Lionbridge focuses on finding effective, efficient, and economical solutions. It’s no wonder we’re excited about the potential of eLearning training programs. Our resident eLearning expert, Wendy Farrell, spoke with us about how eLearning is enhancing the development and administration of training programs, especially for highly regulated industries. The best part? The present role of eLearning may be bright, but its future looks even brighter.

What’s all the eHype about?

Those involved in regulated industries widely acknowledge eLearning as an excellent alternative to traditional live-instructor training programs. Consider highly regulated industries such as life sciences or aerospace, for example. In these environments, employees regularly face the possibility of high-risk situations.

Often, due to limited resources, companies cannot dedicate unique training sessions for each specialized role—and in regulated industries, a large proportion of roles are highly specialized. How can companies find a space to train their 5,000+ employees? Can they quickly and efficiently provide trainings when a new rule or regulation is released? How can employees learn to apply regulatory requirements to their unique roles and specific situations? eLearning offers an efficient, consistent, and cost-effective way to train a large volume of employees and help them build situational awareness.

The bright ePresent

eLearning can bring multiple benefits to regulated industries. Farrell identified her top three: customizability, trackability, and learnability.

Customizability

Leveraging digital tools allows companies to treat individual learning components like building blocks. This leads to a level of customization that in-person training programs can’t match. Companies can add or remove training modules for a given employee in a given role at a given location—and do so quickly, easily, and cost-effectively.

This is not only good news for the company—it’s also a boon for employees. The company doesn’t have to spend resources on individual training sessions, and employees don’t have to sit through multiple trainings—some of which may not apply to them—that have been lumped into one large session. Employees who interacts with training content customized to them are more likely to retain the messaging behind that content. Thus, they are more likely to apply the concepts they learn in the training sessions on the job itself.

Trackability

The ability of companies to keep diligent records of which employees have been trained and when is incredibly important, particularly in regulated industries. The digital nature of eLearning programs enables companies to ensure they are holding all their employees to the same safety and legal standards by easy and cost-effective tracking.

Learnability

Last, but certainly not least, eLearning opens a unique learning path that traditional training programs cannot access. While interacting with a live instructor can be helpful, eLearning’s benefits transcend the four walls of a classroom.

For one, eLearning eliminates certain negative classroom effects. By learning digitally, quieter learners, who might be overpowered by more outspoken colleagues in a classroom setting, make their voices heard. A targeted eLearning program gives every user of every learning style individualized attention and access to more focused feedback.

Secondly, eLearning introduces the possibility of assessing more real-life- scenarios. These simulations give users the chance to puzzle through examples that incorporate their knowledge of industry regulations and apply them to real-life scenarios. Depending on the context, one element in a situation can even change the protocol for the appropriate reaction—and digital tools can capture that variability in a way in-person sessions cannot.

The bright eFuture:

Lionbridge is one of the world’s leading providers of eLearning services. We have been internationally ranked as a Top 20 Training Provider since 2006. What’s more, we have 20+ years of experience working with clients in highly regulated industries such as life sciences, aerospace, banking/finance, and manufacturing. We pair our deep industry experience and our innovative approach to eLearning to the regulated industries who partner with us to create their training programs.

We’ve worked on some of the most cutting-edge aspects of eLearning: interactive PDFs, simulations, virtual and augmented reality, gamification…the list goes on. So, what’s next on our radar in the world of eLearning?

Driving Engagement and Interactivity

We are constantly working with clients to make eLearning training programs as interactive and engaging as possible. Not surprisingly, training sessions on industry rules and regulations can be about as riveting as watching paint dry. And this can be a real problem for regulated industries, where adequate training is incredibly important. Don’t you hope, for example, that airline pilots are fully engaged in their training programs? According to Farrell, making training programs that are engaging (and maybe even fun) is one of the most exciting prospects of eLearning. What’s more, she predicts seeing the most improvement in this aspect of eLearning in the coming years.

At Lionbridge, we are chasing the future of eLearning training programs in the form of gamification and video content. Regulated industries might very well be offering training programs that feel more like a game of jeopardy or a role-playing game than an educational lesson on legal rules and regulations.

You enter the castle and encounter a regulated industry. Choose your weapon:

A five-hour training program in a packed lecture hall
An eLearning training program that you can customize to your needs and deploy just-in-time
None of the above, you just want to play Super Mario Bros. in peace

Pro tip from the Lionbridge team: When in doubt, the answer is #2.

Ready to get started with an innovative, customized eLearning program for your company? Get in touch with us today.