efficient Onboarding strategies based on their industries and target audiences. Our experts have put together various EdTech tools to support the Onboarding architecture and employ a “push” and “pull” approach for better results.

EnhanzED offers a platform that is professional, efficient, active and user-friendly allowing organizations to offer their users bespoke training content and give exposure to professional experiences. We are a team of EdTech enthusiast with a passion for helping organizations tailor their online training to the needs of your team.

Let’s talk and get on board!

 

Sirsendu Das

Senior Learning Architect, Excelsoft Technologies.

EnhanzED Education – An affiliate of Excelsoft Technologies

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Let’s put the LEARNER in the center!

Let’s put the LEARNER in the center!

As learning and performance need continue to grow in today’s digital landscape, organizations are in need of training methods that offer employees an engaging and intuitive experience. Traditionally, the training pitch was all set for the LMS instances however, organizations found these pretty slow to adapt to the changing demands of the learner ecosystem.

Enter the learning experience platform, commonly called as LXP are gaining steam. They make learning material easier to find and consume. So how does the platform ecosystem work?

With learners who want more personalized experiences and on-demand content, LXP offers a recipe for modern learning. Using artificial intelligence, the advanced solution can deliver personalized recommendations and allow learners to be in control of the learning experience.

The AI is the key differentiator. It helps an LXP aggregates learning content from different sources and uses AI to recommend and deliver content to users helping them discover new learning opportunities. Learner adoption of LXP is fast as it offers an intuitive learning experience, opportunities for professional development and amore independent, autonomous, and self-directed style of learning.

So, why are the learners finding it easy to adopt an LXP?

World over skilling is a continuous event and people want to learn new things. As modern day consumers use the internet for content consumption, it only makes sense to offer opportunities for learners to learn and expand their skills via digital channels. People are hooked to their mobile devices. Using Internet they, watch videos, or listen to podcasts.

Software as a service (SaaS) developers took notice of this and started to create learning platforms that deliver experiences customized to a user’s specific needs. They built a platform that can host a wide range of content formats and types, encourage social learning, focuses on learning experience, offers an open-ended discovery platform that permits third-party content sharing and creation.

In a nutshell, LXPs use “pull” learning where it puts the learning at the centre of the experience. By giving employees greater control over their learning is a great way to improve engagement. So, it’s no surprise that organizations are spending more on LXP platforms.

Organizations look for training solutions that are cost-effective, scalable, and provides features for measuring progress and results. LXP proves to be the best bet to meet these expectations. In addition, LXP brings social learning and adaptive structure as an integral part of employee engagement and training strategy.

EnhanzED offers a platform that is professional, efficient, active and user-friendly allowing organizations to offer their users bespoke training content and give exposure to professional experiences. We are a team of EduTech enthusiast with a passion for helping organizations tailor their online training to the needs of your team. Let’s talk and do the first handshake!


Sirsendu Das

Senior Learning Architect, Excelsoft Technologies.

EnhanzED Education – An affiliate of Excelsoft Technologies

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How Technology is Shaping the Future of Education…

How Technology is Shaping the Future of Education…

We live in a Technology Saturated World, a world in which all of us, people of all ages, all walks of life encounter technology in one way or other in our daily lives. Technology is everywhere, entwined in almost every part of our culture. It affects how we live, eat, work, play, and most importantly how we learn!

Our next generation, is born into this digital world, a world that is lightning-fast, with instant access to information on their finger tips, a world that is highly interactive and engaging, a world of internet, smartphones, video games, virtual and augmented realities and what not. They are clearly citizens of this digital world. They are what we call the “Digital Natives”.

Over the last couple of years, my team and I at EnhanzED, have been closely studying the learning habits of these Digital Natives. No surprises here, these digital natives consume and process information in a very different way. They have developed unique learning styles and problem solving strategies. Basically they think and work differently, compared to the rest of us.

  • First of all, they have a really Short Attention Span, the attention span of a gnat. Its very natural for them to keep shifting between apps and screens, every few seconds.

  • They prefer Short, Bite-sized Lessons that are precise, relevant and focus on one particular subject or concept.

  • They look up or access content in a very different way, mostly Random, Sporadic and Non-sequential, typically quick look ups on the internet or buzzing their friends on social media. We all do that nowadays, but they do that more often than anyone, and they are very quick at it. Its actually a very important and integral part of how they learn, assimilate and retain information.

  • They have an unwavering preference for Rich and Engaging Multimedia Content. Content that is crafted to enthrall them, while perfectly fitting into their short attention spans.

  • Most importantly, they love to learn and consume content On-the-go, Anytime, Anywhere, on their personal devices. They love listening to podcasts, watching videos, doing quick reads while traveling on the bus, waiting at the doctor’s clinic and often on the toilet seats!

Now, you are one of them, a Digital Native, someone whose world is inundated with technology, gadgets and devices, and you walk into a classroom that looks like this –

A crowded classroom, with closely packed desks, a tight atmosphere, with fingers on lips, all eyes on the blackboard, with an instructor next to it, delivering what would most probably be an hour long monologue. You are not allowed to carry your personal devices, that you’d typically make quick notes on, you are cut out from the internet, that you’d use to quickly look up on things being discussed in the class. 

