• Learners need to learn how to learn and how to solve problems flexibly. 
• These processes are critically important for working memory to succeed.
• Learners’ brains need to focus on learning experiences with dynamic spatial and temporal structures.
• Studies confirm that learners presented with neurocognitive-based learning show far better results with attention, working memory, and mood.

This is simply how the human brain learns. Cognitive learning focuses on more effective use of the brain. Cognition is the mental process of gaining knowledge and understanding through the senses, experience, and thought. Cognitive learning strategies encourage learners to reflect on the material and how to apply it to current and future situations. This develops improved problem-solving skills and critical thinking. It’s this learning through experience that makes practice so critical. Brandon Hall Group research finds that companies applying these cognitive and neuroscience learning principles are more like to say they are prepared for the future of work than those that do not.

Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice® Silver Preferred Provider Vertex Professional Services works with their client partners to imbue these concepts into the development and delivery of their learning. And they do it within some of the most high-stakes, complex environments in existence like aerospace, military, and defense. In these high-consequence industries, practice becomes critical because improper execution on the job can have immense consequences on the business, as well as the health and safety of employees. Giving people a safe place to hone their skills before they are faced with real scenarios is critical.

Together, Brandon Hall Group and Vertex Professional Services presented a webinar that looked at the benefits of learning by doing, the challenges of putting it in place, and strategies for moving forward. The recording can be found here. 

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Brandon Hall Group recently partnered with Smartchoice® Platinum Preferred Provider Docebo on a webinar exploring the personalization of the learning journey. The session incorporated results from our recent survey, Building Personalized Learning Across the Organization. The data highlighted some of the challenges around personalization at scale, as well as which elements are most critical for getting personalization right.

We have distilled the data into a KnowledgeGraphic that is available for you to download here. In addition to important data points, the KnowledgeGraphic also contains some critical questions companies should be asking themselves, as well as key takeaways. The KnowledgeGraphic also highlights the benefits personalization delivers for both learners and the business. 

The topic is important because personalization is the perfect antidote for the one-size-fits-all learning environment, where people feel little to no connection with learning. This outdated approach has not served organizations well in the past and stands little chance of being effective as the rest of the world races past to a more personalized digital future. The number of daily technology interactions that aren’t personalized gets smaller every day. It makes no sense to keep learning among them simply because there is too much invested in “the way we’ve always done it”.

Learning needs to be at the forefront of digital transformation, ready to deliver experiences that prepare the workforce to make the most of their digital future. And even if the future is not so digital for some industries or organizations, personalization is still a huge part of getting learners engaged, keeping them engaged, and driving performance. 

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In 2021, Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice® Silver Preferred Provider Latitude Learning conducted a series of interviews with these kinds of organizations to see how they were responding to the pandemic. Some of the key takeaways at the time were:

• Large organizations can turn on a dime. Most of these companies were able to adapt and adjust and find alternatives to in-person training rather quickly
• Trainers want to train. The people responsible for delivering the training could not be stopped. They found ways to make it work.
• Virtual meetings took over. Meeting platforms were the go-to solution for most companies in the early days. It was clunky at first, but most saw their approach evolve over time.
• There is no replacement for hands-on training. There are just some skills that are best delivered hands-on, especially in a heavy equipment or automotive environment.

Now, two years after those interviews, we have seen training in the extended enterprise quietly shift back to the way it was pre-pandemic. Not quite completely, but the idea that there was no going “back to normal” has definitely been dispelled. The need for hands-on training remains, and there has been a steady shift back to the classroom. This is not inherently a bad thing but is not quite what most people were predicting.

To explore these dynamics a bit more closely, Latitude Learning is partnering with Brandon Hall Group to deliver a webinar that looks at where extended enterprise training is now and how we got here.

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But training in this environment is exceptionally challenging. First, these workers tend to have a high turnover rate, which means training needs to be quick and effective to keep everyone up to speed. Another big challenge is that in many of these locations, the workers do not actually work for the company that owns the brand. Further complicating things is the reality that frontline workers make up the majority of the workforce in the franchise business model. These employees are often without access to a computer, making mobile learning critical to their training and development

In this franchise environment, the network of stores, restaurants, or dealerships has a variety of different owners.  Some owners have just one single location while others own a vast network. At the same time, there are often company-owned locations as well. This presents training professionals with a wide variety of dynamics within which to create high-quality, consistent learning experiences. And consistency is key. Whether around town or around the globe, customers expect a consistent experience.

