The Future of L&D: 5 Learning Trends Shaping 2023 and Beyond

As technology reshapes the landscape for L&D teams, new training-related innovations are emerging every day — e.g., virtual reality-powered education sessions and 3D training videos — and you can easily incorporate them into your online education program. 

But while flashy new tech developments may be the way of the future, they’re sometimes a little impractical for companies that need to focus on immediate returns. Fortunately, several practical, accessible trends are also emerging — ones that your team can quickly implement with the help of a modern, cloud-based learning platform.

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Understanding Time to Value & Decrease it with Customer Education

Learning Development Trends in 2023

Did you know that in the mid-1600s, speculation drove the value of tulip bulbs through the roof? So high that at the height of tulipmania, the rarest bulbs traded for as much as six times the average person's annual salary. This was a trend and the bubble eventually popped. 

Trends are an inevitable part of life. The trick is to sift through them and identify the ones that have a lasting impact. Here are five that will impact learning programs for years to come.

1. Informal and Asynchronous Training

   The traditional model of customer education has long relied on time and schedule — think in-person seminars and live events. Onboarding teams plan lengthy education sessions, typically at the customer’s office, to give large groups of new users as much information as possible in a given timeframe. However, the model is inherently flawed, often requiring a ton of coordination for trainers and too much staff off time for clients. It’s also increasingly out-of-touch with modern workplace conventions like flexible scheduling, remote employees and web-based communication.
   
   Thankfully, the old model is on its way out. Companies provide select live training sessions while focusing more than ever on providing customers with easily accessible, on-demand online education sessions to round out onboarding and ongoing client development programs. In addition, forward-thinking businesses are giving customers the dedicated logins and anytime access they need to consume training content at their own pace, on their own terms.

2. Microlearning

   There’s nothing worse than needing a tiny morsel of information and having to sift through a vast array of resources to find it, especially if a timely task depends on it. The proliferation of media-driven training material complicates the problem further since you can’t search through a 20-minute video for the 90 seconds of detail you need.
   
   Businesses adapt to this concern by creating bite-sized resources and need-based online courses for clients, aka microlearning. Breaking up long-form content into courses, lessons, and activities makes it easier for customers to address their needs and aligns with the attention span of the modern learner.

3. Gamification

   It’s all too easy for customers to space out throughout a multi-level training program, which is why so many modern LMSs offer user monitoring or “engagement-gauging” tools and features. But the key isn’t just to keep an eye on how users interact with your learning content. You should be able to give them highly engaging content that deserves their attention and interest.
   
   Some companies are boosting engagement by incorporating branded, theme-driven gamification.  Certainly, big-picture “gamification” is one of the flashy corporate learning trends beyond most businesses’ reach. However, scaling down this “big-picture” gamification and smartly incorporating gamified concepts is within most companies’ reach.

4. Personalized Learning Experiences

   Personalized and adaptive learning continues to gain steam as people demand content to meet their unique needs and L&D teams fight for engagement.
   
   To do this, businesses will rely on the power of learning management systems and other personalized-centric LMS features — think properties — to create unique content that addresses the immediate needs of their customers, employees or partners.  

5. Mobile Learning (m-learning)

   
   The proliferation of mobile technology is causing significant shifts in how we live, work, and more importantly, learn. To that end, changing workforce dynamics are making traditional online learning programs obsolete while opening the door to mobile learning (i.e., a type of online learning enabled by, and intended for, mobile devices ).
   
   As mobile usage increases — driven largely by the recent rise of remote working and the gig economy — a need for mobile learning experiences will intensify as learning programs will have to meet people whenever and wherever they are. 

L&D Trends Shaping 2023 and Beyond

The L&D landscape continues to evolve to meet the needs of the modern world. While the constant evolution can be hard to keep up with, innovative learning teams will look at this as an opportunity to differentiate themselves to provide best-in-class experiences — before anyone else. 

Do you want to see how Northpass can help you take your learning programs into the future? Reach out today and we’ll be in touch.