How Self-Paced Digital Learning Helps Learners

Self-paced learning has become the go-to method of learning in modern-day training and professional development. Self-paced learning, sometimes also known as “self-directed learning,” is versatile and helps learners explore on their own terms and in a way that suits their learning style.

Today it’s almost everywhere—universities, high schools, and workplaces—as more and more online learners prefer to take control of their learning outside of traditional classroom structures. As learning technology continues to evolve, the need for digital training has grown too. A digital learning solution allows learners to choose the suitable training option for their educational needs, daily schedule, and learning styles. In addition, digital learning puts learners’ information at their fingertips and helps them find the answers immediately. No wonder it is so popular.

The digital learning industry is seeing several business trends and challenges:

• The acceleration to online learning
• Higher reliance on technology and instructional materials
• Demand for mobile-ready content
• Disruption to traditional pathways to higher education
• Growing AR/VR demand
• Lifelong learning: subscription-based content to an individual
• The difficult concept of a flipped classroom
• Teachers as “digital immigrants”—someone not as facile with technology and its steep learning curve
• Teacher programs that require virtual learning instruction methods
• The need and difficulty to “lift and shift” curriculum from classroom to online
• Teachers’ convictions that ed-tech innovations have changed what schools should look like; state standards may begin to include virtual learning skills
• Students’ social media savvy is not tech-savviness in ways that will help them learn.
• Students’ lack of knowledge on how to use tech to gather, evaluate or use info for learning
• Change or disappearance of standardized tests unless they evolve
• Need to test the “how” and not the “what”
  • The stigma of online learning is disappearing fast
  • Equal access for all doesn’t truly exist

There are several ways digital learning can help learners:

1. Flexible and engaging learning culture

On-demand lessons help all students, regardless of where and how they want to study. Self-paced digital learning gives students access to explore critical concepts before an exam. It also gives them the flexibility to find out where they made mistakes in the last exam before moving on to the next one.

2. Scalable and income-generating model

There are several ways learners can access learning materials, such as websites and mobile apps. However, not all online platforms can provide students with everything they want. Self-paced learning gives companies, individual tutors, and educational institutions a chance

to deliver bite-sized courses in highly focused and digestible formats. Digital learning also helps learning providers earn a handsome income through fees, subscriptions, or marketing.

Digital learning is popular because it can be scaled and upgraded when needed. For example, when technology gets upgraded, you can easily change your courseware to reflect those changes. That cannot be done with a book—it is possible only with digital courseware.

3. A learning environment that is cost effective, efficient, and scalable

Trainers at the office can cost hundreds of dollars per hour. Training material provided digitally allows employees to access it whenever they want—and if it can be used by several employees simultaneously and over several months, it saves your company thousands of dollars Digital content that can be reused and repurposed several times saves you money, and you don’t have to book or block a room for training. The employees can easily access the materials via a link on their devices, providing them with the best training experience.

4. Remote connectivity for anytime, anywhere learning

With mobile, computing, and telecom technology improving the use and ease of digital learning, the days of people sitting in front of computers for education are behind us. Today’s digital training courses are designed to provide intuitive and amazing navigation to help learners concentrate more on learning and less on the distraction associated with legacy technology. In addition, today’s online training courses are designed to work seamlessly on laptops, tablets, and smartphones and even move from one device to another.

5. Content designed to meet the diverse needs of learners

In order to empower learners during self-paced learning, it is essential to offer them easy-to-digest content that can be used anytime and anywhere. This flexibility gives trainers opportunities to deliver continuing education and programs that keep learners abreast of the latest in their field.

While digital learning is here to stay, the technology will continue to grow, offering new possibilities in how people access their learning materials. By now, we all know that digital learning provides strategic advantages to learners to succeed in their careers without going anywhere.

Straive is a leader in educational development for more than 25 years. Services range from traditional production to the full-service development of content used in digital and print products. Straive is recognized for our full-service model, and partnerships with our clients include subject matter experts, dedicated teams of discipline-specific subject matter experts, experienced project managers and editorial, art, and design specialists. Straive provides end-to-end services that include solutions development for online assessment and for developing eLearning modules, interactivity, and mobile content delivery.