The learner experience refers to all the emotions and feelings a learner experiences before, during and after their course.
In the world of e-commerce, the Research Online – Purchase Offline (RO-PO) phenomenon is revolutionising the experience brands offer their customers. As a result, we now talk about ‘omnichannel’ customer journeys and ATAWAD (Any Time, Any Way, Any Device).
Customers expect to be recognised and served smoothly and efficiently, regardless of the channels they use at the different stages of their purchasing journey.
In the world of professional training, I regard lifelong learning as Learning Online – Training Offline (LO-TO) which encourages us to offer a new learner experience based on omnimodal learning journeys and SLATAWAD (Social Learning Any Time, Any Way, Any Device).
The learner experience is often viewed as a way of influencing satisfaction, loyalty and commitment.
Factors that drive innovation in learner experience
- Content: capture and disseminate emerging trends in functions whose environment is evolving faster than the line-of-business reference documents.
- Training programmes: enable a gradual acquisition of content, based on a LO-TO, SLATAWAD approach.
- Training methods: create richer interactions between learners, and between learners and content.
- Emotional experience: help embed knowledge for the long term and make learners keen to use it on the job.
- Services: make the choice, delivery, administration and invoicing of training courses more convenient, more efficient and less expensive.
Moving from multimodal to omnimodal delivery
Multimodal or ‘blended’ learning employs different learning methods during a training course to achieve specific objectives. The success of these programmes in businesses speaks for itself. Nevertheless, I have noticed that hybrid programmes are often limited to a series of methods and are not part of an integrated ecosystem geared to developing the skills required in the workplace.
On-the-job and collaborative activities, which set the scene for ‘learning to learn’ continuously between synchronous group events, are often neglected. Yet such activities encourage and support leaners to try out agile working methods, take the initiative, network, work collaboratively and monitor progress.
Omnimodal delivery takes the concept of multimodality and adds the idea of learning anywhere, so that learners can engage with training using any method, on any device, in synchronous or asynchronous mode. Here, each learning method serves the other efficiently, based on the flipped classroom model for instance.
In this case, ‘anywhere’ means a learning landscape in which devices and networks are embedded, integrated and omnipresent in the employee’s activities and development pathway. The learner has access to a set of services and content, and is surrounded by a range of intelligently distributed methods, including on-the-job and collaborative activities.
Classroom experience and new services for learners
The learner experience also takes place in the classroom, where digital technologies enhance our options as course designers. Once again, it is not about following the sirens on the basis that technology is all, but revamping certain practices.
Finally, we should consider exploiting the data available, as well as computerising our processes and materials to offer new services to learners, moving in the direction of much sought-after personalisation (recommendations, learning styles, quantified self, etc).
So how do you enhance the learner experience? That’s up to you!