Workplace Learning & Technology Trends 2020 (Part 1): Big Data, Learning Analytics & Reporting

As weslowly come closer to the end of 2019, it’s that time of the year again to lookat what ‘was’ and what ‘will be’ in the year to come. Every year brings with ita flurry of new trends, mostly driven by emerging technologies and innovations,which transform employee training just a little bit every time.

With the global eLearning market on a growth trajectory and poised to touch $15.72 billion by the year 2021, it is up to organizations and L&D leaders to get ahead of the curve and start planning and strategizing to leverage the newer learning and learning technology trends for the coming year/s.

Over thenext few weeks, we will take a detailed and comprehensive look at what L&Dleaders must embrace and what they need to let go of in 2020 and beyond- be itin terms of eLearning, learning technology, employee engagement, ArtificialIntelligence and more.

Today, weexplore Big Data, Learning Analytics & Reporting.

Big Data, Learning Analytics & Reporting

Withalmost 2.5quintillion bytes of data created every day, big data has certainly affected our personal and professionallives. However, data within itself doesn’t amount to much unless it can bemeasured and analyzed, which is why Analytics has now become an absolutemust-have for every business looking to achieve operational efficiently and sustainablegrowth and success.

Promptedby the overwhelming amount of data organizations now possess, it is onlynatural for them to start analyzing it to evolve in today’s fast changingdigital landscape. And, one of the industries where analytics is quickly makinga huge difference is the learning industry.

IneLearning, Big Data stands for all the data that is collected from learners’ behavior,activities, performance, completions etc. However, the sheer amount of raw data(big!) available is just beyond traditional databases. Enter Learning Analytics,which helps L&D professionals with data that is more structured and presentedin more suitable formats.

Given howL&D exist to create effective learning programs to develop theiremployees’ talent and skills to impact organizational output and, in turn,business growth, the success of an organisation is the ultimate priority for almostall business leaders, and learning analytics holds a key position in theorganization’s operational cycle.

Nosurprises then why learning analytics has become a major driver of improving learnerexperiences, and hence L&D outcomes. Today, 80% of organizations and 63% of SMBs areusing or are set to use learning analytics as per a researchstudy by IDG. Enterprises, governments,educational institutions and SMBs alike, which have had tons of data about thelearning habits of their employees, are finally starting to join the dotsbetween data and insights using learning analytics.

LearningAnalytics in 2020 & Beyond

The learning analytics market is rapidly growing,with the growing need for data-driven decision making. According to a report by Research and Markets, theglobal learning analytics market is set to grow to $7.1billion by the year 2023.

L&D professionals will most definitelycontinue to leverage learning analytics tools to track learner activities, likedaily log-ins, curriculum completions, and performances and so on. Personalizedlearning continues to be a buzz work in the market, which is again largelyfueled by insights gained from learning analytics.

As data and personalization go hand in hand, moreso in terms of learning where all analytics is focused towards improvement, learninganalytics is a great way to determine the requirement and provide customizedlearning experiences to each learner to improve their learning engagement andalso the retention rate. As each learner is different in the way s/he learns,learning analytics can enable L&D professionals to tailor their approachtowards each learner’s academic aptitude.

An LMS with an inbuilt reporting and analytics feature can track user progress status for all thelearners in the organization. This can be used to generate progress reports forindividuals or groups and can be linked to how active the learner is too.Learner activeness is generally a factor of Curriculum Completions, CPD Pointsand Gamification Points.

L&D professionals are increasingly findingmore value in leveraging learning analytics to access learner behaviors to improvethe training quality and delivery methods. In a marketplace flooded withevolving technology, there is no denying that the learning industry willcontinue leveraging analytics on a larger scale to understand today’s learner behaviorsand accordingly evolve to cater to the learners’ unique knowledge andskill-based needs.

Moreover, with every department intoday’s organizations facing tremendous pressure to show value, L&D stands tobenefit more from learning analytics, as they can finally quantify thelearners’ needs based on data. According to IBM,62% of employers report that the use of information and analytics iscreating a competitive advantage forthem. Furthermore, learning analytics provides valuable information on how employee training impacts ROI.

L&D departments can back their budgetrequirements on analytics, thus adding more credibility to their work, whichlet’s face it, is often lacking hard numbers.

Takeaway

With moreand more organizations leveraging learning analytics to manage their L&Defforts expertly, there is a stronger push towards improving processes and learners’experience now more than ever, which is expected to help develop a certainculture of data-driven decision taking throughout the organization.

LMSes area great way to analyze learner data, and in today’s fast-paced and dynamicbusiness environment, a learning analytics feature such as UpsideLMS’ innovative Reporting & Analytics dashboard is capable of relaying insightful information that helpsimprove decision making and produces better results.

Next upin the series, we will explore the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI)technology in learning and how L&D can leverage it to achieve greater learningimpact.