Over the last decade, human civilization has shown immense interest in speeding up the rate of growth in every sphere of life. We have created fast cars, aeroplanes, supercomputers, 3D printing, faster sportsmen and what not! All of these are backed by extensive research and learning applications.

Digital platforms for training and education have also been gaining popularity because Speed is the 21st century’s favorite word. Speed of delivering knowledge, speed of learning and speed of applying the new learning in a workplace have all attained greater relevance in the current times. It is for this reason that digital learning has grown to become a popular trend in the learning and development industry. In the wake of the COVID-19 global crisis, the pace of shifting towards digital has gained extra acceleration.

By early March 2020, almost half of all instructor-led training programs scheduled until mid-June had either been canceled or postponed in North America alone, with numbers increasing by the hour. India’s numbers were worse. This situation prevailing here had pushed many instructional teams and training companies to either transform their planned live training programs into digital platforms or cut a sorry figure more often than not.

Training organizations that have decided to sail through the rough weather had to work upon more than one challenge. Firstly, there was the task of planning and executing the transition in real fast turnaround time. For this purpose, there had to be a digital intervention that is designed in a way that maintains the learning impact. Next, there was the mammoth task of trying to maintain the most important aspect of physical training, that is, “Human Connection”. For all of these efforts to be successful, the right Digital Platform had to be zeroed down upon. ( read more importantly after zoom bombing )

While training companies are adept with the necessary skills to tackle most of these tasks and will find a solution to the training related crisis, a large part of their success will depend upon the selection of the right digital platform. The impact of the selection of the right digital platform is on both sides of the business- the trainer and the trainee.

Training is all about imparting knowledge or skills to the participants in a way that ensures both comprehension and retention. In order to make comprehension more effective, physical training was designed in a way that participants can learn through practice, role plays, brainstorming, and dialogue to an extent of successful application of acquired knowledge and skill. Shifting all these into the digital frame is not an easy task. Training companies alone cannot succeed unless they find a digital platform that provides them with the flexibility of creating a near-physical training experience.

In the coming days, it will be seen that training companies, education institutions, and learning & development functions will be on the look-out for digital platforms that :

1. Provides ease of usage
2. Is economical in the hands of the subscriber
3. Can work under lower bandwidth (read 3G networks)
4. Provides facilities like creating separate virtual groups, virtual interactive tools like whiteboards
5. Allows only authorized participants
6. Is user-friendly

A platform that can cater to all of the aforementioned points is undoubtedly going to be the most preferred among its competitors. Digital platforms are an interesting space that is going to gain more prominence in the coming days as the necessity for digital learning across industry and academia becomes more pronounced.

Anup Ghoshal

Deputy CEO at Proedge Skill Development and Edutech

A dynamic professional with 21 years of experience across the Finance and Banking industry, Education, Training, Technology marketing, and Digital business.

He is also a poet where his words and philosophy of life get wings of poetic rhythm.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anup-ghoshal-a2889a6/

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