Leverage Online Learning to Enhance Your Learning & Development Strategy

Over the past two-plus years, the workforce has changed dramatically. Although we are emerging from the chaos of a pandemic, the reality is that we live in a changed world. Technology has enabled remote work and made us more productive than ever before. In this same vein, online learning — including online training and professional development opportunities — has the potential to make us smarter than ever. Forward-thinking employers have been investing in training platforms that quickly and effectively onboard, train, reskill, and upskill their employees at all stages of their career while reaping the analytics to continuously optimize and refine their process to achieve maximum ROI.

To help their people and your organization at large achieve their full potential, leaders and learning and development professionals need to evaluate their L&D strategy with a critical eye. The most effective way to gain insight into if an employee training and development program is working, is to employ an adaptive learning platform, such as Amplifire. The adaptive nature of the platform allows for a completely personalized learning experience which, in turn, collects valuable learner analytics. These learner analytics can provide deeper insights into employees’ progress, knowledge, and skill levels; inform instructional intervention; and help calculate your ROI. Eventually, these insights inform organizational development strategy moving forward.

In the modern world, the strength  of your learning and development strategy cannot be comprehensively evaluated without the help of an effective eLearning platform. To maximize your organization’s potential, here is what industry leaders should be looking at:

Employee training and development audit

When it comes to providing a learning experience that helps your people learn the right things faster and retain more training, it is important to align your L&D strategy with your organization’s goals and nail down your learners’ persona(s).

Strategy

The first step in your learning & development audit is to refine your strategy. Without the big picture in mind, high-level objectives remain allusive. A tangible outline can kick start the process of materializing goals.

Consider these questions:

• What is the mission? What do you do? How do you do it? Who do you do it for?
• What are your L&D departmental objectives? Do they align with the organization’s mission?
• What initiatives will accomplish these objectives?
• What KPIs measure success of the initiatives?
• What is the timeline? What milestones will you set?

To sufficiently attack your initiatives and overall objectives, use the SMART approach. Your efforts should be specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and timebound. Ultimately, your training content will reflect your initiatives and objectives, and L&D strategy at large. Amplifire’s rich analytics lets you know if your content is landing with learners or if they are struggling to grasp certain topics, skills, and ideas. A high struggle rate may indicate that it is time to update or refine training content.

Persona

Let’s be honest, one-size-fits-all never works. Don’t doom your new L&D strategy from the start by assuming it works for every individual. To ensure your new L&D strategy reaches all your employees, you must identify their learner personas.

A learner persona might include:

• Name, age, seniority, and previous experience
• Role
• Areas of struggle
• Hard skills acquired
• Career aspirations

Just as marketing teams use personas to reach their target audience as potently as possible, leadership can identify personas to guide decisions where content and learning materials are produced.

Modern learners expect a personalized learning experience. They don’t want to waste time reviewing content they have already mastered. As an adaptive learning platform, Amplifire assesses learners’ current knowledge level and tailors content to fill knowledge gaps, uncertainty, and misinformation. Meet all your employees’ needs through adaptive learning, whether they are brand new or have 20 years’ experience in your industry. They will appreciate that you have respected their time with an adaptive approach.

Personalized learning also works to keep learners engaged. Furthermore, Amplifire uses cognitive triggers that are proven to make learning last by stimulating the brain’s natural sense of curiosity. Our platform is based on powerful brain science discoveries, and curiosity is just one of 27 triggers used to make learning stick for good. Tech often makes the mistake of forgetting who is on the other end: a human being! A foundation in biology — cognitive and neuroscience, specifically — is what sets Amplifire’s platform apart. It’s critical appeal to how people actually learn to see results.

Data and learner analytics audit

Learning and development teams spend countless hours developing training courses for employees. But inevitably, organizations need to ask: is this training effective? Do employees find it useful? Are we properly supporting organizational goals and improving performance? Without robust learner analytics, a training program’s impact is subjective.

Some helpful questions to evaluate the analytics provided by your learning platform:

• What metrics are tracked?
  • Are they vanity metrics, or are they deeply insightful?
• Are the metrics indicative of your L&D strategy’s success?
  • Are you using initiative KPIs?
• Can you leverage these metrics in other ways?
  • Will they help refine your training content?
  • Will they report on the success of your initiatives?
  • Are they useful in informing ongoing L&D strategy?
  • Can you connect training outcomes to business outcomes?

We’re not talking about a cluttered dashboard of confusing acronyms and seemingly arbitrary numbers. At Amplifire, we’re talking specifics: the ability to pinpoint exactly who knows what, how much of it they know, and how well they know it. This type of learner analytic provides the unique ability to see inside the minds that make up your organization, allowing you to nurture your talent and mitigate risks that arise from commonly held misinformation.

