London | A central advantage that corporate eLearning offers across the country is the possible collection and use of learner data, for example in the LMS used by the company. But so far, the potential of data collection and evaluation in England has been underestimated and not fully exploited. This was the conclusion reached recently by the British eLearning service provider Knowledgepool in a study published in September 2019, which was based on a survey of 350 L&D managers, 500 executives and more than 2000 employees. According to the study, the L&D managers surveyed believe that 52% of all existing skills gaps could be closed, i.e. about half of all existing skills gaps, if more extensive data collection were carried out. Most respondents, 90%, believe that high quality data in the survey is important in deciding who needs to complete which learning units in order to add even more value to the business in the future. And indeed, the collection of learner data is sometimes about being able to show the return on investment to the company management, for example by linking it with other data such as sales data in sales, and thus significantly increasing business success.
As far as learner data is concerned, it is obvious for Knowledgepool that there is a clear gap between claim and reality. Only 45% of those surveyed stated that they sometimes use learner data in their work to help them coordinate their actions accordingly. But what is stopping L&D managers from putting their theoretical convictions into practice? – Lack of time to implement it (35% agreement), lack of data analysis skills in the L&D team (31% agreement), poor quality data available in the system (27% agreement) and outdated technology (26% agreement). A full 75 % of the L&D managers surveyed said they needed support from service providers in order to be able to evaluate data and findings relating to the digital learning process.
Nevertheless, looking to the future, most respondents clearly see the added value of using learner data, as it could lead to more personalised and relevant learning experiences, according to the respondents’ comments. It could also be used to predict future learning needs within the organisation.
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