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“Just in time” Learning in a society of immediacy:
“Just in time” Learning is about presenting information at the moment of need and in the learner’s context in order to optimize certain learning processes.
Modern learners expect information to be readily available as soon as they need it, and this approach can help align with employees’ expectations regarding training.
As such, it can be an excellent way to meet the demands of a knowledge-hungry audience and a speed-driven market.
This concept is not new, but we want to bring it back into focus. Most importantly, we want to give it a digital dimension that has become indispensable today.
In our article on learning in the flow of work, we looked at digital trends and how these trends are forcing a rethinking of traditional SaaS platforms.
We discussed at length the rise in the number of SaaS platforms available to employees and the need for these platforms to seriously address integration with other tools if they want to avoid a sharp decline in usage.
If “just in time” is indeed a pragmatic approach that aims to prioritize the information we need most urgently, then the real question is: “just in time for what?”
In fact, advanced learning ecosystems already integrate workforce planning, skills frameworks, job mapping, and more. This allows us to answer the question “just in time for what?” and, in doing so, truly enable “just in time.”
One of the pillars of “just in time” is “learning in the flow of work.” This means delivering training within our productivity applications (Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Apps, CRM, Microsoft Office, social networks, and so on) and in the right context. For example, suggesting an Excel tutorial when someone is working in Excel.
It is undeniable that this digital integration of SaaS tools is one of the major challenges of the new decade. This is especially true for digital learning platforms, which often struggle to generate consistent usage and face strong competition from platforms employees consider “essential.”
However, the principle of “just in time” goes beyond learning in the flow of work.
It involves not only the digital integration of learning content into the productivity tools used daily but also a physical integration.
Here are some examples and figures that show how use cases are already present in our daily lives.
With the evolution of IoT technologies, it is possible to deliver training in the right context, including in physical environments. The global smartphone penetration rate has recently surpassed 75 percent. Companies are offering cheap geolocation beacons . These technologies are becoming accessible to everyone.
As the boom of applications such as Yuka suggests, we are increasingly using barcodes and QR codes to obtain information, and relying less and less on search engines.
Today it is therefore possible to contextualize information and training in physical spaces, anytime and anywhere, whether in offices, factories, stores, or schools.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could accelerate and improve the onboarding of new employees by giving them the opportunity to discover their workplace (stores, offices, factories) through virtual reality?
If we could meet our colleagues and quickly understand their role in the company, while walking through the premises and receiving contextualized information via geolocation beacons?
Improve safety in factories by reminding workers of safety rules in real time?
Get rid of 200 page user manuals and access the information we need simply by scanning a QR code?
Learn everything about a product by scanning its barcode or even just by taking a picture?
Send notifications about the latest training content available, whether compliance related or not, company news, or content recommendations?
The applications are endless, it is up to you to imagine them.
As you can see, Just in time Learning is about making access to content as simple as possible and delivering it in the right context and at the right moment. Content must reach the user, not the other way around. This, whenever it is needed, everywhere, and at all times.
Our solution is mobile-first and desktop-second, for this reason.
What better medium than mobile to receive notifications, scan QR Codes or barcodes, get detected by tags or have access to increased or virtual reality?
In a context where most of the content will be provided in our work applications, where training content tends to reduce in duration and increase in frequency, in a context where learning is becoming more and more fun, where there are more and more sources of content and where many employees do not have access to a computer, isn’t the mobile the ideal access point?
As you will have understood, contextual learning is all about simplifying the access to content as well as providing it in the right way. The content should go to the user and not the other way around. That is to say, when they need it, everywhere, all the time.
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