Moreover, our struggle report allows L&D teams to identify which individuals may need further remediation. Intervening when employees struggle not only eliminates the risk of costly mistakes down the line, but also provides an additional learning opportunity, as well as a chance to genuinely invest in employees’ success.

These analytics equip instructors and L&D teams with tools to offer the highest quality training in a fraction of the time, often at a lower cost, and always with improved outcomes.

ROI and the Big Picture

Choosing an adaptive eLearning platform for your learning and development initiatives can provide deep insights into what kind of return on investment your employees are gaining from their training, and what return your organization is seeing in the long run. Amplifire customers often see returns in the form of shortened training time, reduced training costs, and improved outcomes for learners and organizations at large. Every organization has different learning and development priorities. Here are some examples:

Time Saved	Costs Saved	Revenue Gains
EHR installations can cost billions. At UCHealth, a national center for Epic training, classroom instruction has been fully replaced with Amplifire. Savings: 56% reduction in training time with $1.45 million estimated cost savings.	At Intermountain Healthcare, a  system of 23 hospitals, results are measured in mistakes avoided, lives saved, and reimbursement from insurers. Savings: $3.6 million ROI: 25×	At this leading telecom , where customer service performance is measured in revenue per 100 calls, Amplifire was tested against legacy training. Revenue increase: 123%

We help organizations achieve results like this because we make learning stick. With brain science-based techniques, adaptive learning, and a plethora of robust reporting at your fingertips, your L&D strategy can come to life, propelling your organization full steam ahead into the new reality.

From the beginning, Amplifire has relied on innovative brain science to guide its product development to create the most effective learning and training solution, perfectly tailored to the way the human brain works. Learn more about how Amplifire helps people learn better and faster by checking out a demo.

How Hybrid Learning Can Inform Instructor-Led Training

Most industries are using help from data analytics, including education and training. Data analytics applied in a learning context is also known as learning analytics. The learning analytics market value is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of ~24% to reach $36.59 billion by 2029, according to the latest market projections. There is a reason why the learning analytics market is growing so rapidly, and that’s because educators and learning & development leaders have recognized the untapped potential in learning optimization. In a world where ROI is becoming increasingly critical, learning analytics can provide diagnostic and predictive analysis for a faster, more effective learning experience. New learning technologies — specifically adaptive eLearning platforms — that collect learner data can facilitate personalized learning and interventions that enhance the learning experience and improve learner outcomes.

Without the support of an eLearning platform that provides robust analytics, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to provide an optimized, personalized learning experience. We’re not referring to a tech takeover, but rather to the ability to harness insights gathered by learning algorithms that can inform instructor-led training and teaching.

For Amplifire, our eLearning solution is often used in a hybrid learning environment to supplement in-person instruction with online learning, or in a primarily online setting with in-person intervention and remediation. The platform gives you the remarkable ability to see how the facts, concepts, processes, and procedures that you are teaching are arrayed in the minds of your learners so that you can make necessary adjustments to the curriculum until all have mastered it. This deeper level of insight into your learners’ minds would not be possible without learner analytics — analytics that only Amplifire works to provide to instructors. Not all eLearning platforms offer insights that instructors can use in an actionable way to optimize their instruction. Here are some of the ways you can use Amplifire’s eLearning platform in a hybrid environment: 

5 ways hybrid learning informs instructor-led training: 

1.     Identify knowledge gaps

Not all learners start at the same knowledge level. Knowledge gaps exist in all types of learners, from students in a classroom, to trainees with no experience to twenty years’ experience. As an instructor, it can be difficult to tailor lessons to wide ranging gaps in knowledge — not to mention the gaps that learners aren’t aware of. When instructors use Amplifire as a priming tool, they not only prepare learners for an upcoming lesson, but they can also use the data from the assessment to identify what topics need to be covered and what learners already know. This makes instructors’ efforts more efficient and relevant to the learners.

2.     Increase learner engagement

If learners aren’t engaged, they’re not learning. Some eLearning platforms use passive learning techniques — like PowerPoint or video. Without active engagement, learners can zone out. As it turns out, there is a science behind learner engagement and improved learning quality — at Amplifire, we like to call it: how to make learning stick, as our Science Advisory Board member Henry Roediger writes in his book “Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.” Around 27 cognitive triggers are built into the platform and are proven to keep learners engaged, who subsequently learn faster and retain more. Tap into learners’ curiosity effortlessly with the help of cognitive science.

3.     Pinpoint struggle

As an instructor, guiding learners to the best possible outcome is the top priority. However, doing so is difficult without a personalized approach. In other eLearning platforms, a learner can click enough times to finally get the right answer without much learning taking place. This behavior can indicate that a learner doesn’t truly understand the material and hasn’t actually learned it. Amplifire, however, tracks the amount of struggle a learner faces and with what questions they are associated — pinpointing what topics they may need further coaching. Not all material comes as naturally to every learner. With a feature like this, instructors can offer a personalized learning experience for individuals, or create small study groups for those with similar struggle. 

