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On demand learning has always played an important role in our workplaces. Traditionally, it’s taken the form of in-person training led by instructors, but this is no longer the most effective method. As technology improves and people are able to untether themselves from their office desks, user education strategies need to adapt.
On-demand learning platforms enable organizations to provide remote, on-demand training to customers, employees, gig workers, partners, or any other group that needs it. It’s not enough to offer online training courses that take the form of traditional classes and require a significant time commitment to complete. It’s also important to create ways for your learners to access bite-sized pieces of relevant information at their point of need.
On-demand learning opportunities provided through e-learning platforms are more effective than traditional instructor-led training courses — and they can even save your business considerable time and money. Let’s explore why.
On-demand learning is a user training strategy that provides access to educational content in real-time at the user’s point of need. Bite-sized pieces of knowledge taken in context are more manageable for most learners than a formal course that presents all the information at once.
Providing your users with opportunities for on-demand training is extremely important for several reasons. Some of the primary benefits of on-demand training include:
Work is no longer tied to a desk. It’s now normal for workers to use a mobile device as their primary work device. Younger workers, especially, are used to using a phone, tablet or other kinds of mobile devices to complete most of their work. Approximately 75% of employees use their personal smartphones for work-related tasks. Customers do the majority of their learning and researching via mobile devices as well. On-demand learning is a great way to reach this group of users.
Since mobile devices allow us to work on the go, many people choose to do so. Research suggests that 61% of employees prefer working fully remotely when given the chance. Learners with busy schedules may not have time to sit in one place and complete a long training course. For these learners, it’s essential to have a way to learn a little bit at a time, wherever they happen to be. On-demand learning can provide a solution for users like these whose busy schedules prevent them from engaging with traditional, instructor-led training sessions.
When users have the freedom to learn whenever and wherever they prefer, it gives them a much greater degree of control over their own learning experience. In-person training courses require users to learn on the company’s terms. The training happens at a set time, in a set location, and is taught by a set instructor. With on-demand learning, users have the power to arrange their own learning environment and engage with the learning material at their own pace.
Many companies today rely on gig workforces — workforces made up of independent, temporary, usually remote workers. Training a workforce like this can be very difficult. Obviously, it’s impractical to expect everyone to attend in-person training when the workforce is so spread out and everyone has wildly different schedules. Gig work is supposed to be flexible, which means scheduled training sessions are out of the question. On-demand training may be the only way to offer adequate learning opportunities for gig workers.
Even for regular employees who aren’t gig workers, in-person training is starting to look impractical. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work has risen sharply in popularity, which means companies need to adapt their training strategies to accommodate remote users of all kinds. When you have a large number of employees working remotely, arranging in-person, instructor-led training sessions often requires more effort and resources than it’s worth. On demand training presents a better alternative that can help remote workers and in-person workers alike get the training they need.
Setting up in-person training courses often requires the company to spend a lot of money. There’s the cost of instructors, venues, travel, and physical teaching materials, for example. On-demand training eliminates all these expenses. You can make the resources available online for any of your users to access whenever they need them. This way, you don’t waste resources putting on training sessions that aren’t fully relevant to everyone. In today’s business climate, companies need to find ways to save money everywhere they can if they want to stay in business.
The importance of on-demand training is not only restricted to certain industries or companies. Nearly every industry can benefit in some way from implementing on-demand training options for users. Here are a few examples of the different ways you can use on-demand training in various contexts. On-demand training use cases like these make it clear how valuable an on-demand training strategy can be.
One group that can benefit tremendously from on-demand learning opportunities is gig workers. Gig workers are frequently on-the-go and often aren’t available consistently throughout the day. Additionally, a gig workforce is usually spread out over a large geographic area, making it nearly impossible to assemble everyone for planned, in-person training. Any company that utilizes a gig workforce stands a lot to gain from adopting an on-demand learning strategy.
Real estate agents can also benefit from on-demand training. Often, real estate agents work unorthodox hours — they’re frequently moving around throughout the day, and they need to be available at a moment’s notice. For someone with a hectic schedule like this, it’s extremely challenging to find time to attend in-person training courses led by an instructor. On-demand training can provide the solution. Giving real estate agents the ability to learn on demand can help them fit important training into their day whenever they can, even if it’s only a few minutes at a time.
User education is important in every industry. However, it’s especially important in the healthcare industry simply because healthcare professionals have a direct impact on the well-being of other people. It’s important for professionals in the healthcare industry to be more than adequately trained in the tools and procedures they use. This includes everyone who plays a part in the healthcare process — not just doctors and nurses. For example, pharmaceutical workers also need ample opportunities to learn more about their field on demand.
Software is notoriously difficult to learn. For companies that sell subscriptions to software services, it’s essential to have methods of user onboarding that make the learning process as intuitive as possible. One way to do this is to offer on demand training. If you present a first-time user of your software with a long list of every possible function and how to carry it out, they will probably become overwhelmed quickly. Offering the information in smaller, more manageable chunks as the need arises is almost always the more effective method.
For manufacturing companies, on-demand learning carries many of the same benefits it does for other industries. In particular, on-demand training can make it more convenient for workers to develop new skills or gain knowledge within the right context. Instead of siloing learning opportunities, training can happen alongside work wherever the need arises, which can boost productivity and help learners actually retain the information they’re learning.
The best way to deliver on-demand training to your learners is with a learning management system (sometimes called an LMS). An LMS is a kind of software platform that makes it possible to manage and deliver learning content for your user base from one central, digital location. An on-demand training LMS can help you create opportunities for on-demand learning with features like:
Thanks to the rapid progression of technology and the rise of remote work, many of your learners are going to be viewing your content on a mobile device. It’s essential that your content looks just as good on a small screen as it does on a big one. If your training strategy doesn’t provide a good experience on mobile devices, you’re failing to serve a large percentage of your user base. You can use a learning management system to fully optimize your training content for mobile devices.
Mobile optimization would be impossible without a cloud-compatible system. A cloud-based LMS allows you to upload your training content to the cloud where it can be accessed by all your learners remotely. If you have a large user base located around the world, this is a necessity for scaling your training strategy effectively.
The best learning management systems are not only convenient but also secure. Single sign-on authentication makes it possible for learners to access the content at a moment’s notice without sacrificing security measures.
For learning to be truly on-demand, it must be embeddable. This means the content can be inserted directly where it’s relevant to the user. For example, someone learning to use a new software program could see a helpful mini-lesson about how to use a new feature without having to leave the software and search for resources in a separate location. Learning management systems can help you embed your learning content wherever your users need it most.
Thank you.
