In recent months, the feeling has grown that Corona is finally over. Many continuing education offers are returning to in-person formats, while some remain digital. But what do we actually learn from the past years, and can we perhaps benefit from this experience? A relevant question about the future of continuing education comes from the current mmb Trend Monitor – we want to discuss this with you in this article:

Does Corona force learners to take more personal responsibility?

This exact question emerged as a conclusion of this year's study results in the current edition of the mmb Learning-Delphi Trend Study 2021/2022. After all, the results show that informal learning formats, in particular, are gaining significance. But can this question really be answered so easily? I will at least try.

Disclaimer: We are aware that this question is very general and that there is no ONE answer. Therefore, as the author of this article, I exchanged views in advance with other Blinkies. We would also love to hear your perspective – feel free to share it in the comments! 😊

Recap of the Last Corona Years: How Has Continuing Education Changed?

To delve into the question above, let’s take a short trip through time: In spring 2020, many people had to radically rethink and switch to working and learning digitally overnight due to the first lockdown. The elimination of in-person learning and the transition to digital learning worked more quickly in some areas and less so in others. Many educators developed creative solutions in a very short time.

Since the beginning of 2022, the feeling that 'Corona is finally over' has been spreading more and more. Many supervisors are bringing employees back to the office, and more time is being allocated for continuing education – sometimes even in person. Is everything 'back to normal'? In other areas, digital learning remains and can be understood as an additional gain in continuing education opportunities.

What do we learn from this? Digital learning works! And yet, there is no ONE secret recipe for successful continuing education measures.

Back to the Initial Question: Does Corona Force Us to Take More Personal Responsibility in Learning?

In discussions with my colleague Corinna, we quickly concluded: The question of learners' personal responsibility cannot be answered so simply and brings with it at least 3 additional questions:

1. What Can Learning Look Like?

What does learning even mean? For many, learning in the workplace context is closely linked to traditional continuing education in a seminar room. This contradicts the thesis of increasing personal responsibility. After all, learning in this traditional form is relatively one-sided: Learners listen to a trainer or instructor and hopefully take something useful away for themselves.

However, learning does not always have to be a large-scale continuing education program, as was not possible during the strict Corona lockdown. Learning can also occur in small bites or on demand – exactly at the moment when knowledge is needed. And here comes an important point: This type of learning is often not even recognized as learning.

2. What Does Personal Responsibility Mean?

The question of personal responsibility also remains complex. On one hand, many employees working from home were forced to take care of their own learning process – if there was even time and budgets available. Continuing education primarily took place digitally during the early days of the pandemic, in many cases asynchronously.

This creates new opportunities and challenges for participants, which were less present before: Learners need to take time for themselves to work on their continuing education. They need a suitable place to learn and must take care of the technology themselves. Additionally, they must bring a certain level of discipline to meet these requirements.

3. How Much Pressure is Actually Involved?

But personal responsibility only works if learners are given certain freedoms. After all, self-directed learning does not improve if employees are timed by their supervisors. What does this mean? Whether in the office or at home: If supervisors still determine when a measure seems relevant enough, learners have no responsibility for their own learning process.

Is the Pandemic a Push for Continuing Education?

Corona does not necessarily force learners to take more personal responsibility. Corona makes the necessity of personal responsibility visible.

With this thought from my colleague Corinna, I want to introduce another aspect of this complex question: Many participants only became aware of how much work actually goes into the attended continuing education through digital learning. Before the pandemic, it was much easier to participate in an in-person event, to spend a day in a seminar room, and then simply continue back into daily life after the event was over.

In digital learning, it is different: Often, you have to engage more consciously with the content and find it harder to escape it. Thus, the learning objective becomes clearer than in person. Besides, in digital formats, the learning process usually extends over a longer period.

Especially with asynchronous continuing education measures, learners are required to engage actively. If trainers and continuing education coordinators not only deliver content but also link it with specific tasks (e.g., in the form of quizzes), learners are forced to not only consume content but also process it.

Our Credo: Ditch the Black-and-White Thinking!

What is often forgotten: Digital learning is just as diverse as an in-person seminar. The Corona pandemic can also be seen as a booster here, as there are blended learning formats in digital learning as well. Not every online course has to be asynchronous; for some topics, webinars can help transfer the live character from in-person formats to a digital learning format. From our perspective, it is advisable to build on the newfound personal responsibility of many participants and perhaps even create an entirely new form of learning.

The mmb Trend Monitor also has a suitable suggestion for the future of learning:

⅔ digital learning in the form of informal learning and other virtual formats and ⅓ in-person learning for application-oriented content.

These proportions can, of course, be adjusted individually. In general, the consciously chosen mix of various formats maintains the independence and awareness of learners.

Are you currently planning your next blended learning or e-learning course? Then this tabular overview will help you with the media selection for your online course: Find the media mix for YOUR e-learning [Table]

How Educators and HR Professionals Can Support the Learning Process

When people learn digitally and independently, success often depends on their own motivation. To ensure you reach all participants equally, specific deadlines are a good tool. After all, they would also have had to be present at a certain date in person or in a webinar. In digital learning, it is even more important to schedule fixed learning times so that learners can allocate enough time. Only when a continuing education program is mandatory and this relevance is also palpable will all learners participate conscientiously.

Another motivator can be an aesthetically pleasing presentation: If you can look forward not only to the content but to the entire design, learning becomes almost effortless.

How you can visually enhance your courses has already been shared with you in this article, using our blink.it platform as an example: In 4 Steps from a Boring Online Course to a Successful Highlight.

As so often happens, technology can get in the way, and many participants are already frustrated and discouraged even before starting the continuing education. That doesn't have to happen! Remove all possible fears from learners right from the start: Communicate transparently about the process, record screencasts and explanatory videos for technical setup, and rely on a simple and intuitive tool. Additionally, both learners and you as the organizer need a fundamental learning culture to fully integrate learning into everyday work.

And What is Our Conclusion?

First of all: Great that you made it this far and have absorbed my and our thoughts on the initial question. But what about the increasing personal responsibility due to Corona? As mentioned at the beginning: There are different views. We believe that the learned personal responsibility of learners can be viewed as an advantage, and both educators and participants can build on it.

You Can Support the Personal Responsibility of Your Learners in the Following Ways:

• Set specific deadlines

• Plan sufficient learning times

• Convey the relevance of continuing education

• Make online content visually appealing

• Communicate transparently about the process of continuing education

What do you think? How will the future of continuing education develop, and what role do the learners themselves play? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments – we are curious!