This means the people who are tasked with keeping customers happy need to have the skills and knowledge to excel. Brands must ensure employees in regionally, nationally, or globally distributed locations know and adhere to the standards set by the parent organization.

Left to their own devices, franchisees may adopt their own training methods, resulting in an inconsistent customer experience across locations. Customers don’t know that “their” store is not owned by the brand parent, so they would not understand why things are done differently. A consistently positive customer experience requires standardized training across all locations. Failure to build a successful franchisee and store training program could result in inconsistent quality, operational inefficiencies, and a loss of brand loyalty.

Brandon Hall Group SmartChoice® Silver Preferred Provider Schoox has solutions that are engineered for the complexity the extended enterprise brings to learning. They work with larger, global clients that operate multiple franchised brands, and they are able to deliver simple, powerful learning with the consistency, branding, and mobile capabilities these organizations require. Rather than a one-size-fits-all LMS, Schoox is flexible enough to meet the needs of any organization, whether they are training internal employees or vast extended enterprise network.

The Schoox platform also has robust tracking and reporting features, which are critical in an extended enterprise environment. The learners are not employees, so it can be difficult to measure whether learning is having the right impact. Schoox simplifies that.

The extended enterprise consists of a variety of audiences in addition to franchisees. It can also include customers, resellers, channel partners, association members, and more. Training these audiences effectively and consistently takes technology that is designed for their complexity. 

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The start of the new year has many L&D professionals thinking about where things are headed. Of course, this requires some reflection on what exactly happened in 2022 and what we can learn from it, but it also requires a strong commitment to change, since change is going to be the theme for most things from now on.

We have seen a steady, but not complete, transition away from traditional, event-based learning. Organizations are incorporating more microlearning, games, simulations, and other digital/virtual experiences into the environment. The goal is to get employees what they need, when they need it, in a way that makes the most sense and has the most impact. The future will see more of the same, as well as an embrace of even more emerging technologies.

Recently, CEO and co-founder of Smartchoice® Platinum Preferred Provider LearnUpon, Brendan Noud, sat down with Brandon Hall Group’s COO Rachel Cooke for an episode of Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence at Work Podcast. The discussion focuses on the future of learning, with Noud drawing on LearnUpon’s 10 years of working with clients to meet the future. The pair dive into the trends we’ve seen, the trends yet to come, and what it all means for both learners and the business. 

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Organizations need a more agile, adaptive, and accessible approach to learning. According to Brandon Hall Group’s Transforming Learning for the Future of Work study, the number one reason organizations are having difficulty developing the skills the business will require in the near future is that they do not have the people, time, or financial resources to support that need.

These are the kind of challenges that cannot be solved by simply buying new technology. While the right technology plays a huge role in the modern learning environment, it is much more important to find a partner that can help meet all of L&D’s challenges. The right employee training development approach requires the right strategy, the right content, and the right technology to effectively build skills.

Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice^Ò Bronze Preferred Provider AllenComm helps its partners with its clients to look at the Learning function in its entirety. The number two challenge in that same Brandon Hall Group research is that organizations have not identified the skills they need, nor the gaps that exist. AllenComm begins its partnerships with a full analysis of what skills gaps exist and to what extent, then brings in the right content, experiences, and technology to match those needs.

And when it comes to technology, companies that are satisfied and finding success are more likely to say that their provider is a partner. Nearly half (45%) of companies say their current learning technology ecosystem is not adequately meeting their needs. And one of the key drivers of that, cited by almost 80% of companies, is that their provider is unable to be a partner for the future.

AllenComm has distilled its broad array of services and offerings into exactly what organizations need: a partnership for building skills. Their clients sometimes need help in just one area, or in some cases across the entire spectrum of training development. Working as a true partner, AllenComm is able to fit their solutions to the need.