4.     Create robust remediation plans

Identifying knowledge gaps and struggle are one thing but refining exactly what topics need elaboration or remediation is another. Amplifire can provide these insights to instructors on the topic-specific, individual, or group levels via reporting. 

When Amplifire’s platform was deployed at a private university, instructors were able to access reporting that detailed exactly which students were struggling and where. Instructors were able to be proactive with an intervention plan that was personalized for the student. Using this approach, student grades increased by over 51% in a class with notoriously high failure rates.

Additionally, when Amplifire is used in on-the-job training, it detects and corrects instances of misinformation, knowledge gaps, and struggle. But for learners who show significant signs of struggle, especially with life-threatening topics such as central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), actionable reports are generated from individuals’ interactions for instructors to conduct highly informed interventions. In a case where 588 nurses took a course covering CLABSI topics, 89 learners showed evidence of high struggle. In this case, instructors were able to offer personalized remediation to help these learners succeed on the job. When lives are at stake, this level of individualized attention and personalized intervention is critical.

Sometimes, multiple people struggle on the same topics. If, as an instructor, you could access data that organizes who struggles by what topic, you may then create study groups by topic, making your instruction more efficient and impactful because it is optimized to your learners’ needs. Moreover, in onboarding situations, learners can begin with a wide range of preexisting knowledge. Some learners may fly through material, while some may struggle with more advanced topics. Instructors can then group students by experience and struggle, ensuring everyone achieves mastery. 

5.     Enrich course content

When instructional design and eLearning come together, design intersects with science to create a powerful, efficient, and effective learning experience. Instructors can bring their designs to life and enrich lessons with dynamic content to illustrate information in the most effective way.

Struggle data can inform not only where there is learner struggle but an issue with the content itself. For instance, if instructors see that a lot of learners are struggling with a particular question or topic, it could be an indicator that there may be room for revision on the content level.

From the beginning, Amplifire has relied on innovative brain science to guide its product development to create the most effective learning and training solution, perfectly tailored to the way the human brain works. Learn more about how Amplifire helps people learn better and faster by checking out a demo.

Dos and Don’ts of Hybrid Learning

For more than two years now, virtual has been the new reality. Corporate America has leaned into virtual work and training, and few have looked back (and those who have, have been met with a wrath of protest). Schools have incorporated more technology than ever before to keep students on track. While the circumstances of the pandemic forced this virtual experiment, we’re now — thankfully — in a place where we have the privilege to ask, “Is this new reality working?”

There are pros and cons to each side: in-person interaction is still invaluable in many situations, and virtual solutions can make life easier in between (read: work and training has become more efficient, and students are more engaged). The fact is, we can’t go back to the way it was before — we live in a changed world, post-pandemic. But what we can do is take a look at the things that work and the things that don’t and forge a more efficient, modern world. Thus, hybrid learning rises from the firestorm of virtual trial and error.

As an eLearning platform, hybrid learning is the name of the game here at Amplifire. Built on brain science principles, our platform is designed to harness technology to promote faster, longer lasting learning. Whether in schools or the workforce, our users benefit from a personalized learning experience made possible by brain-science-backed techniques and analytics. However, humanity is at the core of what we do. Our platform is meant to support people working to achieve better outcomes through learning, which is why we want to share some of our experience with hybrid learning and discuss the dos and don’ts when it comes to navigating this space.

What is hybrid learning?

Hybrid learning is the comprehensive approach of combining the best parts of in-person learning with the most effective parts of virtual learning. It’s more than just half in-person, half online. It’s a strategic format that puts the learner at the center of the experience, incorporating the best teaching strategies for better learning and stronger retention.

Many resources will describe hybrid learning as a type of blended learning or use the terms interchangeably, but they are two separate teaching styles. Blended learning refers to combining the traditional in-person setting with any digital technology. Examples include the use of whiteboards, learning software, computer labs, etc. On the other hand, hybrid learning uses a virtual setting to complement, enrich, or supplement in-person learning, usually in equal parts. In this way, it takes blended learning into the post-pandemic space where teaching is more learner-centric, rather than forcing the learner to conform to one setting.

What are the benefits of hybrid learning?

For a while, in-person learning was all we knew. Virtual learning had been growing since before the pandemic, particularly in adult learning settings, from higher education to on-the-job training and beyond. While the pandemic gave virtual solutions a bad rap (we know, the Slack sound is triggering), hybrid learning is truly an asset to schools and corporations moving forward. Here’s why:

Flexibility. Hybrid learning doesn’t eliminate in-person learning, it just adds to it. Learning comes to the learner, rather than the other way around. When learners can participate in their own time at their own pace, they ultimately spend more time learning than figuring out transportation or scheduling.

