Warning on digital learner for ill-prepared companies

Companies need to be aware of the danger of wasting money on a new generation of digital learning products.

Digital learning products may be a waste of money for ill-prepared companies.

Companies need to be aware of the danger of wasting money on a new generation of digital learning products if they don’t have the expertise to use them properly, a new study suggests.

A report, Digital Learning in Asia 2018, found that 60 per cent of corporate respondents believed there were low levels of competency in digital learning among their learning and development staff.

“It’s like a company spending a lot of money to buy a new fleet of helicopters, but they don’t’ have people who know how to fly them,” said George Aveling, chief re-imagineer of Southeast Asia-based digital learning consultancy Elementrix.

The survey gathered data on business responses to new “active” learning technologies such as gamification, adaptive learning and augmented reality.

It found that use of new learning tools such as these were expected to grow by at least 30 per cent in the coming 12 months, replacing traditional “passive” learning. It identifies several drivers of the change including the digital learning styles of younger learners, increasing pressure to reduce costs and an expansion in the range of learning technologies.

Mr Aveling said he believed Asia would move ahead of Western economies. “China is already ahead of the US in the application of digital learning. A key reason is that there is less legacy thinking to be unlearned in China,” he said.

The report surveyed 285 companies in Malaysia and Singapore and found the four top objects for digital learning were: consistency in training quality; adapting to learning styles of young people; cost saving; and the ability to use analytics to track engagement.

The data was analysed by Australian economist Keith Houghton, from the Higher Education and Research Group, who said the predicted speed of the switch from passive to active learning was “staggering”.

He said it raised the question of what the impact would be on education providers in Australia.

“Will there be a speedy transition from passive to active digital learning?” Dr Houghton asked.

Tim Dodd