6 reasons why you should consider using digital learning in 2023

How flexible is your workplace technology for learning? Do your colleagues spend hours of time sitting in training meetings only to forget most of what they learned a week later? Is it impossible to find information on the new business process you want everyone to follow? Do you wish you could move around to find a comfortable place that will help you focus on learning?

If all of these seem familiar, here’s six reasons why you need to make sure your learning goes digital.

1. Availability

Access 24/7 to learning when and where needed

With training and information on-demand, employees can learn new skills and refresh their knowledge at any time of day and wherever they need it – at work, at home, on the move and on any device.

With access to digital learning, employees can be confident that they are always going to find the most up-to-date information. And management can be sure that essential training has been completed.

2. Intuitive

Complex material broken into bite-sized chunks

Digital learning means a shift towards employee-centred design and a new way of learning – bringing learning to where employees are.

Complex material can be broken down into manageable chunks that can be matched to different learning speeds and learning styles whilst fitting into the flow of daily work activities.

Digital learning is easy and intuitive to use and allows employees to become more efficient as they find context-relevant training that is well-matched to their daily work.

3. Cost-effective

Cost-effective and efficient with worldwide reach

Whilst there is still a valuable place for face-to-face teaching and instructor-led training in an organisation, significant quantities of employee training and development can be more effectively delivered using online e-learning programmes.

Digital learning can allow your organisation to enhance the effectiveness of training programmes, increase engagement and improve information retention.

With employees spending less time away from their main duties and no need for trainers, venue hire and hotel stays, substantial financial savings can be achieved. Moreover, training is not geographically limited. Elearning content can be used across the globe and is straightforward to localise with language translations for maximum effectiveness.

4. Empowering

Employees can take responsibility for their own learning

The nature of work has changed, driving the need for continuous learning. Research shows that learning is most effective when spaced out, exposing learners to new skills and ideas over time with opportunities to reflect in between ⁽³⁾,⁽⁴⁾. Digital learning supports this culture of ‘pull’ learning, where employees can take responsibility for their own learning.

Learner-focused content management systems are now widely available allowing training providers to curate content shaped into micro-learning pathways or in-depth macro-learning programs. Learning becomes personalised and learning materials become available to learners at just the right time.

5. Memorable

Stories, scenarios, and games make learning memorable

The key benefit of digital learning is that the learning experience becomes interactive, engaging the learner in different ways within the same content.

Diagrams and graphs can animate and information unfolds as the learner explores the material. Scenarios rich with photos or illustrations can explore learning points in real-world situations, and present the learner with options to try out different responses and outcomes. Game-like elements can focus on different types of thinking skills to engage learners in solving problems.

All of these approaches are proven to make learning more memorable and can help to make even the driest content fun to learn.

6. Current

Millennials are used to learning this way and expect modern organisations to be the same

It’s estimated that by 2025, 75% of the global workforce will be millennials bringing new demands to the workplace. Millennials have grown up with mobile technology, social networks, infinite internet and video everywhere and they don’t often feel the need to be in a classroom to learn. They value flexibility in their schedule and their ability to choose when and how they work, and they expect modern organisations to be the same.

Digital learning satisfies their demands to learn things their way, but even more importantly, this flexibility and choice are good for all your workers, not just millennials. Soon everyone will begin to realise the benefits of being able to learn when and where they need to.