Upskilling employees with adaptive learning
Adaptive learning is an educational strategy that: offers students with distinctive and tailored experiences to maximize their performance. Ultimately, adaptive eLearning is flexible learning that leverages the benefits of online learning while focusing on each learner’s unique needs, goals, preferences, and learning styles.
However, you might think it can be extremely difficult to incorporate this into your Learning and Development (L&D). And indeed it is. But it’s not particularly complicated either. Just make sure that each L&D program focuses on the individuality of each student.
Best Practices for Developing an Adaptive Learning Approach to Upskilling
1. Promote continuous learning
Fostering a learning culture within your company is crucial in developing an adaptive learning approach. A spirit of constant improvement can reflect your company’s beliefs and motivate your staff to work harder to advance their careers. Student involvement can be an issue you will encounter during the process. Less formal learning can take place if you give your students the opportunity to explore and learn independently outside the confines of a (virtual) classroom in addition to academic training.
It is interesting to note that the core idea of adult education is self-directed learning. While some people learn better with a structured curriculum, others prefer little to no guidance as they read different articles, watch videos, and take mini-courses on their own, depending on the goals they want to achieve at the time.
Increasing the opportunities for social learning within your company is another strategy for fostering a culture of continuous learning. These promote greater teamwork, both within and between teams. This is possible by:
- Setting up a workplace learning blog or forum threads where students can interact and express their enthusiasm for learning.
- Interact with them on social media channels while providing informal learning materials.
- The use of peer-to-peer collaborative learning mediation technologies that allow in-house Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to transfer their expertise on specific topics.
Making self-improvement a habit among your workforce will undoubtedly pave the way for more efficient adaptive learning within your company.
2. Secure Student Data Sources
Then find out where to get data and information about your students’ existing jobs, industries, learning preferences, and hobbies. This information will help you decide which training materials to present to your staff. By then, you should have a good understanding of your employees’ learning preferences and behaviors, whether you use adaptive learning technology or manual methods.
If you already have enough information, you can research the training programs most of your students are interested in, the resources they use and the learning styles they prefer (e.g. one-on-one training with a trainer or group sessions with their peers and a coach). With this information, you can identify your learners’ preferences and adjust the design, delivery, and available learning content of your continuing education program accordingly.
For example, a preliminary evaluation of their learning goals, preferred learning styles, skill levels, and other criteria can help you determine the right learning resources to provide your employees and the platforms on which they can do this. Several eLearning platforms even offer a built-in portal that allows HR and L&D professionals to instantly track the progress of their students, whether collectively, individually or in groups.
3. Focus on content relevant to your students
In addition to reliable adaptive learning technology, it is great to have access to a wide variety of educational materials and training programs. These should make up for the skills shortages in your staff.
Make sure your LMS or LXP is stocked with learning materials that are job-relevant, business-oriented, and industry-specific. Then every student in your company is served. In addition, your learning system must integrate well with your training programs and solutions. An explanation for this is the easy accessibility of training, which can increase training consumption and traffic within your LMS or LXP.
A personalized learning system similar to Netflix is also a great idea, as the smart content suggestion engine can have a big impact on how your staff learn and what specialized and relevant content they use. Some companies use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to provide information to learners based on their portal usage, skill levels, and features. As a result, learning procedures and systems become more attractive and intuitive.
The most important thing is to make sure your company has learning materials for everyone. This makes it easier for you (or your system) to recommend appropriate materials to employees when they feel the need to further their professional or personal development.
4. Set customization as default
Personalized learning and adaptive learning are often used interchangeably. Moreover, they have many similarities. However, they are only similar, not identical. You could think of it this way: Customized learning experiences form the ongoing learning process called personalized learning. To better meet specific needs and goals, this is achieved through adaptive learning. Personalizing learning experiences is the goal, and adaptive learning is an efficient way to achieve this. This way you can guarantee customization in your L&D by:
- Selecting Educational Materials According to Each Company and Employment Position
- Customized delivery education programs based on each student’s goals and needs
- Design a tailor-made course program for each team or group
Create a specialized curriculum and syllabus depending on the group members’ current skills, learning styles and areas for improvement, for example if you want to focus on training a specific team. L&D becomes more concentrated and efficient when it focuses on the collective learning preferences and needs of the group.
5. Consider training with a learning support staff
It’s great to have a team of experts who can help your students at every stage of their learning process, from the beginning of your learning program to the assessment phase. Make sure your L&D program has a team of consultants to help your students have the best possible learning experience. They can also be helpful in making recommendations for educational materials and activities for your staff to use. Plus, these experts know when to present the right material to your students at the right time, place, and platform. This is a practical method for incorporating adaptive learning into your continuing education plan. A dedicated learning support team can give individualized learning experiences a human touch, in addition to the technology that makes them possible.
Conclusion
In short, applying an adaptive learning strategy in your L&D ensures that your staff receives highly individualized learning experiences. This can then help them broaden and improve their skills, which are essential to the long-term development of your company.