COVID 19 has triggered a wave of fast and significant change in all aspects of our lives. It has also created a search for new knowledge as we learn new ways to do things and unlearn old ways too.

At an organisational level, digital transformation has gone from a good idea to mandatory overnight, and whilst this presents many opportunities, it has also taken some adjustment. Short term this has been about managing the transition to remote and virtual working, but longer term the focus will need to shift to what it will take to professionally adapt and thrive in a new working era.   

Learning and Continual Professional Development is at the very forefront of this new era. However, finding the quality of content and support in a sea of options is harder than it needs to be, and very time consuming. Indeed, times may have changed but that doesn’t mean time is more available. The opposite in fact with research showing that people have just 24 minutes outside of their normal working week to learn something new.

So, making learning and professional development more convenient and more tailored to personal career plans and shifts will be critical.

Memberships organisations have an important role to play here. Across industries people want to advance their career and build their capabilities and join a membership organisation in the hope that the experts will be the best route to do so. They set the standards, certify the achievements, and are masters of the knowledge members are searching for. 

They have all the assets needed to learn: the diagnostics such as professional standards, competency frameworks, assessments, and qualifications. And the content in the form of CPD, PDFs, webinars, events, and training courses.

However, what many of these organisations lack is a digital platform that can co-ordinate and package all of their assets into an engaging and personalised learning experience for their members – one that becomes addictive and vital, adding tremendous value to their membership. One capable of retaining current members and attracting a whole new generation.

A guide to the essentials elements that make an engaging digital learning platform

So, to help Membership organisations we wanted to share what we know is essential and works when it comes to creating digital learning platforms and enabling them to see what they are capable of.

The most important starting point is to design the platform around the user journeys that the members will experience. These should be bespoke and relevant to each Membership organisation as they are all different. As opposed to shoehorning off the shelf technology to try and meet your needs which tends to result in disappointing and unengaging user experience. The design should also include these elements:

  1. A common taxonomy to which all content, courses, events, and frameworks are mapped.
  2. Diagnostics that create pull into your learning platform and enable members to see their strengths and learning opportunities.
  3. Personalised journeys that map to these opportunities and enable access to quality content on any device.
  4. Bite-sized content that’s easily digestible, on-demand to any device and holds people’s attention for longer.
  5. Capture and monitoring tools so members can easily demonstrate their CPD, knowledge, and skills against set frameworks, standards, or personal goals.
  6. Seamless integration with existing platforms including CRM, website, LMS, CMS.
  7. Back end reporting to provide the data to monitor and make informed decisions with.

Membership organisations who invest in the right digital learning and CPD will stay at the forefront of their industries as things change, and importantly, so will the talent these industries rely on. That’s what we call a win-win.

At Meta Capability, we partner with membership organisations using their industry expertise to create bespoke learning platforms that add value to the membership and draw their members closer. If you want to help everyone in your industry see what they are capable of and get ahead in this new working era, get in touch today.

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