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Read more Alan Hiddleston

Enterprise Account Director

D2L

Continuing professional

development: enabling a

learning culture

Professionals across a wide range of industries

undertake required continuing professional

development (CPD) every year. Not so long

ago, CPD would have meant committing to

face-to-face training for a number of days in the

year. This still happens, but expectations of

learning are changing, and membership

associations and training providers are

evolving to meet these expectations.

They're responding with digital learning and

training that members can undertake on their

own terms, at their own pace. This involves

much more than simply taking face-to-face

content and putting it online. It starts with

understanding how the way people learn has

changed, and then getting underneath what it

takes to deliver a truly engaging digital learning

experience.

Evolving the learning experience

To attract new members and customers, and

retain existing ones, the learning offering

should be relevant to today's market, and the

learning experience should be exciting and

engaging. To deliver this, organisations are

having to make a digital transformation to

evolve the learning experience and culture for

members and customers.

Adaptability is the cornerstone of modern

digital learning so next generation learning

management systems now provide scope to

tailor and customise learning pathways. This is

set to gather pace as analytics and machine

learning support ever more sophisticated

approaches to customisation.

Interactive and engaging

Content that is interactive and makes use of

multiple formats including video and

techniques used in gaming (such as progress

tracking and reward and recognition), can

engage individuals, even when large numbers

of learners - spanning a broad range of

learning styles - are being trained. A move

away from static content, which is generally

heavy on text and low on interactivity, and

towards a look and feel popularised by online

platforms, such as streaming services and

social media, can help engagement levels.

Digital learning needn't lose the benefit of the

interaction that is highly beneficial to the

process, and which comes naturally in the

classroom. Learning platforms provide the

tools to promote discussion and social

collaboration when training is no longer faceto-face.

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