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This has created fertile ground for the explosive growth of virtual reality and other immersive tools for learning. This also comes at a time when equipment is cheaper, bandwidth is better, and processing power is faster – making VR an enticing option for solving many of learning’s challenges. 

Once only a tool for sci-fi, entertainment, and gaming applications, VR has made a strong showing for training people by replicating hazardous environments and situations. Rather than send a first-time worker to the top of a skyscraper skeleton to teach them what to do, we can send them up virtually, ensuring their safety.

But VR has become so much more than that. Far from just dangerous environments, VR is enabling all kinds of new training experiences. People from anywhere around the globe can collaborate visually in the same environment. People can practice public speaking, sales pitches, or difficult conversations in a realistic environment without having to physically put people together. It is even being leveraged to broaden the approach to diversity equity, and inclusion by allowing people to experience things from a different point of view.

Exploring the Future: Virtual Reality’s Role in Learning & Development

Many organizations still shy away from VR because they don’t know where to start. To fix that, Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice® Platinum Preferred Provider ELB Learning offers CenarioVR. It is an authoring tool that allows companies to build their own virtual reality content — without requiring any coding or programming experience. With this tool, subject matter experts can upload any 360-degree video or imagery to the tool to get started. From there, CenarioVR has the ability to embed hotspots for interactivity, animation, and other objects within the environment.

The content does not have to be published on VR headsets, though. Companies that have not gone down the equipment route just yet can publish to mobile devices (can move images around with your fingers), the web, or even right to an LMS (or you can publish from CenarioVR, just like any other LMS with tracking). Whatever platform is used to access the content will provide as immersive an experience as possible. And because VR experiences include a lot of activity, everything is trackable via xAPI and SCORM. This provides a ton of useful data that is just not available from a static eLearning course.

As Meta continues to sort out the Metaverse, we may not all have to carry around a VR headset just yet. But when it comes to providing impactful, immersive learning experiences, VR is a technology that almost any organization can and should consider.

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That’s the challenge that was facing IBM Consulting when it came to upskilling their network of over 100,000 consultants. Brandon Hall Group research shows that when bringing personalization to a large-scale enterprise, organizations face several kinds of challenges, the top being:

1. Managers do not play a large enough role in learning
2. The learning culture is built on event-based learning
3. The right technology ecosystem is not in place
4. There is a lack of understanding of neuroscience or neurocognitive learning principles
5. The L&D team believes believe it would be too difficult to administer and maintain

The main focus of the Consulting Academy is building core consulting skills. The goal was to scale a new approach to the curriculum without incurring prohibitive costs and time constraints. One of the key strategies that helped IBM consulting solve its scale challenges was the inclusion of adaptive learning immersive simulations.

These core consulting skills require demonstrated mastery, which means a personalized approach and the ability to practice. The adaptive simulations that IBM Consulting developed in partnership with ETU are designed to help each learner progress through their skill development at a pace that matches their needs. This adaptive approach is what helps scale the program. A traditional, one-size-fits-all approach means that significant portions of the learning audience will either be left behind or feel held back by the curriculum. There is also very little opportunity to effectively practice skills and get the appropriate feedback in this environment.

To learn more about how IBM Consulting leveraged ETU’s simulations to scale personalized learning, you can download this episode of the Excellence at Work Podcast. In the episode, Brandon Hall Group’s COO Rachel Cooke talks with Kelly McCrory-Lynch, Learning Strategist and Core Consulting Global Lead for IBM Consulting, Learning & Knowledge, and Thomas Lewis, Director of Learning Solutions at ETU. They discuss the challenges inherent in upskilling a large audience and how adaptive simulations can help drive personalization and results.

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The Challenge

The term Metaverse has gotten a lot of attention recently, mostly due to Facebook changing its name to Meta and declaring that everything will soon take place within its version of the metaverse. And while the commercial future of the metaverse as one of Meta’s products is unsure, the idea of connections, communication, and collaboration occurring in a virtual space is not.

Metaverses are immersive 3D digital worlds based on virtual reality gaming experiences. Metaverses allow people to enter using their real-life identities and use these platforms to work as well as shop, play, and connect. In human capital management, metaverses promise to create more realistic, immersive, and personal digital experiences. 

