Today’s learners are often overburdened, impatient, and eager for knowledge. Without opportunities for professional development, they may leave their organisation. Providing learning opportunities can be a powerful motivator and retention tool, positively impacting employee performance and reducing turnover. In our Journal entry, we explore the characteristics of the “modern learner profile” and offer tips on how to motivate such learners in your courses.
Knowing Your Students’ Profiles Matters
The way and speed of accessing information have radically changed over the past decades. People now tend to seek answers immediately, often using their smartphones. This behaviour significantly impacts organisational learning. To effectively engage learners, learning materials must be easily accessible, useful, and relevant, ultimately influencing the organisation’s overall performance.
The 21st-century learner is future-oriented. With the rise of artificial intelligence and constantly evolving job roles, they seek skills that will help them thrive in the coming years. Many choose or change jobs based on the learning opportunities available within an organisation. Therefore, understanding what learners expect from organisational learning and knowing their learning profiles is crucial for retaining employees and ensuring their long-term growth.
The Curriculum Development Process
Curious about the production of teaching materials? A product of our research, the five-cycle model, is based on alternating creative and research processes and continuous feedback.
Read more!Onto the Learner Profile! What Makes a 21st-Century Learner?
Overburdened
Statistics reveal that the average worker spends a quarter of their time on email and checks their phone over 100 times a day. They spend about a third of their working week in meetings, half of which are deemed unnecessary and inefficient. Additionally, they dedicate only around 20 minutes a week to work-related learning, which is barely 1% of their working time. It’s no surprise they prefer focused and time-efficient content.
Wants to Learn
Professional development opportunities are crucial for attracting and retaining employees. Beyond being a key draw for an organisation, these opportunities significantly enhance employee engagement, which is vital for strong organisational performance. According to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning 2024 report, learning opportunities increase the sense of attachment to an organisation for 70% of employees.
Likes to Learn on the Job (Too)
Most people prefer learning through their own work experience, but collaboration and knowledge sharing with colleagues are also highly effective methods. Turning to colleagues for advice is a long-standing habit, now made easier with social networking tools. Mentoring programmes can further support this. In addition to helping colleagues, supporting managers is also important in enhancing and maintaining employees’ engagement in learning.
Wants Personalised, Quality Content
People seek out the most useful answers and quickly dismiss those that aren’t helpful. The average user spends only a few seconds evaluating content before deciding if it meets their needs. If it’s not optimised for their requirements, they will close it almost immediately.
Learns as Needed, Wherever, Whenever
Nowadays, people learn wherever they can, often using their smartphones during commutes. Many also prefer learning online at their desks, which may be due to personal preferences, the lack of mobile-optimised content, or the need for rigorous attention and concentration, which is easier on a larger screen.
Wants Not Solely E-learning
While it’s true that more people are turning to e-learning for its efficiency and speed, many still prefer classroom learning sessions for more complex subjects.
Seeks Simplicity
Learning materials should be straightforward and easy to navigate, ensuring that learners don’t waste time figuring out how to use them. Courses should be designed so that moving from one slide to the next is seamless and intuitive.
Values Skills Development More and More
The acquisition of soft skills is becoming more crucial for modern learners, with 91% of training professionals recognising their growing importance. These skills include interpersonal communication, presentation abilities, problem-solving, and people management. Unlike technical skills, these are much harder for robots to replicate.
How Learner Profile Can Help In Motivating Students?
Finally, let’s explore what truly motivates students in the learning process. Beyond commonly cited reasons like promotion opportunities or pay raises, a more intrinsic motivator is the desire to perform their job better and be more productive. The 21st-century learner, despite being busy and overwhelmed, is interested in content, learning materials, and skills development that are useful throughout their lives. They also enjoy learning and value knowledge for its own sake.
While past generations relied on textbooks and other offline resources, modern learners stay connected to the world through a plethora of e-learning videos, presentations, and multimedia content. To engage them, break away from traditional templates and incorporate visually striking images and videos into your course. This will capture and hold learners’ attention effectively.
The 21st-century learner primarily memorises information that is relevant to real life, such as soft skills, and often overlooks information that is limited to a single context. It is beneficial to include real-life elements in e-learning and to highlight how the course can be applied outside the workplace.
The modern learner has less free time, making microlearning a valuable approach. Presenting course material in smaller chunks allows learners to spend just a few minutes a day on the material. This way, they won’t need to adjust their schedule significantly and are less likely to lose enthusiasm.
Looking for Help?
If you want to develop courses tailored to the needs and expectations of your learners but are unsure where to start, contact us, and we’ll help you find the best solutions! Even with limited resources, our expert assistance can save you time and costs.
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