Area9 Lyceum Blog

Area9 Rhapsode™ Adaptive Learning Technology Used for Healthcare Worker Training in Tanzania

Every year, more than 5 million children under the age of five die. According to the United Nations, four out of five of those deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia—and many of them due to causes that are largely preventable and treatable, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, sepsis, and malaria.

As eCampusOntario looked to improve the readiness of specialized trades students in three high-impact apprenticeships, it recognized the potential of advanced adaptive learning technology to help learners assess their knowledge and close skill gaps.

Area9 Lyceum is pleased to announce a partnership agreement with MTW of Portugal, a strategic communications consulting firm that specializes in training for national and international leaders across multiple industries.

Back in the middle of October I sat down with Christopher Lind as part of his Learning Tech Talks. In this wide ranging discussion we dove into the state of the learning industry and the role that adaptive learning can and will play in dramatically improving learning outcomes for everyone. 

The three hottest topics in Donald H. Taylor’s L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2019 are personalization, artificial intelligence (AI), and learning analytics. Although these are separate topics on the survey, they come together in one place: adaptive learning, in the application of AI to learning data to achieve personalized outcomes.

As algorithms and robotics take over lower-level jobs, and people need to be retrained and equipped with higher-order skills, traditional learning falls short. Corporate learning and development (L&D) must move toward innovative solutions, such as combining the personalization of adaptive learning to build knowledge with “activity-based learning” to put that knowledge into practice.

Innovations in pharmaceutical and medical technology—gene therapies, stem-cell treatments, and other cutting-edge therapeutic approaches—demand intensive training, both inside and outside the company. Adaptive learning offers a proven approach.

The traditional assumption that completing a course generates knowledge and skills that are retained long-term and can be built upon is flawed. The majority of what is studied never makes the transition to long-term memory. Building and maintaining proficiency over time requires “refreshing” by revisiting the material in targeted ways.

Even the best instructional strategy will fail if it ignores one basic fact: humans are really good at forgetting things. Good news: reinforcement through deliberate practice solves this problem, and adaptive learning does this automatically.

A focus on quick fixes results in learning and development (L&D) “technical debt” that is too great for companies to bear today, given greater demands to build proficiencies throughout their workforce. By understanding what cutting-edge adaptive learning looks like, companies can take the first step toward paying down technical debt and improving L&D with a truly personalized approach.

To level the playing field of future job opportunities, all workers must be reskilled to meet the ever-increasing demands of the technology-enabled workplace. This requires the “rulebook” for learning to be rewritten, no longer assuming a distribution curve in performance, but rather seeing everyone as capable of achieving proficiency and mastery, provided they are given the targeted support and time they need.

New talent development approaches are driving the thinking around hiring vs. retraining to respond to rapidly evolving technology, a global skills shortage, and the cost of continuously hiring new talent. As employers grapple with their talent demands, a conversation around reskilling must occur among managers, corporate leaders, HR, and chief learning officers (CLOs).