Analyst firm Brandon Hall Group recently profiled ETU, with a thorough look at how we fit into the marketplace and how our offerings are impacting our customers. Excerpts from the profile follow below, and for a copy of the full report, click here.

Situational analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic took the instructor-led classroom training out of the learning equation almost overnight, forcing organizations to offer alternatives for a remote workforce. Now a hybrid learning audience has an increased need to apply learning to specific situations as they upskill and reskill to meet changing business needs.

Challenges to the business

Learning skills, processes and technologies that have been in place for years are often not suitable to meet these new and changing demands. Increasingly, companies must prepare employees for a variety of situations and enable them to practice in a safe environment.

Implications for the business

Linking learning to performance and empowering employees to apply what they learn to specific, critical situations will be paramount. Simulations have emerged as a type of experiential learning that can be used widely in a hybrid environment.

Questions to be answered by the business

Companies will have to evolve quickly to meet the changing needs of learners, whether they are on-site, working from home or alternating between the two. Linking learning to performance and empowering employees to apply what they learn to specific, critical situations will be paramount.

ETU as the answer

ETU brings a wealth of behavioral science to the creation of engaging, impactful simulations that can help develop real-world, business-critical skills. ETU’s solutions are not about conveying knowledge, but empowering people to perform better across a range of skills.

Part of what makes ETU simulations so effective is that they begin with measurement. This is a critical strategy for any learning program. But for simulations, it is especially important as the information gleaned will optimize the learner journey. Learners can “test out” of material they do not need to review and “test up” to new levels of learning.

The latest Learning Simulation Platform (LSP) release – in April 2022 -- enables learning architects and designers to better guide learners to the specific content required. The new release also enhances accessibility; the closed captions capability allows subtitle tracks in the simulations and is also useful for translation into multiple languages.

Simulations are co-developed across the full range of critical skills with extensive experience demonstrated in six categories: leadership development, sales and service, diversity, equity and inclusion, onboarding, compliance and risk, and digital transformation.

The business benefits from the results of these simulations and from the real-time measurement. Leaders can see just how learners are interacting with the material and how their skills are progressing, which is far more insightful than a completion report and a quiz grade. This type of immersive learning can be deployed within whatever current learning environment and organization has, and the simulations work just as well on mobile devices as they do on a desktop or laptop.

ETU estimates seat-time savings of up to 40%, with accurate assessment, personalized learning journeys, rapid and efficient delivery at scale and seamless integration with any LMS. Approximately 1 million users have taken more than 500 simulations across 50 topics.

The impact can be huge. IBM needs to continuously upskill a huge workforce and could get to only about 5,000 employees per year through traditional learning. With ETU simulations on leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence, the learner target by the end of this year is 15,000 with a long-term goal of 100,000 learners per year. With reduced seat time compared to traditional learning, IBM could realize up to $16 million in savings by the time it reaches the 100,000 learner level.

It’s important to note the simplicity and efficiency of ETU’s Simulation Builder. The templates and frameworks make it easy for almost anyone to create an effective simulation quickly, removing one of the barriers that keep companies from exploring simulation-based learning.

Organizations that have thought of simulations as either too far-fetched or too expensive should take another look. The kind of simulations being created by ETU provides the kind of application and reinforcement organizations have typically been unable to deliver.