What higher education can learn from business in terms of online learning

It’s commonly thought that education and training are two parallel worlds, each living by its own rules. Indeed, their goals don’t align precisely, learning time differs significantly, and the application of the acquired knowledge varies. Yet, the pandemic (along with the long growing trend) made these worlds, if not collide, then at least get a lot closer in the online environment.

For higher education, moving online led to an extraordinary result - an opportunity for a great number of new students worldwide to enroll in programs. It turned out that not only school graduates wanted to go to university but really anyone who hadn’t had this opportunity because of the offline format: people with disabilities, those who couldn’t attend classes because of their work schedule or young children who need babysitting, adults with psychological issues like social anxiety or depression, and many more.

While some came for a traditional bachelor’s or master’s degree, many needed something different: a particular course or courses for upgrading their professional skills or self-development. And this is quite a weak spot of universities, as higher education is tailored to delivering knowledge in a complex manner, not narrowed down to a particular aspect of a subject. Added to this is another challenge - that adult students learn differently. This results in the low effectiveness of such university programs. Nowadays, when people want to learn something, it’s improbable that they’ll attend classes at a university. It’s more likely that they’ll purchase online courses from platforms such as Coursera and Udemy.

These challenges are pretty new for higher education, but they are as old as time for corporate training. Businesses have always needed skillful employees to achieve success. And they have always dealt with adults and have had to find unique approaches to making training work. Their success with this can be measured by the ever-growing capital of companies. So, higher education can learn from businesses how to run online programs that engage students of different ages and backgrounds, and help them retain more knowledge longer.

The first thing worth mentioning here is the courses themselves. Online learning can’t be based on ordinary PowerPoint presentations uploaded to a learning management system (LMS). Nor can it consist of purely video lectures. In order to design genuinely captivating online courses, you need to combine various types of eLearning content and let learners interact with it. Companies purchase all-in-one course authoring toolkits that let them create any content they need, from professional-looking information slides to interactive quizzes with cheat-proof, time-limit, and other parameters. For example, Daghøjskolen, a public adult education school in Denmark, successfully used this approach to create interactive courses for their adult students.

Secondly, learning programs should be easy to access. Some people might not have a lot of time to study. This doesn’t mean they don’t want to learn; they just prioritize their family and work, which is perfectly normal. What universities can do here is get an LMS with a native mobile app. This way, learners can take courses literally anywhere and anytime - even when offline. You might also consider using an authoring tool that provides an accessibility mode for courses. This mode lets you adapt an entire course to people with vision impairment in a click.

Thirdly, online learning programs should be monitored and evaluated. Businesses link training metrics with ROI and consider other factors to measure training effectiveness. ROI might not be that relevant for higher education, but other factors can be used for evaluating learning programs. For example, with an LMS, you can track learner progress in real time (see who takes which courses, how much time they spend completing them, how they pass quizzes, etc.)

Finally, higher education can use online learning to enhance on-campus processes and overcome interpersonal issues. For example, universities can run online interactive role-plays on sexual harassment, racism, and other matters connected with communication skills. Such an activity lets students play out real-life scenarios on challenging topics without being afraid of appearing silly in front of their group or accidentally insulting fellow students during the session.

As for enhancing internal processes, use cases are unlimited and depend on a particular university. For example, Middlesex University used interactive quizzes to train students and librarians to use library resources.

To sum up, higher education can use the best practices of online corporate training to make their online programs more engaging, accessible, and effective for students of different ages and backgrounds. In the same vein of business practices, universities can use online programs not only for academic purposes but also to enhance their internal processes and resolve interpersonal issues in a risk-free environment.