Inclusivity. Hybrid learning is more inclusive than the traditional in-person setting. The ability to learn anywhere allows those who don’t have access to reliable transportation to participate more regularly. Hybrid learning is more accommodating for those with other work, family, and educational obligations. For students who require accommodations for special needs or disabilities, eLearning can offer support where schools and organizations might not have the resources.

Efficacy. Let’s face it: in-person learning is simply not the most effective method for teaching and training. Thanks to the work done by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus on the forgetting curve, we understand the importance of incorporating brain science principles like repetition. Just seven days after a training session, employees will have forgotten 65% of the material covered. The same applies to students. Replace that one-and-done session with a hybrid scenario where learners are presented and quizzed on the material more than once, and the material is more likely to stick.

Personalization. The one-size-fits-all approach never works — whether it’s a tee-shirt or a lesson plan, uniformity is ineffective. Learners progress at different rates, depending on prior knowledge, misconceptions, distractions, and other factors. Technology has the bandwidth to make it possible for instructors to incorporate adaptive learning and meet learners where they are.

Cost. The pandemic has had a lasting effect on the workforce. Many schools and organizations are feeling the pressure of labor shortages and increasing costs, leaving employees feeling the strain. Employees need more support as employers work to offer what they can. eLearning has emerged as a cost-effective solution. Data insights and virtual tools can support teachers who are overextended. Amplifire’s learning algorithms have shown to deliver effective employee training in less time at lower costs. In a time of financial strain, hybrid solutions ease the burden on all fronts.

Hybrid learning dos and don’ts:

Don’t: let learners get discouraged

Remote learners are susceptible to virtual burnout (think: the Zoom meeting that could have been an email; students getting antsy during virtual class). So, it’s imperative that instructors keep things interesting. It’s okay to acknowledge the burnout and prime hybrid learning with a positive outlook.

Do: take advantage of different teaching mediums

Hybrid learning allows for a variety of teaching styles that are limited in person. With the help of tech, instructors can offer in-person lectures, debates, discussion groups, self-paced learning, videos, graphics, pre-recorded lessons, interactive games, and more. Each style has its best use case where it’s most effective.

Don’t: neglect change management features

The transition to hybrid learning doesn’t have to be challenging. You won’t have to manage everything on your own — a good platform will support your change. Consider how your lesson plan or training program can adapt to a virtual format. Implement instructional design principles to build a hybrid program that suits your needs.

Do: invest in the right tech

Not all eLearning platforms are created equal. Choose a platform that enhances the learning experience. When used correctly, they make learning stick better and longer. Techniques based in brain science, like gamification, repetition, curiosity, feedback, and metacognition, enrich any lesson plan, making it more effective on a biological level.

For example, when the Amplifire eLearning platform — which is built using the techniques mentioned above — was implemented at a private university as a supplement to classroom learning, grades increased by 51%, and the average final grade increased from 57% to 86%. Retention rates increased and failure rates decreased — dramatically.

Do: let virtual instruction inform in-person interactions

Virtual and in-person learning should complement each other in a hybrid scenario. Instructors can use insights from virtual learning to inform in-person sessions. For example, Amplifire’s Virtual AI  identifies where specific students are struggling and helps instructors formulate an action plan for further teaching. Tech doesn’t replace instructors — it supports them.

From the beginning, Amplifire has relied on innovative brain science to guide its product development to create the most effective learning and training solution, perfectly tailored to the way the human brain works. Learn more about how Amplifire helps people learn better and faster by checking out a demo.

Instructional Design and eLearning: Education’s Dynamic Duo

Instructional design dates back to World War II, when hundreds of thousands of soldiers needed to be well trained — and fast. Psychologists and education specialists were called upon to both assess soldiers’ learning abilities and to create training materials en masse. B.F. Skinner’s stimulus-response techniques, positive reinforcement training, and behavior-based feedback were put to practice, where instructors maintained the optimistic assumption that all learners could achieve mastery through better training. This was also the first time that audio-visual aids, like short films, were used for training purposes. This marked the beginning of technology being used for teaching. From the start, instructional design and its precursors were always forward thinking.

Instructional design is an essential component of effective teaching today. When coupled with an eLearning environment, teaching can be optimized in ways that make the potential for learning limitless. Let’s investigate.

What is instructional design and why is it important for better learning?

Instructional design is the process by which learning experiences are designed, developed, and delivered. It is so much more than simply creating instructional material. It blends learning theory, behavioral psychology, and communication strategies to craft an effective learning experience for a target group of people. In this way, instructional design is inherently learner-centric, focusing on why students learn, how they learn best, and what methods of instruction will be most effective.