Essentially, you are walking into an environment that is not natural to you, an environment that restricts your natural instincts and behavior, a whole new world that feels ancient!! It is very important for us to accept these realities, and open our minds to adopt more technology into our education systems to create learning experiences that resonate with the current and next generation learners.

Classroom should not be a Location, it should be an Experience !!

Lets start with our class rooms. The class room should no longer be a location or a room, that students would dread to walk into, or yearn to walk out off. It should be an experience, a rich, engaging, interactive and most importantly fun experience that students would love to be part of. 

Classrooms today are seeing dramatic changes.

  • Traditional black boards are making way for touch screen smart boards, that instructors and students can interact with
  • More multi media content is being used in classrooms to engage students
  • The classroom layouts are changing, promoting interpersonal skills among students
  • Above a certain age, students are allowed to carry digital devices into the classroom
  • More schools and colleges are providing Wi-Fi facilities across their campuses

  • Fancy Technologies such as 3D printers, Smart Science Kits, Virtual Reality Head Sets are making their way into the mainstream schooling systems.

  •  

Learning beyond the Classroom...

Learning does not happen only in the class room. A lot of learning happens outside the classroom, online – watching videos, playing games, reading articles, interacting with friends.

I’m sure we all watch videos online, read articles, probably even take courses online, and we’ve been doing this for a while now. So whats new?

Something interesting has happened over the last 3-4 years. A magic device called the Smartphone.

Smartphones have created a “paradigm-shift” to the way we communicate and consume digital content.

The Smartphone is a very personal device. It lives in our pockets for most part of the day. We breath, eat, sleep with our smartphones next to us. Its an integral part of every individual today.

If I want to learn about something, I do not run to the nearby library, I do not run to my desk to find my computer. All I do is reach out to my pocket and pull out my phone, and start swiping. I don’t even have to type in my question, I can just use my voice to get answers. The best part is, I can do it anywhere, anytime, on-the-go.

Smartphones are a strong digital channel that connects each and everyone of us to the world of internet. This is a channel that needs to be leveraged effectively for learning and education! We are already seeing increasing number of smartphone based education products in the market, and this will only grow in the years to come!

Personalization Like Never Before...

The biggest drawback of conventional education is the lack of personalization. Imagine a class of 60 students. Every single individual in that class is different. Students come with different abilities, they come with prior learning dispositions, they have different strengths and weaknesses, some are quick in grasping a concept, some are slow and need additional help.

In the conventional education system where the students clearly outnumber the instructors, it is impractical for the instructor to give personal attention to every single student addressing his or her needs on a daily basis. All students are treated the same! The same set of lectures, homework, assignments are forced down the throat of all the students, irrespective of their abilities, progress and performance.

Technology can solve this big problem. Learning Platforms are growing smarter and smarter, thanks to the advances in Technology, we can today capture fine grain details about the progress and performance of individuals, and create personalized learning paths for each individual based on his or her needs.

If a student is struggling with a particular concept, the platform knows that and pushes more videos and additional practice exercises onto the student’s device helping him/her get up to the mark. The platform can also learn an individual’s learning styles and habits and craft content accordingly. 

The Role of Instructors and Educators...

So, there will be Technology everywhere, inside the classroom and outside the classroom. Does than mean that the role of instructors is diminishing?

Not really !! Technology is just a means to an end. The real magic would be in the hands of the educators, instructors and the content creators. They need to work towards creating an environment that best suits the student, and not an environment that they are comfortable with.

It is important for educators and instructors to embrace technology and use it effectively to bring about a change.

Ultimately the Goal here is to help the learner in all of us to “Remember to Remember, and Forget to Forget”. How well we do this, is in our hands!

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Learning Analytics – Thinking beyond Pie charts & Bar charts

Learning Analytics – Thinking beyond Pie charts & Bar charts

According to the NMC Horizon Report for Higher Education, the time for main-stream adoption of Learning Analytics and Adaptive Learning is “One Year or Less”. You may think that your Learning platform is well on track, with rich dashboards and jazzy reports about student logins, time on task, student grades over time, performance across programs and what not. The truth is that most of the Learning platforms today (open-source, commercial and home-grown) have all these basic reporting and analytics capabilities. In fact, they have had it for a while. So why all this hype around “Learning Analytics”, and why is everyone making a big deal out of it now?

 

“Learning Analytics” is much more than a bunch of reports that depict the student experience on one single platform. Its not just about what has happened in the past, its also about what is going on right now, and what can be expected in the future. It does not end with reports and charts calling for action, it’s about turning the inferences and insights into meaningful actions, or at-least enabling users to do so.

