Dive Brief:
- The 2016 IITSEC, a training conference that features the latest training technologies developed by the military community, is a sneak peek of what's to come for corporate training, Brent Schlenker writes for the Litmos eLearning blog.
- While attending this year's IITSEC conference, Schlenker noted four emerging trends in corporate learning that we can expect to see in the near future. These trends include: Virtual reality/simulation continuing to dominate the employee training market; intelligent systems replacing instructional designers; gaming engines as authoring tools; and the increasing momentum of xAPI integrating with current LMS's.
- The post also said many private companies that develop products for corporate training have a connection with military contracts; this is useful for testing ideas before delivery to the general learning community. Schlenker points out that SCORM, a major component of how corporate learning content is managed today, was first developed as part of a military initiative called Advanced Distributed Learning.
Dive Insight:
The IITSEC event appears to be an exclusive look at what's trending and where both military and corporate training are headed in the future. Since the military is able to effectively test out training products and ideas in real-life scenarios, it gives partner companies an advantage in the market.
LMS's are evolving quickly following the inclusion of virtual reality and collaborative authoring tools. The way instructional designers and course developers work today will be vastly different in just a few years from now.
Employers that are dedicated to providing best-in-class employee training programs should pay attention to the trends that the IITSEC conference highlighted. This might be a good time to evaluate current learning management tools and processes to keep in line with what's to come. From an HR standpoint, it can also be an opportunity to recruit more military veterans for positions in corporate training and learning roles since they have the skills to enhance standard employee training programs.
