Real-World Learning Analytics: Visa

What are common L&D challenges you've encountered, and how do you recommend preventing or addressing them?

Don’t assume everyone in your company wants to learn. But don’t assume they aren’t interested in learning.

I know there are people who just aren't comfortable reading an article or book, watching a video, or taking a course or session and then feeling confident enough to apply what they learned.

Be relentless in your vision and flexible with the details of how you approach understanding and improving a culture of learning.

Why is it important to know where people's passions lie? Are they more productive, more fulfilled, etc.? And what does that mean for the organization?

Knowing where an individual’s passion lies is like knowing what will make him or her happy.

If we can structure development around what makes people happy and align that to the business goals, then we’ve just created the potential for a multiplier effect.

Organizationally, you can have a more intimate connection to individual learner preferences. For a manager, this could be the difference between engaged employees who create new paths for themselves versus declining engagement that leads your people out of the team or, even worse, the organization.

What are L&D professionals missing by not incorporating xAPI into their programs?

They’re missing out on the re-evaluation or reimagination of how data can be a part of their futures. If we are going to be strategic partners to the business, we need to be more data driven with our stories. To shape better data-driven stories to validate that learning fitness is good for business, we need to combine:

• key learning moments that contribute to exceptional leadership experiences, and
• a better understanding of how these leaders are learning, how often, and from what sources.

How can xAPI and/or data help build partnerships across an organization?

Data takes the emotion out of telling a story. This is the best starting point when aligning to a business strategy.

I am not suggesting we don’t still apply some level of experience, expertise, and collaborative approaches to making the final decision, but data will help guide a team in a direction that is fact based. From here, the remaining supporting commentary can help elevate the benefits of making additional investments or pivoting in a new direction.

Up Next: Learning Operations Analytics

Join us next week as Mike Rustici shares a "bonus" category of learning analytics—learning operations analytics. Don't miss out! Sign up for Watershed Insights to receive L&D industry updates, helpful advice, and more!