The inevitable move to digital learning from face-to-face training is only the beginning of this story. There are deeper shifts happening, including the types of solution that L&D teams are finding the most successful and the ways people are choosing to learn. And these changes - some of which have been talked about for years under the guise of digital transformation - have happened almost overnight.

Some key headlines include the following:

• Learning priorities and L&D strategy have changed for 94% of organisations in response to the pandemic, with two in three making significant changes to what they do and how they do it.
• Unsurprisingly, there has been a major swing to digital learning, with spend increasing on almost all areas of digital, led by content. Some 82% report that demand for digital learning has increased from senior stakeholders, whilst 71% have experienced an increased demand for digital learning content from learners themselves.
• Traditional eLearning shows signs of waning both in terms of adoption but also significantly in terms of perceived success. Video content is the highest rated in supporting organisations throughout the COVID-19 crisis so far, closely followed by curated content. Bespoke eLearning, off-the-shelf courses, and blended learning are all reported to be less successful.
• Meanwhile, as people get used to working remotely and in virtual teams, collaboration is becoming a key priority. Eighty-four percent of L&D leaders think it is more important to integrate digital learning into other corporate platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Trello.
• So-called learning experience platforms, as well as collaborative learning specialist platforms, are rated as the most successful systems after - predictably - virtual classrooms.
   

David Perring, director of research at Fosway Group said, "When you are in the middle of a crisis, it's sometimes difficult to step back and appreciate quite how far you've come in a short space of time. Yes, we've seen the virtualisation of classroom training as a quick win to cope with the immediate crisis. But what the data is telling us is that the pandemic has also been a catalyst for a much deeper adoption of digital learning. It is one that has accelerated how organisations embrace more collaborative learning, more curated content, microlearning, and video-based solutions - which will mean that L&D will never be the same again!"

This research was carried out via an online survey with Fosway's corporate research network during May 2020. The interim results are based on input from 108 enterprise organisations.