The instructional designer is the one who applies the aspects mentioned above and is responsible for creating the course design as well as instructional materials. The instructional designer conducts analysis to determine the best strategies to use for learners. Again, it’s an extremely learner-centric process.

Instructional design is important because it puts the learner back at the center of the learning process. Oftentimes, teaching the material is the main priority, but that doesn’t mean the material will be retained by default. Sure, instructors can lecture at length, or splice in a variety of videos, images, sounds, etc. to spice up a lesson. But without intention, these efforts are in vain. Instructional design ensures the material is taught effectively by the most appropriate means.

Key principles of instructional design

Depending on where you look, you may find anywhere from five to nine standard instructional design principles. To cover all the bases, we’ll include all nine, which derive from American education psychologist Robert Gagné. The principles are also known as Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction and serve as a checklist to help managers, trainers, and facilitators structure their training. They fall into three phases:

1. Preparation
   • Gain attention
   • Inform learners of the objectives
   • Stimulate recall of prior learning
2. Instruction and practice
   • Present new content
   • Provide guidance
   • Elicit performance
   • Provide feedback
3. Assessment and transfer
   • Assess learning performance
   • Enhance retention and performance

These principles guide the process of teaching to ensure a better learning experience on behalf of the learner. The principles are step one. Step two is to determine the best mode of teaching — the best way to make the lessons stick. This is where an eLearning platform can be extremely useful.

Instructional design and eLearning

When instructional design meets eLearning, a dynamic duo is born. It’s no coincidence that Amplifire’s own eLearning platform, which is built on brain science discoveries, echos many Gagné’s principles for effective learning. Research like Gagné’s and the members of Amplifire’s Science Advisory Board exists so instructors in any setting can maximize teaching’s effectiveness.

Technological mediums, like eLearning platforms, enable instructional design to operate at its highest capacity. For example, Amplifire’s teaching algorithms prime and prepare learners for new material — one of the most effective triggers for better learning. During the “instruction and practice” phase, Amplifire actively engages learners with more research-backed learning triggers. The platform gauges learners’ confidence to determine their knowledge level and meets them where they are to provide feedback and guidance in real time. Meanwhile, instructors have access to analytical data on the back end to assess learners’ performance to offer further guidance. These features are proven to improve retention and performance, which align with the goals of instructional design.

When instructional design and eLearning come together, design intersects with science to create a powerful, efficient, and effective learning experience. Teaching is really about how well a student learns, so why not use practices that put the learner at the center of the whole process?

From the beginning, Amplifire has relied on innovative brain science to guide its product development to create the most effective learning and training solution, perfectly tailored to the way the human brain works. Learn more about how Amplifire helps people learn better and faster by checking out a demo.

How eLearning Will Close the Learning Gaps in K-12 Math

The pandemic has created a lasting, devasting effect on education, leaving many students struggling to keep pace with their grade standard. Many point in blame to the coldhearted limitations of virtual learning. Others cite systemic powers at large for widening education gaps and poor test scores. The bottom line is that the education system desperately needs a solution, and one that satisfies a very nuanced set of requirements, at that. eLearning and other hybrid and virtual solutions are not the enemy, but rather, may be the bridge that closes the learning gaps.

According to a 2021 study that analyzed data from more than 2,500 K-12 students using curriculum-based online learning software both before and during the pandemic shutdown found that students’ performance actually increased during the shutdown. Evidence of the improvement was shown through teachers assigning more difficult problem sets to students during the school closures compared to the year before. Even more interesting, the data indicate performance improvements were higher for students categorized as low performing, suggesting a narrowing learning gap between students.

Even still, math scores are lower than ever in the U.S., and there is no shortage of reasoning behind it. Although eLearning has shown positive results in action, what is required to implement edtech in a realistic, effective way?

Barriers and difficulties for students learning mathematics

Many students are still feeling the effects of the pandemic where their education is concerned. In-person learning has resumed and has shown that the hardships of the pandemic exacerbated existing problems, while piling on a few new ones, too.

Statistics continue to emerge which reveal socioeconomic barriers for K-12 students learning math. According to the latest research covering 5.4 M U.S. students, average fall 2021 math test scores in grades 3-8 were 0.20-0.27 standard deviations (SDs) lower relative to same-grade peers in fall 2019 — a significant drop. Moreover, test-score gaps between students in low-poverty and high-poverty elementary schools grew by approximately 20% in math. So, A) students aren’t learning as well as they should be and B) more resources are needed to serve children from all communities in pursuit of education.

On the topic of resources, the U.S. education system — like most other industries — is facing a shortage. Teachers are over-worked and under-paid, and schools lack funding to solve this issue. Schools also lack funds to offer the resources to ensure all students are adequately served, for one reason or another.

