How long will the traditional course survive in the workplace? I give it 2-5 years. Let me explain.
When I say a ‘traditional course’, I mean learning content (instructor-led or self-service) delivered online or face-to-face either, going from beginning to end with little variation in content or delivery.
These courses have been the mainstay of training at work since I started in the classroom in the 1980s.
For some, the idea that the traditional course is doomed come as a shock. For others, it’s self-evident. Listening to researchers, experts and practitioners like Dani Johnson, Dr Philippa Hardman and Gregg Collins, I am convinced that within 5 years most organisational training will abandon these traditional courses.
Why?
It is now easy to personalise content, even in a simple fashion, with AI. With extra effort, you can deliver content via adaptive delivery that understands where you are succeeding and failing and changes what you learn, and how you learn it, to ensure you reach competency faster. It’s more effective, more enjoyable, and faster.
All of this is already happening, and it's only going to get easier and more wide-spread.
But the real drive will come not from the technology, but from the learners. The technology enables the change. The learners will demand it. Once enough people have experienced content delivered with this flexibility – probably initially in their private lives, as consumers – they will start to ask why their employers aren’t delivering content the same way.
So I have three questions for you this Friday:
· Do you agree that the traditional course doomed?
· If so, is the timescale of 2-5 years reasonable?
· What are the implications of all this?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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