How to create a digital learning culture

Pushing a company towards a digital learning culture can be an overwhelming task. As a leader, your role is to encourage enthusiastic learning in a digital space. 

The purpose behind digital learning is to move from traditional learning habits to newer, more successful ones. A digital learning culture saves time, budgets, increase visibility, accessibility, reachability and creates a stronger sense of community. The challenge is how do we create a culture of digital learning? 

Promote your learning initiatives 

An important part of creating a digital learning culture is promoting it. This means promoting both the culture itself and the material available.

“Management wants you to learn and this is how!”

Most learning initiatives fail because they are not promoted properly and employees who may be eager to learn are unaware or forget they exist. Use newsletters, posters, QR codes and emails to remind your team of the learning material available to them.

Get social

There is great potential for social learning in the workplace. Group sessions and weekly catchups promote and encourage a healthy learning culture. Collaboration inspires communication and deeper learning. By providing learners the opportunity to learn on their own while also develop their skills as a group, they will be more likely to identify their own gaps and pick up information quickly.

Reverse Mentoring

Encourage young employees to mentor older team members in the tech skills they already possess. As young tech-savvy employees continue to move into the workplace, it is paramount for those employees who don’t feel so digitally competent to learn from their coworkers. The exchange of skills among the generations will create new respect among staff as well, upskill less tech-confident staff as well as developing young team members’ coaching skills.

Design Blended Learning Methods

Blended learning uses a mix of training strategies such as social, online, classroom and mobile learning to deliver the best results. Blended learning breaks down the traditional walls of training that aren’t fit-for-purpose for all learners. With access to present day technologies and resources, managers can easily tailor the learning experience for each team member. Or, even better, the learners can do it for themselves! This gives each employee the opportunity to take charge of their own learning. Blended learning also offers flexible time frames that can be personalised to each team member, offering them the ability to proactively learn at their own pace, time and place.