Friendlier Platforms Built with Sustainability in Mind

As we touched on in the previous blog, e-learning and game-based learning are now considered greener methods of learning, with many correlated advantages for the planet and people, such as water, energy and time saving. The face-to-face courses usually require more energy and trigger more CO2 emissions per student, on account of facility requirements and commuting. A higher amount of water is needed when students are physically present - cafeterias, toilets, hygiene are just a few of them, not to mention the generated waste that has associated environmental consequences. Besides the resources aspect, promoting systems that provide fast access and knowledge to the markets’ constant developments is also a key to business success. Therefore, introducing a Learning Management System (LMS) into your business, might be a very quick and efficient way of upskilling the employees, helping them stay up to date in terms of market evolution. But watch out: an LMS alone is not enough. Behind the system there is no magical pill or training that creates itself. It is the user who needs to contribute and fuel the productivity of the tool through relevant content. Apprend.ly is one of the companies that does it for you - the user provides the story and our team brings it alive through characters, dialogues, specific environments and situations. This transforms the training into an interactive, engaging and unique experience. Other providers are Powtoon or Videoscribe, these being only a couple of examples out of the many easy-to-use tools on the market that give access to anybody that wishes to produce learning content. No technical skills needed.

‍

‍Demand for ease-of-use

The ease-of-use revolution came about through the demand for flexibility everybody is craving, which in turn leads to a great malleability of the new e-learning platforms. It implies that anybody should be able to share knowledge and constantly renew it as business updates are ready. This provides the user with the ability to create and design personalised training systems, eliminating the need of a specialised instructor and being given the opportunity to create an engaging course that leads to usable new knowledge. Any employee in the company that has the expertise in a certain field can now make a fun course in only a few minutes, counting on personalised characters and environments, able to engage the audience in virtually immersive experiences.

The innovative concept behind these teaching and learning methods is represented by inclusion and cooperation. This means that everybody in the organisation can contribute to proliferate knowledge, which helps to keep the employees up-to-date and involved in the creation process. Some of the benefits that lie behind these e-learning tools are the flexibility and ease of use, which can even provide the employees with the chance to learn more about other roles in the company, simultaneously enhancing slow adoption of a rotation system, leading to reskilling the personnel. It means that new capabilities and talents can be unleashed, together with more malleability and diversification of roles, where each position within the organisation could perfectly be duplicated under the aegis of these platforms.

The gains are obvious: more flexibility, ease of use when it comes to creating or taking the courses, and a better management of the employees’ expertise. The latter comes with an important added value: it involves the elimination of the “silos” within the organisation with minimum costs for the business. No solid company aims to have the knowledge stored within one brain, as it can lead to bigger weaknesses long term. 

‍

Less of a time investment

It has been studied that these new digital learning methods save the employees precious time and lead to more engagement and knowledge retention. This is due to several aspects that come into play when talking about LMS: the immersive environment that keeps the attention engaged and the participant captivated, the quick feedback on the progress, and most importantly, the flexibility of the learning system. The employees can now carry out the training at home or during their break time, with the possibility of splitting it to adjust it to their availability. This also saves travelling time to the classroom or office and back, which means time optimization for everybody.

‍

While a traditional classroom setting implies lots of physical materials, such as handouts, flashcards, paper tests, and if we add in the intangible elements such as travelling, conversations before and after the class, it turns out that these new digital methods are a great way to save on resources, including mitigating deforestations and reducing the overall carbon footprint.

There is a lot of flexibility to e-learning that can be explored and enjoyed, but mostly knowing that the employees feel involved and have fun while working, that they can now create their own training, tailored to their needs and competences, being able to take the courses online, from anywhere, anytime, represent only few aspects that enhance cooperation, trust and joy in the workplace.  

This is the new business approach, developed with a long-term sustainability goal in mind, that counts on a high degree of flexibility, happiness at work and personalised care for employees. Sustainability is not a trend, but a necessity and is equivalent to resource efficiency, time optimisation, healthy working conditions, inclusion, cooperation, mental and physical safety together with constant training tailored to your employees' needs.

Would you like to know how to leverage your corporate training and contribute to creating a sustainable and inclusive business environment?