Liqvid English Language Lab

How Role Plays Help in Extended Enterprise Training

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People empowered by technology are the biggest asset for businesses to compete in today’s cut-throat world. And businesses aren’t stopping at hiring the best talent and investing in their training; they are also broadening their focus to include those in the “extended enterprise.” These external stakeholders, who can play a pivotal role in a business’s success, include affiliates, franchisees, vendors, consultants, business partners, even customers.

Businesses realize that to deliver enhanced customer experiences, helping their extended enterprises become more effective is as important as building solid relationships. And that’s why it’s critical to invest in extended enterprise training.

This goes back years. Japanese auto manufacturers famously helped their suppliers be more effective back in 1993 by sharing their approaches to success and collaborating with them to make better products and cars. Big tech companies like Salesforce, Microsoft, Amazon run their own “partner programs.” The list is endless.

Extended enterprise training is a “must-have” for the huge benefits they bring. Better revenue, strengthened brand, reduced risk, and improved business processes are just a few, but significant ones. It makes sense that those businesses are constantly looking out for ways to make their extended enterprise training efficient. And role plays have emerged as one of the most effective modes of doing so.

How to use role plays effectively in extended enterprise training?

Role plays are an effective method of training for better retention and performance. Let’s understand how you can implement role plays as part of your extended enterprise training.

Product training: You can’t expect to engage the extended enterprise teams with the same old interactive manuals, videos and linear eLearning courses. Train them on product features and benefits through complex branching scenarios revealing information on each path. Demonstrate the functionalities through an interactive mascot or a guide. Build gradual curiosity in learners prompting them to ask questions and learn in-depth. 

Sales training: Identify the areas where sales teams are likely to face challenges and build role plays to equip them to handle those sales scenarios. Digital role plays are excellent for practicing the elevator pitch, demonstrating products and solutions, fielding typical customer objections, and learning negotiations in a safe environment. Strategically use digital role plays to prepare sales teams to face classroom practice sessions with sales managers or leaders.

Customer support training: No one benefits from role plays based training than people in customer support roles. Understand the profiles of the customers, their expected behaviors, and possible concerns that your extended enterprise teams might face and create role plays with branching scenarios for each customer profile. Prepare them to keep calm while interacting with customers in all situations. Equip them with specific product knowledge and soft skills to navigate complex customer interactions.    

Conclusion

Often the training materials given to extended enterprises are overlooked because they are boring and conventional. You can change the way extended enterprise training is done by changing the approach. Help everyone in your extended network learn with the same zeal as your direct employees. Make them feel emotionally connected with your products and solutions through a digital mascot or a guide. Give them a better brand experience that they can further extend to their customers. Role plays as the training approach makes this possible. 

Organizations must convince stakeholders to invest in extended enterprise training. Empowering your network to excel with product training and also helping them develop the necessary soft skills to succeed will add to your bottom line. Organizations widely deploy our off-the-shelf English language training as a part of their extended enterprise training solution. Our interactive templates for role plays make creating business simulations and branching scenarios really fast and affordable. They are customizable and can be used for any industry and audience.

There is no need to provide boring digital catalogs or customary page-turner eLearning courses when you can offer interactive role plays on mobile phones for busy executives. Talk to us to overhaul your extended enterprise training. We will take the role plays route to make your training stand out.

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Liqvid Online Language Lab

EdTech: Five Areas to Focus in 2022 and Beyond

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Venture capital in the EdTech industry has grown exponentially since 2010. It was $16.1 billion in 2020, but by 2022, the industry has attracted close to $50 billion in funding! And though all the regions are growing, Asia makes up 80% of all global VC dollars. It’s a reflection of the growing demand for disruptive technology in education.

The past two years accelerated the change the industry was already going through and we have much more to look forward to in 2022 and beyond. Here are the five areas to focus on:

1. AI-enabled adaptive learning

AI is already being used extensively in learning curriculums. 2022 will only see an acceleration of this trend to create effective personalized and interactive learning experiences, which can help resolve most of the challenges the industry is facing today. Leveraging dynamic AI, education providers can enable learners to take hyper-personalized journeys by interpreting the interests of each student and predicting their behavior to offer them the exact content that they need.

