Building an unstoppable partnership

These are indeed interesting times, especially in the world of L&D. There was a time when almost all learning was based on human interaction … and then technology, of all sorts, came along. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, e-learning and mobile learning began to blend with classroom learning and so tech and touch became the norm. In this decade, MOOCs and virtual labs became the norm… but here we are, now wondering whether it will be only tech and no touch. My own view is that while technology will substantially transform the world of learning for the better, the best learning outcomes will still require a combination of ‘Tech and Touch’. 

Companies are now increasingly realizing the significant benefits of leveraging digital learning like being agile and rapidly modifying curriculum to keep pace with business change; personalizing learning to address the specific learning styles of individual learners; the scale benefits of digital learning across geographies and languages; the ease of anytime and anywhere learning in a world where the demarcation of work/personal time has blurred; and of course, balancing the forever surmounting pressure of lowering the cost of training for a large numbers of employees. 

However, companies are realizing that learning outcomes will maximize when there is the right mix of human touch along with digital learning, reasons being, first, humans being social animals learn best through interactions and mutual collaboration; second, interactions and collaboration provide clarity to the mental maps of individuals as the opportunities to discuss and seek clarifications through conversations with teachers become possible; and third, is the human need to practice what we learn, and get feedback on progress from a coach or a peer.

An example of how tech and touch will combine at scale is the IT-ITeS industry’s ambitious ‘FutureSkills’ project that aims to reskill over 1 million of its 4 million employees in the new digital technologies like Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cyber Security, Robotic Process Automation etc., over the next 4-5 years. The industry has come together to catalyze the learning ecosystem in a way that leverages the best partnership between humans + machines through the FutureSkills platform (a NASSCOM initiative, powered by Edcast) powered by an Artificial Intelligence engine that picks up relevant content daily from all kinds of online sources supported by a team of human curators working to ensure it is most useful for learners. 

Another way in which humans and machines are working together is in deployment. While the platform’s AI backbone has a recommendation engine that brings up personalized content for a learner over time, there is a critical additional capability wherein subject matter experts from member firms are curating pathways of the best content/virtual labs and assessments that help learners maximize their learning outcomes. Additionally, while learners can go through detailed online pathways, there are many areas where the preferred recommendation is that learners go through blended learning to get hands-on practice with an instructor and with a peer group working together in a classroom. 

These are just instances that show how technology and human touch have collaborated together to facilitate things that are mission-critical. The reality is that the industry would never have been able to build this aspirational vision of reskilling a million employees if it were not able to leverage the advances in digital learning. However, for this to work and deliver the learning outcomes, we have to ensure we bring in the crucial human touch at the right junctions — the partnership of humans and machines will deliver by far the best outcomes for learning.