The Changing Role of E-Learning in Employee Development and Training

The pandemic made e-learning a necessity for many organizations where in-person training wasn’t possible.

Organizations like the cost-benefit of e-learning, while employees love the flexible ways they can engage with their training and development.

Are you looking for ways that e-learning can help boost your employee’s development, training, and engagement?

We’ll discuss the benefits of e-learning and how mobile learning and gamification are potent ways to help your employees be the best they can be.

Related: E-Learning – 7 Tips For Employee Development

While there is a time and place for in-person, instructor-led training (ILT), e-learning has many advantages that an organization should consider.

E-Learning Benefits Include:

• Cost Effective
• Removes Distance Constraints
• Provides Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device (ATAWAD) Access to Learning
• Allows Learners to Learn at Their Own Pace
• Better Reporting and Analytics
• Programs Can Be Custom-Designed
• Easy to Update Content
• Interactive and Collaborative
• Can Personalize Content
• Encourages Continuous Learning

In the past five years, e-learning has gone from a “nice to have” to a critical component of corporate training. Training and development are essential to retaining and nurturing talent in an ultra-competitive job market.

Employers can use two e-learning strategies to ensure a successful e-learning program: mobile learning and gamification.

Mobile Learning
An Insider Intelligence report indicated that mobile phone usage accounted for over one-third of total media time in 2021. Furthermore, smartphones were responsible for consuming over 72% of that content.

It’s clear that not only are people spending more time on their mobile devices, but they also aren’t using them just for entertainment. Instead, they are now turning to these devices for personal and professional training and development.

Would you like to learn more about how Emeraude Escape can help supercharge your e-learning program? Click here to contact us today!

Advantages of Mobile Learning
At the heart of mobile learning is the ATAWAD, or anytime, anywhere, any device concept. Mobile learning gives learners the freedom and flexibility to learn when and where they want.

Mobile learning is flexible in delivering e-learning content in both formal and informal learning techniques.

Other advantages of mobile learning include the following:

• Cost-Savings
• Personalization and Tracking
• Content Can Be Easily Updated and Distributed
• ATAWAD Appeals to All Generations Who Want to Work Remotely
• Encourages Collaboration
• Practical and Relevant Content

Examples of Mobile Learning for E-Learning
You can use mobile learning across your organization as part of your training programs. In addition, organizations turn to mobile learning to help them with the following:

• Compliance Training – Mobile learning is great for training sessions on corporate responsibility, diversity, and ethics.
• Sales Team Training – Mobile learning can help keep your sales up to date and on the same page with your product and policies, no matter where they are.
• Employee Onboarding – Mobile learning lets organizations remotely onboard their employees cost-effectively. And still, instill the culture and values of the organization.

Gamification
The Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) defines gamification as “the application of game elements in a non-game context such as for instance, the workplace.”

Elements of Gamification
For e-learning, gamification uses points, badges, and other game features to standard training modules and courses.

Examples of the elements of gamification include:

• Leaderboards / Points
• Leveling / Badges
• Certificates / Bonuses / Collectibles
• Power-Ups / Upgrades to Equipment / Easter Eggs
• Access to Hidden Areas
• Story Arc / Quest / Scenarios
• Timers/Countdowns
• Avatar Selection and Customization
• Role Playing / Strategy

Uses of Gamification in E-Learning
You can gamify almost anything in e-learning. Here are some of the areas where organizations are using gamification today:

• Microlearning
• Video-Based Learning
• Scenario-Based Learning (SBL)
• Personalization
• Storytorial or Story-Based Learning
• Branching/Complex Decision-Making Simulations
• Metaverse AR/VR/MR
• User Generated Content and Curation

One of the great things about gamification is that you can integrate it with your Learning Management System (LMS) to integrate existing content.

Here are some of the most popular game formats for collaboration, e-learning and training:

Metaverse 
Play corporate games in the Metaverse, in a WebAPP, without VR so that they can engage, connect, and play.

Treasure Hunt
Solve puzzles while on a Treasure Hunt. Explore alone or as part of a team as you follow unusual paths full of twists and turns to get to your objective.

Simulation Games
You can use Simulation Games to help prepare your teams by reproducing situations as close to reality as possible.

Related: How to Use E-Learning Games For Employee Development

Digital Championship
The Digital Championship lets your employees compete head-to-head in a multitude of events to win their way to the championship!

Quiz Race
Use Quiz Race to test your teams’ knowledge with a series of challenging questions.

Interactive Video
Interactive Video provides players with an interactive and realistic format as they become the main characters in the plot.

Cluedo / Digital Investigation
Cluedo lets you mobilize your team to investigate a series of clues to help reveal the long-awaited truth.

Speed Gaming
Inspired by speed dating, Speed Gaming’s format places two random players together to collaborate in solving challenges.

Digital Escape Room
In a Digital Escape Room, players will have to search, solve puzzles, open chests, discover new rooms, and get out in a limited time.

Battle Royale / Squid Games
Twenty players start on each side of the Battle Royale as they compete in a series of challenges and mini-games.

Would you like to talk to an expert to get an overview of Emeraude Escape’s immersive training games? Click here to request a demo!

The role of e-learning in employee development and training has changed dramatically in the past five years.

Where in the past instructor-led training was the status quo, more and more organizations are turning to e-learning to help with their training, development, and engagement.

Smartphones are now the preferred tool for consuming content, making mobile learning an essential and emerging factor in e-learning. In addition, it allows employees of any generation to access training at their leisure.

Gamification is an innovative way to package e-learning into formats that engage and educate employees into fully customizable games.

When you combine mobile learning with gamification, you can reach the broadest audience and fully engage them as a part of your e-learning program.

Related: How Gamification Can Improve Training