For instance, Singapore-based Vere360 uses AI and VR to offer quality education for social issues and skills development. The platform partners with several knowledge partners to build content easily accessible through a VR education app. Other examples include:

>> Smart Sparrow, whose adaptive learning platform adapts through modules and offers interactive quizzes and simulations.

>> IBM Research, in association with Skillsoft, launched an adaptive learning pilot program to offer adaptive data over user-content interactions, content relationships, and consumption patterns.

2. Gamification

Gamification isn’t new; it has been in use in classrooms and corporate board rooms for years with numerous hackathons and coding challenges. In 2022, however, gamification is bound to become a mainstay with the domination of the Metaverse. Most of the learners across the corporate world and students at all levels are digital natives and already have high expectations of digital applications. This year would see elements in the EdTech companies’ strategies, where learners can create their own content and collaborate. Even educators will use resources created by game designers, giving students sufficient challenges to keep them interested.

For instance, Brainscape has customized gamification through flashcards with an extensive list of topics, where learners can create their own cards or ask the program to make the cards for them. Another famous example is Duolingo – the language learning app, where lessons are grouped in skills, and they gradually teach you vocabulary and phrases. Learners can choose daily goals, and a notable element is their “Immersion area,” which lets you practice your language skills by translating texts in a special wiki-style, collaborative system.

3. Immersive learning with VR/AR

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies started in the gaming industry first before being adopted by the EdTech industry as an effective means of learning. The technologies help learners eliminate distractions and immerse themselves in their work. It’s also proven to be a very handy tool for students with ADD/ADHD. For instance, in 2022, teachers will increasingly use AR to teach students real-life lessons, like creating a tornado and bringing the funnel right into the classroom so students can experience these destructive storms close up.

Microsoft HoloLens has developed an interesting way to teach medical students and clinicians to interact and learn more about the human body using mixed reality. Learners can isolate, enlarge, and even walk inside the components of the human body to understand anatomy and learn how to treat different medical conditions.

4. Video-assisted learning

Videos – whether they are short or targeted clips – are huge already. And they have some proven benefits to different aspects of learners’ development and educational progress. 2022 will see more enhancements in video-assisted learning not just as a learning pedagogy but to enhance inclusivity and cultural awareness.

Teachers will use educational technologies, like whiteboards, to make their lessons varied, dynamic, and interactive. EdTech companies will increasingly use video clips or short videos to bring up a new discussion point in their courses, rather than just uploading videos on platforms for learners to watch later.

5. Learning flexibility 

2022 is also going to be the year for flexibility in learning. Technology has made our lives enriching and the same flexibility will come to learning content as well. In 2021, we spoke about the end of the 9-5 routine. Gone will be the days when there will be fixed one-or two-year academic programs. With the advent of more streamlined virtual learning tools and video conferencing, learners will be able to pursue education when, where, and at the pace that suits them best.

Higher and professional education is leveraging technology to break from the routine timelines. For instance, Birmingham Business School recently introduced its 100% online MBA program that can be completed in anything from two-and-a-half to five years. This flexibility also has a name – the hybrid-flexible model, or HyFlex, defined as simultaneously hybrid instruction (a combination of online and face-to-face), and flexible. Learners can choose to attend face-to-face or learn online.

While in 2022

2022 is an exciting year for EdTech, thanks to organizations and educators for leveraging a connected world and delivering media-rich, student-centric solutions to help learners across the globe. But as the methodologies become more accessible and interactive, technologies and expertise need to keep up with the learners’ growth aspirations. A reliable digital learning partner can help with that.

Liqvid has two decades of eLearning design and delivery experience across instructional design methodologies, content authoring tools, and learning management systems. We are the partner of choice for several reputed EdTech and extended enterprise training providers—helping them take their programs to market faster in the most efficient way. Our approach is to create personalized learning experiences for every user of the digital learning programs we deliver for our clients. We have developed hundreds of interactive templates, AI tools, and learning apps that enable our clients to hit the ground running in this fast-paced EdTech market. Contact us!

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