All this considered, why should schools invest in tech? Well, the Wall Street Journal reported that “K–12 school districts in the US haven’t spent 93% of the $122 billion in Covid relief they were awarded last year.” These funds will disappear in September 2024 if they’re not used. And while this money could not reasonably support new full-time hires (due to the limited time frame of the money allowance) and supply chain shortages prevent infrastructure projects (ventilation systems, etc.) from moving ahead, tech is still on the table.

Benefits of eLearning for K-12 learners

With over 3.8 billion learner interactions on our platform, we can speak with confidence from our own experience at Amplifire about the benefits of eLearning:

Support struggling students with intervention and remediation

Students struggle to learn for a variety of reasons. It can be difficult from the school’s standpoint to accommodate each and every reason, whether due to a lack of resources or bandwidth. When the responsibility falls on the teacher, this can be daunting as well, especially when teachers are stretched to the max. This is where a solution, like Amplifire specifically, can help.

Again, we are speaking from experience. Our platform collects data to pinpoint where students struggle or have misconceptions. Analytics identify knowledge gaps and offer remediation suggestions based on the actual course material. This reporting capability is completely personalized to the student and their learning habits. This way, teachers are able to offer at-the-elbow assistance with all the information they need to help struggling students on a more personal level, preventing them from falling behind or missing necessary lessons.

Self-paced learning opportunities allow for advanced learning

eLearning has the bandwidth to support students at varying levels of proficiency. Where schools may lack the resources to accommodate “gifted” students as well as “average” or “struggling” students all at once, technology-based instruction can adapt to students’ needs. Students who have demonstrated mastery can move ahead or take more advanced courses while the platform still ensures struggling students get the help they need. It’s a win-win.

Course design supports the way teachers want to help their students

While smaller classrooms are usually preferred for the sake of more hands-on teaching and individualized attention, it’s not always possible to offer them. eLearning solutions like Amplifire give instructors the bandwidth to offer more guidance without overexertion and burnout. Schools and instructors can design and customize courses to meet educational standards and to best serve their students. Instructors can then see how students are learning, whether many students are struggling with a certain topic, or only a few individuals are having trouble. This can inform how class time is spent, allowing instructors to increase the overall efficiency of their lessons. Moreover, like we mentioned before, instructors can also have the tools in formation they need to offer more robust individualized support when needed.

By incorporating cognitive and brain science, the quality of learning improves

A unique characteristic of a platform like Amplifire, specifically, is that our solution is based in cognitive and neuroscience principles. These principles have been researched by some of the world’s leading brain scientists and are proven to make learning stick. Our teaching algorithms are tuned to the way the brain naturally works — using techniques like gamification, spacing, feedback, retrieval, and more — so students learn faster and retain more.

By learning in ways that are more naturally aligned with the way the brain works best, eLearning can foster a more positive relationship between students and academics. When Amplifire was used to teach a class notorious for high failure rates at a private university, professors saw a 51% increase in student grades. Students gave testimonials like, “I loved this class and the new format! I felt much more engaged with the professor with this format as well,” and, “I love using this to study. If I get the answer wrong, it explains the correct answer and tells me what I put down actually is.” Beyond that, in a survey of 24,356 students, traditional classroom learning produced only a 75% pass rate, whereas of students who used Amplifire, 91% passed the class.

The reality of implementing eLearning in the K-12 setting

The benefits of eLearning directly address the main barriers associated with struggling students learning math in the U.S., as well as issues present in the education system that generally inhibit effective reform (like lack of monetary, personnel, and infrastructural resources).

But is implementing eLearning on a large scale realistic? Most tech is scalable, meaning it can grow to accommodate changing needs. It fills in the worker shortage gap by offering valuable support to teachers already in classrooms. Students are already familiar with virtual learning formats from the pandemic. Rather than being an isolating, restricting experience, hybrid/technologically enriched learning only enhances the quality of education schools can offer.

There remains the dilemma of providing computers and equipment to underprivileged students, and training students and teachers to use new systems. If schools have the means to offer computer access, whether with the COVID-19 stimulus options or otherwise, many long-term issues can be eliminated.

From the beginning, Amplifire has relied on innovative brain science to guide its product development to create the most effective learning and training solution, perfectly tailored to the way the human brain works. To learn more about how Amplifire can benefit your educational needs, download our education case study or check out a demo.

Top 5 Talent Development Priorities to Modernize Your Organization

It’s an exciting, yet anxious time in the world of learning and development. Suddenly, it may seem like your organization is lagging behind the increasingly steep talent development curve. To keep up with the pace of business, L&D professionals, HR, and management are working to navigate best courses of action. It’s time to respond to the “Great Reprioritization” with improved talent development strategies and some new priorities of your own.

