The flood of data available today is growing by leaps and bounds as expanding networks are able to capture real-time user decisions in an instant. The ability to analyze this data for trends and insights is becoming an eagerly-sought advantage for corporate training companies and organizations of all kinds. But more of them are beginning to discover that it poses benefits beyond marketing forecasts and instant statistics. Big data is being adapted to e-learning processes to train better employees.
Data-driven approaches are being used to perfect adaptive learning, create better courses, and provide electronic monitoring and testing in ways a single human instructor couldn’t cope with. Around 77% of US companies offer e-learning, but little of it leverages big data. Here’s why every company should bring big data to employee training.
1. Determine Effectiveness
Big data computing can return analytics that quantify all the results of employee training – lesson retention, employee learning needs, more productive curriculum and techniques, and improved learning software. Learning directors are able to look at a number of different factors and determine which works and which doesn’t.
Organizations can develop metrics for each training module based on employee learning time, test results, questions, and feedback. Do certain methods work better with some learning topics than others? Companies should treat employee training the same way they approach user testing. Analysis can determine and focus on which parts of training employees find most engaging, and which parts require special emphasis or have little real-world value.
2. Adaptive Training Programs
Gauging employee results and feedback on their e-learning progress provides insights on how learners relate to the material that’s presented. In addition to narrowing down the options for the most effective approaches, by establishing quizzes and interactions at strategic points trainers can determine exactly which lessons incur the most errors or misunderstandings. This allows the trainers to adapt programs to be more effective even in the most granular and subtle ways, leading to iteration, that provides a better learning experience as a constant process of improvement.
Companies can use this data to define specific strengths and weaknesses of their staff, and adjust not just training but other business processes accordingly. Cloud-based learning can provide even global enterprises the opportunity to share, aggregate, and analyze training data from multiple locations in real time.
3. Personalized e-Learning
Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each trainee, and supplying information in ways that individual learners need to progress, employers can structure e-learning in personalized ways for each logged-in employee. This can make learning more engaging for each person, making programs more productive than a more generalized approach would allow. Adaptive software can structure employee tasks based on their needs and requirements, leading to higher-quality results and better knowledge retention.
The software of e-learning can also provide real-world scenarios – virtual environments that give a measure of hands-on learning experience without the cost of training-specific models, tools, or additional space. It allows for real-time monitoring and feedback throughout the process, analyzing every step in the student’s performance of the virtual task. Big data analytics make it possible to also refine and improve teaching these applied abilities.
4. The Human Factor
Understanding your employees and their personal needs will enhance training and thus boost job performance long-term. Training is important not just for teaching new skills, but for evaluating job candidates, cross-training for different job roles, and honing the skills and knowledge of even veteran employees. Performance metrics and big data analysis can help determine areas needing improvement for employees at every level, and appropriate curriculum developed to address these deficiencies.
Training also helps keep employees engaged. Better performance in even basic skills such as communication and organization can create environments where employees are more satisfied, more confident, and more loyal. Re-training employees leads to sharpened skills that are the best choice for important projects. Employee training and big data should be working together to create not just better performance, but better companies.
Big data allows insights to re-define processes for the better. But all too often, the critical matching of employee training and big data is overlooked. Fortunately, more companies are seeing the value of data-driven ways to improve their greatest asset – their staff.
