Instead of L&D professionals creating training, a company’s subject matter experts (SMEs) feel inspired to create accurate and entertaining digital training content that their colleagues snap up via a Learning Experience Platform (‘LXP’), which looks very much like Netflix or YouTube. And just like Netflix or YouTube, clever algorithms then match great training content to users looking for enlightenment and knowledge.
Training modalities have certainly seen a shift towards becoming largely digital, online, and with content delivered in easy-to-access, bite-sized chunks
The amateur content creator model
There is some evidence that this idea could have become a reality. In this YouTube video on how to use DaVinci resolve, a free piece of editing software, Youtuber Justin Brown is sharing with YouTube users how to make a living by creating compelling content. Anyone could do it. And learning does happen on such platforms, a study by Google showed that 80% of Gen Z (who will make up over a quarter of the workforce by 2025) have used YouTube for learning. Meanwhile, YouTube’s own data shows that 72% of people aged between 36 and 55 use it for learning. Meanwhile, corporate education has followed the same trajectory as personal news or entertainment consumption. People increasingly prefer bitesize content that we can share and consume on the go. Training modalities have certainly seen a shift towards becoming largely digital, online, and with content delivered in easy-to-access, bite-sized chunks. So much web content that we consume for entertainment does begin with amateurs creating it in their homes, but very soon, it becomes a business and the best creators find a way to monetise that. The hope was that this amateur creator model would find its way into corporate training.The next wave of compelling business training material
This was the dream for the next wave of compelling business training materials. But sadly, that dream did not come true. We didn’t see a YouTube for Education emerge. Not enough corporate SMEs ever stepped forward to become the ‘bedroom creators’ we had hoped for. There are plenty of creators out there, but they don’t want to create entertaining and funny videos about health and safety.The learning content we do have is basically what we had 10 years ago before the whole UGC fever dream began
Stepping off the gas
As a result of waiting for the trend that never came, we stepped off the production gas. The training industry focused its investment on the software, not the content, as we expected user-generated content (UGC) to quickly fill the gap. Market leaders like 360Learning tried to make UGC happen, and entire market segments were created to surface the content already there through LXPs, like Filtered in the UK or Edflex in France. The best tools and widgets were available for potential SME content creators. Not surprisingly, on top of a heavy workload, our prospective content creators asked, “tell me again why I should do this?”Learning platforms gathering dust
As a result, we’re now in a situation where people use Netflix for cool movies and series, YouTube for quick tutorials on how to make omelettes properly and the training sector is stuck with a lot of great, highly-functional learning platforms that are gathering dust. And the learning content we do have is basically what we had 10 years ago before the whole UGC fever dream began. So what’s next now we finally admit there is no massive wave of people waking up in the morning just waiting to create appealing learning content for us, based on sharing their expertise? It is time for the L&D sector to concede we're at an inflexion point, in which we need to start thinking seriously about how we will create content.What’s next for content production?
We need to go back to investing real money into a market that is less and less willing to invest money in content creation, which is a challenge. We also have to acknowledge that the entertainment video model does not work for corporate learning, at least not as long as the content creators within companies still are unclear on the answer to ‘what’s in it for me?’It is time for the L&D industry to follow in their footsteps, and create professionally produced, effective learning contentInvestment in top-class content is what made Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and all of those platforms successful in the end. Putting a lot of money into having some professional content producers create super-premium content is the only thing that brings people in. It is time for the L&D industry to follow in their footsteps, and create professionally produced, effective learning content.
4 Responses
Hmm. A category error, I
Hmm. A category error, I think.
The fact that ‘training modalities’ have followed a digital content model, does not mean that training or learning has been delivered. The idea of focusing on creating yet more content is flawed. What is required is a joined up approach to delivering (some – not too much) content and creating learning experiences involving real work with real customers, colleagues and service users.
And, frankly, if I ever hear again another glib example suggesting we should emulate loss making enterprises such as Netflix, it will be too soon.
@Antoine: Thank you for this
@Antoine: Thank you for this article. How does the rise of generative AI solutions like GPT-3 or text-to-video solutions (I work for one) play into your recommendations? If we can bring down the cost to create and maintain content, is there a way to still produce compelling material despite cutbacks?
@Robin: Could you expand on what you mean by “creating learning experiences involving real work with real customers, colleagues and service users”?
What information do you have
What information do you have that led you to conclude that SMEs are not creating learning content? I work with Easygenerator, a platform that facilitates SMEs to create learning content. Both courses and microlearning. Currently, we have more than 20.000 SMEs creating courses on our platform every month. That number is 60% higher than 12 months ago. We call this Employee-generated learning and it is skyrocketing!
Learning delivery should be
Learning delivery should be contextual and the role of the L&D practitioner is not simply to create content but work with people to identify their needs and deliver what they need. For some, it may be media content and for others, it is good old face-to-face training. I work in the health and social care industry where a lot of content is delivered through e-learning and the staff hate it. What works for them more is discussion and hands-on training with even if it is on Teams and Zoom. And I do agree with one of the contents that we should not see Netflix-type content as what we should aspire to. Entertainment does not equal learning.