2018 Learning Trends in Cloud Computing Industry

Today enterprises spend over $3 trillion in IT of which about $114 billion moved to cloud in 2016. By 2020, enterprises will spend over $216 billion per year in cloud services. Per a study conducted by LinkedIn, cloud and distributed computing skills are the most sought after skills globally. As enterprises move their workloads to cloud, training and enablement will play a vital role in bridging the skill gap, thus driving adoption and successful deployments.

Here are what I see as top 2018 learning trends:

• Democratization of content: In 2018, we will see more professionals outside of the training team contributing in creation of content. The concept of crowd sourcing will evolve in a big way with solution architects, professional services, and support organizations creating the content. Customers and partners will also contribute content as they implement the cloud computing solutions and identify new use cases and design and implementation best practices. This trend will see the role of training organizations evolving. Training teams will act more as a strategy and content curation arm providing tools and templates to the subject matter experts to develop the content and then curating the content.
• ML and AI driven customized learning paths: Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will play a key role in 2018. Algorithms will be used to create customized learning paths for the learners based on the topics they have recently learned about, sites they have accessed and people they have followed or interacted with on social media. These learning paths will be “living and breathing” learning paths that will change automatically based on the change in user preferences tracked through their social behavior.
• Adaptive learning: In 2018, we will see adaptive learning emerging in a big way. When it comes to training, one size doesn’t fit all. Learners come from various backgrounds, skill levels and experiences, and their training needs are different. Not everyone needs to sit through the complete duration of training to be able to get the most out of it. Adaptive learning methodology allows learners to move quickly through the concepts that they already know and focus on the concepts that they need to build skills on. In 2018, we will see more organizations using adaptive learning platform like one from Area9 to train their customers, partners and employees to reduce the training time and increase productivity.
• Micro learning: Micro learning as a concept has been in the training industry for a few years now and it will continue to be a trend in 2018 as well. Studies prove that the retention is better when information is delivered in bite-size pieces focusing on a single topic.
• Hands-on experience embedded in eLearning: Hands-on experience is key to developing skills especially when it comes to technology. In 2018, we will see lab delivery platforms emerging and labs being embedded with the eLearning to ensure that the learners do not miss out on the hands on experience. This trend will bring eLearning very close to the traditional instructor led hands on training methodology.
• Social learning: To scale and provide their global learner base with a continuous learning environment where they learn not just from experts but also from each other, more companies will adopt a social learning platform such as Konnect to host their eLearning trainings in 2018. The social learning platforms will also be used for customer evangelism on which the practitioners from within and outside the organization can share their experiences and help build a latent sales force in customers. Digital badges and gamification will be used to motivate the learners and encourage them to collaborate.

Innovation in technology is opening a new world of innovation in the training industry and I am excited to see how these emerging trends in the training industry will help drive the cloud computing business in 2018.

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