Brandon Hall Group’s pulse survey, How Will the Metaverse Impact Human Capital Management?, showed that 46% of organizations are at least moderately familiar with the concept of the metaverse, yet nearly two-thirds agree “the metaverse has great potential and we should start preparing now even though full adoption could be years away.”

When focusing specifically on Learning and Development, however, Companies see even more potential. Nearly 80% of companies in Brandon Hall Group’s Transforming Learning for the Future of Work survey say that the metaverse will have at least some impact on their learning strategy.

The Rethink

The metaverse, once developed, is a more immersive way to communicate with people who are physically apart. As far as we have come with the use of collaboration technologies during the pandemic, it is still basically two-dimensional video with decent audio.

As hybrid work evolves and more workers are physically separated from their colleagues, immersive work experiences – ranging from hiring to onboarding, training, collaborating, meeting, selling, marketing, and more – will be increasingly important.

But the metaverse is the future of HCM technology and especially L&D. Learning leaders should embrace the concept and use the time they have before the metaverse is fully developed to develop a vision, strategy, and roadmap. 

The Recommendation

What Brandon Hall Group has to Say About EI’s Solution

Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice Platinum© Preferred Provider EI has been helping clients build immersive, virtual learning interactions before the term metaverse came into the lexicon. They understand the value of creating virtual spaces for geographically dispersed people to collaborate and learn. EI sees the potential of the metaverse to greatly enhance concepts that have already proved to be engaging and effective when it comes to building learning experiences.

EI already has a track record of creating the fundamental building blocks that will make the metaverse effective. Their Learning Experience Centers are a combination of both virtual and physical spaces to create immersive learning experiences supported by augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technology. Their expertise in creating immersive, engaging videos and simulations that are gamified, interactive and personalized position them well to build the elements that make a metaverse environment successful. Now EI is leading the way in the metaverse with their XR Optimus platform which is designed to create and deliver virtual and augmented reality content at scale.

The metaverse offers the most immersive learning experiences to date, aside from literal on-the-job training. Virtual and augmented reality provide opportunities to move away from passive video, audio, and static PowerPoint-based eLearning into more immersive content. EI also sees great potential in expanding the gamification of learning within the metaverse. The metaverse also expands the possibilities of the social elements of learning. It means the leap from discussion boards to real-time interactions and collaboration — complete with gestures and visual cues.

Ultimately, however, the core appeal of the metaverse is higher-quality simulations based on real-world scenarios with life-like content. The learning becomes much more interactive, hands-on, and practical. 

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Beyond that, another challenge companies say they face is that their learning content does not support the skills they need to develop, with 68% saying this is at least moderately challenging. As the skills and competencies companies need to evolve and become more complex, it is harder to find off-the-shelf content that truly meets the needs of the business. And while more than half of all the content being used today is created internally, a lack of people and resources makes it difficult to quickly develop high-quality content that can build future skills.

Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice® Platinum Preferred Provider ELB Learning has been building engaging, impactful learning experiences for its clients for years. While many organizations may have strong instructional design teams, not every company has access to world-class instructional designers, project managers, and game, animation, and video experts all at once ELB Learning has them, as well as voice-over talent and virtual reality designers at the ready. 

When partnering with a client, ELB Learning won’t simply build what they are told, though. Instead, ELB’s experts leverage their experience and knowledge of what makes learning great and run a thorough needs analysis. This ensures the content and experiences are created based on specific goals and outcomes. It’s this process that L&D teams often struggle with internally, which results in extended design cycles, missed deadlines, and an inability to adapt to changes.

ELB Learning lays the early groundwork to prevent scope creep while still being responsive to changing needs. ELB Learning’s designers don’t run off to a darkened room, only to return with a finished product. They partner with their clients, keeping them involved at every stage to ensure everything is on track and in service of the original goals.

If your organization needs new content to meet new challenges. It is important to find a partner like ELB Learning, rather than a faceless content farm. Without the right partnership, a custom content engagement can actually result in more work and challenges for the L&D than doing it all themselves.

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