There are a few things that clearly differentiate “Learning Analytics” from the shallow reporting offerings –

Analytics across Platforms and Experiences

Learning does not happen on one single platform. It happens across platforms and experiences. A typical eLearning ecosystem comprises of a variety of learning platforms including Learning Management Systems, eBook platforms, Assessment platforms, Mobile applications, Discussion forums and many more. Apart from these, a significant amount of learning happens in-class, during office hours, over the social media and other “non-learning” channels.

 

Learners interact with these multitudes of platforms, leaving “data-trails”. While the individual platforms do a good job of capturing & reporting this data, they fail to depict the overall learning experience of the learner. True “Learning Analytics” is about gathering the experience of the learner from all the possible sources to provide a “holistic view” across platforms and experiences.

Reports and charts are good for visualizing what has already happened. They help in understanding what went well or what went wrong (Descriptive Analytics).

But Analytics can go beyond reports and charts and help us understand more about why things went wrong in the first place (Diagnostic Analytics).

It can help us understand what is happening now, what should be our next best action through alerts, notifications, recommendations, and help us be on track and never miss out on any thing important (Prescriptive Analytics).

Furthermore, based on the historical data Analytics can help us predict future trends, understand what to expect in the future and how to plan for it (Predictive Analytics).

Finally, Analytics can enable us to turn these inferences and insights into actions, by providing feedback to the platform to personalize the experience for the learner (Applied Learning Analytics).

Analytics for All

Finally, Analytics is not limited to instructors and super admins. Analytics can cater to all the stakeholders in the learning eco-system, including Learners, Instructors, Curriculum Designers, Program Admins, Content Creators, Publishers, Institution Admins and many more. As an example – Learners can see where they stand in the program, identify their weak areas, and get recommendations and nudges on how they can improve. Instructors can see the performance & progress of their class, identify at-risk students, intervene to take necessary actions, predict class performance. Program admins can monitor the health and performance of the program, compare instructors, predict enrollments. Publishers can profile their content, identify and weed out non-performing content, improve content that needs attention. 

 

The emerging standards for capturing experience data in Learning platforms (xAPI, LRS, Caliper Frameworks etc.) have enabled fine-grain capture of learner engagement & performance data. The advances in Big-Data technologies have enabled efficient ways for storing and processing large amounts of data, to generate rich visualizations, useful insights and predictions, making true “Learning Analytics” a reality today.

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The Evolution of Learning Content………

The Evolution of Learning Content.....

Since the Smartphones and Internet have taken over the world (and all our lives), the way we consume content has significantly changed. Being in the education industry for over a decade, my team and I have had the unique opportunity to closely observe and study how the way we deliver and consume Educational Content has evolved over the last few years.

For a long time, Books (Print Media in general) were the only source of knowledge. Knowledge seekers would spend hours in the libraries reading books, magazines, articles, journals educating themselves in their areas of interest

With the advent of the Personal Computer, education companies saw the need to open up a second channel – a digital channel. We started seeing CD’s and DVDs packed at the very end of the books. While the book was still the primary product here, the CDs or DVDs would often contain supplementary content such as video snippets, additional quizzes etc.rnals educating themselves in their areas of interest

As Internet became popular, CDs and DVDs slowly faded away, and were replaced with an “Online Access Code” that users could redeem to access content online. It was basically the same content as in the CDs or DVDs, but available online, so that the content could be updated regularly without having the ship a whole new CD or DVD again.

With the Internet becoming a ubiquity in most parts of the world, people are starting to prefer online content over print media. Most of us today read our morning news online, access digital version of our favorite magazines, buy and access e-books instead of printed books. Education companies are being forced to flip their business models. The Online Product is now becoming now the primary product, and printed books for the first time, are seen as a supplementary offering.

With more and more people preferring online learning products over books, many education companies are being forced to roll out their first set of “Online Only” products, which do not come with any print offering! Publishing companies that traditionally printed books are focussed on building digital online products and creating digital learning experiences!

The advent of the “Smart Phone” has opened up yet another digital channel that can be used to engage learners beyond the online experience, with supplementary quizzes, extended reading, video snippets that could be consumed anytime anywhere on personal devices. Learners typically get free access to the mobile content along with their online product purchase.

Within the increasing popularity and growing adoption of the smartphones, we will soon be seeing many “Mobile First” products that would be targeted to the growing population of smartphone users. All the traditional online content will now have to be tweaked to work responsively on mobile or completely re-designed for a Mobile First experience.

The Smartphone today is arguably the Most Natural Way for all of us to consume digital content. It’s a very personal device that lives in our pockets for most part of the day. We breath, eat, sleep with our smartphones next to us. Its an integral part of every individual today. If I want to learn about something, I do not run to the nearby library, I do not run to my desk to find my computer. All I do is reach out to my pocket and pull out my phone, and start swiping. I don’t even have to type in my question, I can just use my voice to get answers. The best part is, I can do it anywhere, anytime, on-the-go.

Smartphones are a strong digital channel that connects each and everyone of us to the world of internet. This is a channel that will be leveraged effectively for learning and education!

Very soon, we will be seeing an increasing number of smartphone based education products in the market, and this will only grow in the years to come!

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