The marker of success in the new work world will be how well organizations can quickly adapt to rapidly changing environments. Additionally, organizations will rely on well-developed talent to execute these changes. Organizations are already recognizing this need. According to Brandon Hall Group research in 2021, “63% of organizations indicated they would invest moderately or heavily in improving the alignment between talent strategy and business goals.”

So, where do you start?  First, organizations must understand how to nurture and maximize employees’ potential. Next, organizations must set talent development priorities that best align the needs of employees and the business.

The Great Reprioritization

The “Great Reprioritization” movement is about employees rediscovering their values and recognizing their potential, underscored by a general gap between employee desires and career opportunities.  According to The University of Phoenix’s Annual Career Optimism Index 2022:

• 68 percent of workers say they would stay with their employer throughout their career if they had opportunities to upskill
• 65 percent of workers said they would stay throughout their career if their employer made an effort to reskill them.
• 49 percent of employees want to develop their skills but don’t know where to begin — this is up 6 percentage points compared to 2021 — and 66 percent of employers believe the same

The Great Reprioritization isn’t only about meeting employees’ needs – it’s about shifting business perspectives to support sustainable growth. By investing in talent development, organizations respond to this movement with finesse. Define priorities in the context of the new normal.

Talent development planning/strategy

The hardest part of change is change management. Companies are facing barriers in their efforts to skill their employees, but with the help of L&D professionals and the guidance of a unified plan, organizations can eliminate some of these challenges. By narrowing focus and setting goals, change becomes less daunting. Here are some actionable priorities to guide your talent development plan and set your organization on track.

Your top talent development priorities:

1. Make onboarding seamless and effective
Employee turnover and ineffective onboarding is time consuming and costly. By implementing an effective onboarding solution, companies can set the tone for seamless workflow and promote organizational values.

For example, in this Amplifire case study, a call center invested in improving their onboarding process and found that an effective eLearning solution transformed their employee performance and morale. Well-trained employees were more confident and had higher job performance metrics than their previous onboarding strategy.

2. Create a learning culture with a growth mindset
There is a strong link between learning culture and success, which is why it is so important to create a learning culture and growth mindset among your people. Benefits include attracting and retaining top talent, competitive advantage, increased productivity and more.

3. Determine development needs related to business goals
The first part of this is identifying employee knowledge gaps to measure employee competencies. These gaps can inform the baseline for training.

The second part is identifying the gap between competency and where you want to be. This gap will inform the training and/or teaching that will empower your organization to reach its goals.

The third part of this equation is to align development needs with employee aspirations. Harness your people’s desire to level up and grow.

4. Embed learning in workflow
Incorporate learning opportunities in the workflow. Continuous learning boosts employee engagement. Engaged employees are happier and more productive – and more likely to stay. As much of the workforce is leaning virtual, a technical solution is necessary to power continuous learning. With an adaptive learning solution that can support virtual and hybrid instruction, employers can better engage their people.

5. Offer training aimed at inclusion
As reported by the Society for Human Resource Management, senior vice president of people strategy at Hired, Samantha Lawrence, predicts, “Companies that will double down on their DE&I efforts and successfully leverage best practices to expand their talent pipeline will not only deliver on the public DE&I commitments they made in 2019 and 2020, but also attract and retain top talent.” Offering comprehensive training to eliminate bias and misinformation is a great way to tackle this initiative.

A note on leveraging technology

It goes without saying that many of these priorities are made possible by leveraging technology. With effective tools, such as eLearning solutions, L&D professionals can harness data and insights into the effectiveness of these priorities. They can also refine and optimize talent development processes as time goes on. Aligning with the new work world will require ongoing effort – and leveraging tech makes it manageable.

Amplifire’s goal is to support businesses looking to gain an edge in the modern age by offering an adaptive learning solution that supports employee learning, training, and growth. Learn more about how we can enrich talent development at your organization.

Amplifire Recognized as Software Advice FrontRunner in Employee Training

In exciting news from Software Advice’s (of Gartner Digital Markets) February 2022 FrontRunner Guide to Top Employee Training Software, Amplifire was recognized as a top-five product for the category. Software Advice uses reviews from real software users to highlight the top-rated Employee Training Software products in North America. Inclusion for the list is determined by verified unique user reviews, required functionality, and product relevance across industries or sectors.

Amplifire was scored based on functionality, ease-of-use, value for money, likelihood to recommend, and customer support. It ranks in the top quadrant as a result of customer satisfaction and usability scores, landing it among the top five-recommended products in the category. View the full report here.

As an adaptive learning solution, we know that personalized learning based on brain science is the best way to help individuals learn what they need and help organizations reach their goals. That’s why Amplifire is thrilled to be recognized as a leader in the employee training category based on end-user ratings.

