"Every employee needs certain digital skills for e-learning to be successful" – But what exactly does that mean? In this article, we clarify the term and give you tips that EVERYONE can use to participate in digital further education.
What does digital competence actually mean?
In our increasingly digitized society, digital competence is one of the most important skills for employees. But what does it mean to be digitally competent?
"Digital competence describes the ability to navigate in a digitized world, to learn and to work in it." – Wikipedia
Digital competence is also one of the eight key competencies for lifelong learning. This means it affects every employee!
The digital transformation not only leads to job-specific changes. Many companies expect a fundamental shift in the competency requirements of their employees. A study from KOFA (Competence Center for Skilled Workers) researched which competencies gain significance in the context of digitization:
IT user knowledge
Independence, planning, and organizational skills
Cooperation and communication skills
Professional and IT expertise
Leadership skills
The results clearly show that dealing with technical applications is becoming increasingly important and that these are used for many more tasks. Of course, the demands and the extent of the required digital competencies can vary depending on the role or task in the company. However, the most important basics should be mastered by every employee. After all, they need these competencies not only for their work in the company but also for participating in e-learnings.
5 tips on how every employee can participate in e-learning
1. Reduce the fear of "tech newcomers"
Often it is the older employees who have fewer digital skills. This naturally leads to higher skepticism; furthermore, they are familiar with the advantages of multi-day in-person seminars and do not want to miss them. Especially support these employees and explicitly promote competencies in dealing with digital tools and creating digital content. We have already explained in detail in the blog how to convince tech skeptics.
2. Check the current knowledge level
Before you start planning your content, you should assess your employees' knowledge level. This is especially important in cross-departmental e-learnings, as competency differences can vary greatly. An IT professional will likely have a better understanding of programming languages than a sales employee.
Provide them with appropriate learning materials that match their knowledge gaps. If the knowledge level varies significantly, adaptive learning is a good solution.
3. Provide every employee with good onboarding
To keep knowledge differences as low as possible from the start, you should provide every employee with a comprehensive onboarding. It is particularly important in e-learning that every employee is informed from the beginning about the following points:
What is the goal of the e-learning?
How does the e-learning officially proceed?
How can they get help with technical questions?
How can they get help with content-related questions?
How long does the e-learning last?
On which devices can they do the e-learning?
4. Explain complex content using examples
Explaining extensive or complicated content simply is challenging even in direct conversation; it doesn’t get any easier in e-learning. Therefore, it is advisable to always explain complex topics using examples.
In some cases, it might even make sense to wrap the learning content in a story. In the sense of the storytelling method, your story agent pursues a mission or is presented with a problem in order to find a solution at the end.
5. Use easily accessible technology
The most important tip comes last: Don’t make it harder for your employees than necessary and rely on simple technology for e-learning. Especially when their digital competence is less pronounced, new software can quickly overwhelm and demotivate.
A learning platform like blink.it is the perfect solution for tech beginners or employee groups with varying digital competencies. The clear design is intuitive to use, even without a lengthy introduction. This also saves you time as an HR professional. Additionally, you can incorporate playful elements like quizzes and short videos to make your e-learning as appealing as possible.
Digital competence: Take the quick test now!
What is the status of your employees' digital competencies? Be a good role model and check your own skills as well. After all, you can only help your employees if you are digitally competent yourself.
Looking at the quick test makes it clear that not all employees can be at the same competency level. No problem! With our tips, all employees can participate in e-learning.
Our 5 most important tips for e-learning at a glance:
Alleviate the fears of tech skeptics
Check the current level of digital knowledge
Good onboarding for every employee
Explain complex content with examples
Use simple technology for e-learning
Make it as easy as possible for you and your employees; after all, they should focus on the learning content. For this to succeed, good planning and simple technology are crucial. Remember that especially older employees often struggle with complicated software. Use a simple learning platform like blink.it for your e-learning and collect all learning content in one course. This way, you can be sure that every employee can access it and actually work on it. Additionally, you can regularly remind them of your e-learning by sending them an email, for example.
