Top Training Company Shares Three Vital Instructional Design Tips for the New Year

In the last quarter of the year, we saw multiple reports come out with useful data and information on current conditions and trends for learning development within organizations across industries. The LinkedIn 2021 Workplace Learning Report, ATD, Brandon Hall, and others provided results gathered from leadership, learning professionals, HR, and employees that will help guide good decision-making for the coming year.

Top Training and Custom eLearning Development Best Practices

Create cross-functional content for hybrid workplaces. Remote work, at least part of the time, is an ongoing reality in the modern workplace. It will be incredibly valuable to develop, enhance, and update your learning content that will translate in both the in-person and virtual environment. When designing your learning experience, you’ll want to use video, media, and digital resources that can be used in office and away, for self-paced and instructor-led learning. If you haven’t already, organize your content to be easily accessible through a database online for use during learning and as a quick reference on the job. 

Prioritize the learner experience. What experiences and resources does your team need to be successful? Is it improved access, updated digital resources, shorter learning experiences that can flex around a busy schedule, or content that is more engaging and provides more practice experience? Gather all of the information you can through surveys, HR feedback, IT use data, and information from management. It’s helpful to conduct a needs analysis if you have those resources in-house or can bring in a consultant to help. Whatever you can do to improve the user experience will enhance your outcomes and improve ROI. You can read more about how to enhance the learner experience here.

Make it social to increase engagement. According to the 2021 LinkedIn Learning Workplace Report, “Learners who use social features – Q&A, course shares, and learning groups – watch 30x more hours of learning content than learners who don’t.” Based on those numbers, it’s clear that a social engagement element increases seat time and improves outcomes by increasing motivation and buy-in. Moreover, top training companies will always recommend that you increase learner engagement. How? This can be accomplished by making good use of chats and other tools to enhance communication during learning experiences, even if it’s in the form of a bulletin board for comments, video meetups, and gamified activities for participants.

Prioritize equity in the learner experience and your workplace culture. What is workplace equity? In short, it is taking a human-centered approach to recognize individual needs and create conditions that allow everyone to succeed. (Frankly, it’s a large topic. You can find resources that cover this subject more in-depth here.) Increasingly, organizations are recognizing the value of more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces. According to that same LinkedIn report mentioned earlier, nearly three-quarters (73%) of L&D professionals report that their executives have made Diversity & Inclusion programs a priority. Moreover, many organizations are realizing the value of mental health initiatives to support wellbeing in the workplace. If they haven’t already, organizations can take steps to prioritize equity and improve workplace culture by updating learning content, supporting effective communication in the workplace, and using evaluations maps to uncover needs.

Conclusion

The coming year provides tremendous opportunities to re-envision our workplaces and improve the learner experience in ways that meet business objectives and sets everyone up for greater success – even in the midst of changing market conditions. At AllenComm, we’re a top training company with a passion for creating human-centered learning solutions that scale to meet business objectives and win awards for our clients. If you could use more information, a consultation, or other support with learning technologies and solutions, please reach out to us here.