Asking the Right Questions to Build a Learning Technology Strategy that Helps Business Leaders Make Informed Choices

Topics: Technology & Infrastructure

Contents

Corporate learning technology has come a long way since the introduction of the first e-learning courses over a decade ago:

• Virtual classrooms enable companies to deliver the same experience regardless of where people are located;
• Geographically-distributed communities can learn and solve problems together using a variety of collaborative tools; 
• Branched narrative online simulations improve individual learning outcomes through experiential learning; 
• Multiple content types for informal, just-in-time learning has become possible without heavy investments in technologies;
• Web 2.0 technologies have changed the way that knowledge management is conceived; 
• Cloud storage technologies, shared service frameworks (like REST) and improvements to security around APIs have made modular approaches less challenging, risky, and costly; and 
• Mobile technologies can deliver new material instantly to learners who never see a classroom

Companies are finding new ways to combine technologies to provide as needed, always available learning opportunities that can drive productivity and the strategic needs of the business. CorpU research shows that companies are developing their individual technology portfolios to meet their specific needs, rather than selecting a single source technology to address multiple needs.

The problem?

The overarching problem is how to define an learning technology strategy that supports the organization's current needs, provides opportunities to address current and future gaps, and meets the various requirements of internal stakeholders — all while auditing the current infrastructure to identify what to keep, what to upgrade and what to retire. 

The answer?

The answer is a process to think through the current state and the desired state(s) of your learning technologies in order to come up, either as part of a team or individually, with a path forward to support your organization's needs for learning.

In short, a learning technology strategy is a plan of action for creating a learning technology infrastructure that will support the achievement of enterprise goals. The rest of this article is meant to help identify some ways to think through the various considerations in order to develop this plan more efficiently so that it helps people make informed decisions about what's needed, what's urgent, and what's next. It's meant to help a learning technologist communicate effectively with business leaders, by presenting a common context to help them make an informed decision. 

 Index of Contents

Members of CorpU can read more detail about applying traditional consulting frameworks (like the Five Force Analysis) to produce a learning technology strategy and see the process in action through a hypothetical and an actual case.