Pandemic and Brexit Prompt Surge in Online Learning and Assessment
Over the last year – faced with Covid-19 and Brexit among other issues - people have become a lot clearer about what matters to them and, therefore, their priorities in work and life. Lockdown has given people time to re-evaluate their lives and reassess their priorities.
“At least, that’s what our customers – especially those in the public sector – have been telling us,” said Wendy Edie, Managing Director of the digital learning and assessment specialists, eCom Scotland. “Among those priorities are wanting to work in a more eco-friendly way, including taking advantage of virtual meetings via technology rather than travelling for relatively short face-to-face meetings.
“The same mindset appears to be operating when it comes to developing new knowledge and skills – to cope with the demands of the ‘new normal’ workplace,” Wendy added.
“Consequently - to judge by our sales and the usage of our products and platforms - our customers are showing a marked preference for engaging in online learning. They tell us that this gives them access to high quality, state-of-the-art content wherever they are and whenever they want to learn via an LMS (eNetLearn, for example). They also have access to their online assessments (via eNetAssess) and there are even digital badges they can work for – to show their competence (using eNetBadges).
“And they tell us that all this can happen efficiently and effectively without hurting the planet through travel to classroom-delivered training courses.”
As a company whose suite of digital learning and assessment products is available via G-Cloud 12, the UK Government’s framework for cloud-delivered ICT goods and services on the Digital Marketplace, eCom is committed to providing social value as a key component of all products and services. eCom is fully committed to ‘green’ and ‘net zero’ initiatives and continues to pursue these opportunities.
“So,” Wendy commented, “customers can be confident that they’re accessing the most eco-friendly learning materials and products – and, thus, are not just learning new work-related knowledge and skills efficiently and effectively but they’re also playing a vital role in speeding progress towards climate goals.”
A report of this customer research by eCom has been published in The Glasgow Herald - which, dating from 1783, is the longest running national newspaper in the world and the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. That report is at: https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/19177562.pandemic-brexit-prompt-surge-online-learning-assessment/