Learn more about how Amplifire is helping organizations put the power of brain science to work.

FrontRunners constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Software Advice or its affiliates.

Why Creating a Learning Culture is So Important for an Organization’s Success

It is becoming difficult to keep up with the nuances of workforce trends, from “The Great Resignation” to “The Great Reshuffling.” The point, however, is that workers are demanding attention to an underserved aspect of their professional lives: employee experience.  

This is where the concept of “learning culture” can save the day. According to the Work Institute, the #1 reason employees left their job was due to a lack of professional development opportunities and support – costing businesses revenue and productive time. The solution to this enormous employment debacle is to put in the work to create and build a learning culture for your organization.  

What is a “learning culture”? 

You may hear the terms “reskill” and upskill” a lot these days, as the shifting constitution of the labor market is a hot topic. However, “learning culture” is more than simply the act of acquiring new skills – it’s more personal than that. A learning culture is an environment where employees are encouraged to seek, share, and apply new knowledge for the sake of personal and professional development.  

But isn’t every culture a “learning culture” in a way? Not necessarily. To establish and maintain a learning culture, employees must have the support of their organization to pursue their goals. Learning & Development professionals understand the work that is involved to implement a unified culture at scale – from C-suite support to employee buy-in. We’ll cover some culture creation tips next. 

How to create a learning culture 

Research shows that employees yearn for opportunities to develop their skills – 94% of employees said that they would stay at a company longer if that company invested in their learning. That is why it is important to get leadership onboard and make the transition easy for employees. 

Win C-suite support 

Culture is not always a top priority for C-suite and leadership – much to the chagrin of L&D professionals. However, statistics support the need for continued learning opportunities for employees as part of an organization’s baseline. Employee turnover is costly. Moreover, a study by MIT Sloan School of Management revealed a 250% ROI after implementing a training program focused on soft skills in eight months. Present leadership with these facts. Support is more feasible with a healthy ROI. 

Organizations that invest most heavily in culture/employee experience are found:  

• 11.5x as often in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work
• 4.4x as often in LinkedIn’s list of North America’s Most In-Demand Employers 
• 2.1x as often on the Forbes list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies
• 2x as often in the American Customer Satisfaction Index  

*Source: Jacob Morgan 

Get employee buy-in 

While employees crave learning and development opportunities, they also want it to be uncomplicated. Moreover, in a world where much of the workforce is still virtual or at least hybrid, a technical solution is necessary to power learning. With an adaptive learning solution that can support virtual and hybrid instruction, employees can easily embrace development. 

5 Benefits of learning culture 

Industry leaders recognize the benefits of learning culture as the fundamental ingredients for success: 

• Attract and retain top talent – According to this survey, the top reason employees look elsewhere is due to the “inability to learn and grow” where they are. This same LinkedIn survey reveals learners at work are 48% more fulfilled in their role. 
• Gain competitive advantage – In MIT and Deloitte’s most recent study, the most successful, fast-growing, digitally enabled companies have invested in the way individuals and organizations learn. 
• Foster growth mindset – Continuous learning goes hand in hand with growth.  
• Increase customer satisfaction – Happy, well-informed employees result in better served, more satisfied customers. 
• Boost productivity – Satisfied workers are up to 20% more productive at work. 

Again, these benefits are not just for the sake of it – they are essential for organizations’ survival and prosperity in the modern age. 

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Amplifire’s goal is to support businesses looking to gain an edge in the modern age by offering an adaptive learning solution that supports employee learning, training, and growth. Learn more about how we can power learning culture at your organization.

Call center enjoys both faster onboarding and higher NPS

Call center enjoys both faster onboarding and higher NPS

This leading telecom is one of the largest wireless network operators in the US. With over 50 million customers, they prioritize customer service.

Employee turnover in call centers is high, running from 30% to 50% per year. New hires need rapid, effective training to efficiently solve customers’ problems, cultivate customer loyalty, and position customers with the optimal set of features for their needs. Extra minutes per call add up to enormous annual costs, and unsuccessful resolutions over the phone add more. In response, call centers closely measure operations to optimize results.

This telecom measured the effectiveness of Amplifire on new hire performance at two large customer call centers where agents took calls to handle questions about features, options, bandwidth, and billing. Using a control group to ensure meaningful before-after analysis, the improvements in new hire performance delivered a substantial ROI.

51% increase in student grades

Transform Their Learning Experience

A major challenge that universities and colleges face is student retention. This private university wanted to see if they could see students at risk and intervene before it was too late?

They reduced student failure by using Amplifire’s reporting dashboard, which shows instructors the knowledge gaps and struggle that most students experience during their time in higher education.

Then they used the principles from cognitive science built into Amplifire to make knowledge stick so students could become more successful in understanding the curriculum and pass their high-stakes exams.