As we enter into a new year and a transformed workplace, it is more urgent than ever for organizations to make an impact and provide professionals with the right learning technology. With the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting the structure of workforces around the world, enterprises have been forced to reckon with not having tools as readily available that are needed to support onboarding, training and skill development for their distributed groups of associates. For high-stakes industries – such as aerospace, energy, health care, manufacturing, law, IT, supply chain and life sciences – the shift to mastery-based learning has become that much more crucial.

Mastery-based learning is designed to ensure professionals are not just passing through the content, but fully comprehending and mastering the material. It often involves levels of capabilities and a curriculum that starts with basic proficiency and goes all the way up to expert classifications. This becomes especially important in high-stakes industries where professionals’ knowledge of their job-critical skills must be verified. Mastery-based learning supports this verification process, which can include passing a knowledge exam or completing hands-on exercises.

This type of approach is more of an investment of time and energy, but the payoff is substantial. Not only does mastery learning improve the quality of work, but in these high-stakes industries, such as health care and manufacturing, it protects the professional from making uninformed decisions that can lead to malpractice suits, heavy fines or even loss of life. This is the reason that this type of educational approach is being adopted by high-stakes industries first.

Why it’s worth the investment

While it has always been important to have qualified training programs for associates, the search now begins for a better overall learning experience. Driven by the pursuit of mastery, the focus in high-stakes industries today is on acquiring professional skills through a more engaging, comprehensive, and consistent learning experience. This can be accomplished through microlearning; instructional content is broken down into easily digestible modules that can accompany a new service product.

By continuously providing professional learners with educational content, the learning experience moves beyond random engagement and toward growth and the accumulation of expertise.

Content and AI meet for a personal learning experience

Content is once again “king” when it comes to courseware, and users are demanding better access. Since this is a must-have feature for enterprises, they are partnering for, acquiring or refreshing their learning content. This has also led to providers managing content from a variety of sources, like video.

However, to reach the ultimate goal of mastery, accessible content is just the starting point. A training program must also drive results through engaging, learner-centric features on the cutting edge of technology. Organizations are at the beginning of the predictive learning era and will start to leverage artificial intelligence to make learning more personal. By adding machine learning to a learning platform, informed training recommendations can be made, locating the appropriate video content down to a specific frame. This type of personalized delivery can streamline the learning process, as well as inform management when the content has not yet been viewed or skipped.

Video learning as a catalyst for knowledge retention

Video learning has been on the rise over the past few years, becoming the go-to learning method for online. Video tutorials help people learn things quickly and efficiently, as it enables microlearning. Microlearning encourages learning engagement by allowing professionals to enhance their skill development throughout the day. Videos can be paused and replayed at the learner’s leisure, ensuring complete comprehension and mastery of the topic before moving forward.

Since hands-on, in-person training has been halted or drastically modified out of caution during the current pandemic, enterprises should be ensuring their learning platform supports video content.

Moving to mastery-based learning in 2021

As an enterprise in a high-stakes industry, the first step to adopting a mastery-based learning strategy in 2021 is to determine the key positions that require critical skills. By understanding what roles are the most vital, the development of a modern curriculum can begin around the skills and levels of mastery required for that job.

It is also important to note that program development should include the needs of certification identification. From there, the courseware development will begin with the selection of a provider and a pilot test, followed by program alterations. The project should have a curriculum development plan for each role that includes what is required for each different level of mastery. After all of this has been completed, the full program launch of mastery-based learning is ready to go.

Following the launch, the team needs to monitor and evaluate how learning is progressing. This is most critical in the highest levels of certification. It is also important to note that time spent in a role may be an important criterion to some levels of mastery and often is a requirement for advancement.

For high-stakes industries, a professional’s industry knowledge and job-critical skills have a direct positive impact on the long-term success of the enterprise. Mastery-based learning delivers a new approach to professional development that enables a higher-skilled workforce.

The continuous delivery of knowledge, along with skill-based certifications, will help to power enterprises, associations and professionals themselves. A more engaged workforce delivers the desired business outcomes. Today’s virtual landscape allows for businesses to embrace continuous learning models and this on-demand training will help learners master the content.

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