Talk: New trends in L&D revealed at the Festival of Work

The Open University (OU) launched its latest Trends in Learning Report at the CIPD’s Festival of Work. Trends in Learning 2021 report highlights emerging workplace learning and education trends. This year’s report explores five innovations:

• Gratitude as a pedagogy
• Enriched realities
• Best learning moments
• Chatbots in learning
• Evidence-based learning

These trends are taken from another OU report – Innovations in Pedagogy – and are discussed in the context of L&D in the workplace. 

Speaking at the launch were Simon Tindall, Head of Skills and Innovation and Professor Agnes Kukulska–Hulme, who leads the Learning Futures programme at the OU.

Professor Kukulska-Hulme focussed her research on best learning moments and chatbots in learning. She said best learning moments, in particular, resonates with current thinking about how people have and are learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I think it’s very interesting because it makes us reflect on our state of mind and our readiness to learn and how ready are we and how prepared are we to learn at any given time. And also it draws attention to our enjoyment of the learning experience, which is very important.”

The first Trends in Learning report was published in 2012. Many of the innovations identified in the early reports have since flourished in the workplace: MOOCs, social learning, crowd learning, learning analytics and learning beyond the classroom, for example. 

As the pandemic has progressed, Simon thinks employers have become increasingly interested in diversifying their training offer and are willing to try new approaches.

We are seeing a strong interest in learning as a benefit type programmes. We are seeing a lot of interest in employers revamping their existing internal learning platforms and content in new ways.

Simon Tindall, Head of Skills and Innovation at the OU

Click the button below to download the report:

Trends in Learning report