We need more cowbell! Wait, I mean video! And by “we”, I mean YOU!

It’s time to start seriously thinking about your enterprise video strategy for 2017. Video has always been preferred by learners. The instructional design community has often lowered the value of video for learning as a passive medium. As the argument goes, one must engage with content in order to learn it. However, despite the arguments, the popularity of video content has skyrocketed on the mainstream internet. And trends in mainstream commercial technology always translate into the enterprise at some point. And video is more than ready for prime time action in the enterprise.

In 2015 CISCO released a report about internet traffic. There are quite a few interesting data points but the one I’ve seen cited most often is about video:

“Globally, consumer internet video traffic will be 80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2019, up from 64 percent in 2014.” – CISCO Visual Networking Index

This is an important data point because it means that enterprise IT infrastructure will need to follow the trend. You can’t expect your employees to be productive if their ability to create, share, and consume video is hampered in any way. Just limiting their experience, and blaming bandwidth cost/issues, will not longer be tolerated.

This is not just a question of the training department requesting a new technology for delivering content. This is an HR issue impacting employee engagement and retention. Millennials understand the need for a secure work infrastructure behind your corporate firewall. But they expect everything behind that firewall to at least function effectively, and similarly to the world outside the enterprise. This is how the next generation employee communicates and stays productive. The businesses that support this will have a distinct competitive advantage.

Outside of the enterprise, employees quickly and easily shoot, edit, and share video content with family, friends, and colleagues. They do it on their mobile devices, and laptops. It’s fast, efficient, and effective. The videos are often both created and shared within the same app. All social apps have some sort of video capabilities these days. This is a trend unlikely to slow down.

Know Your IT Department But Manage Your Own Systems

It often surprises me how many Training Managers do not know anyone personally in their organization’s IT department. Corporate training and L&D solutions have technology components across the board. Even if you are delivering classroom training, you still utilize technology to communicate with attendees, display content within the classroom, and drive in class activities. Get to know someone in IT. It doesn’t need to be the manager/director but that certainly helps.

Every business is at a different point in it’s maturity. Yours may not be ready to support video. That’s okay. You can still prepare yourself and your team for delivering video content. And with the right cloud-based LMS you are no longer at the mercy of their budget cycles and support resources. The right LMS offers a new path to managing the future functionality and productivity of your training team.

Does Your LMS Allow Video File Uploads?

Many learning management systems today still consider the only training course file to be SCORM. The SCORM package is useful for many things, the least of them is delivering video. The SCORM package complicates the entire process. Mobile devices have solved many of the usability issues for you. So, let the device and the system do the heavy lifting.

You need an LMS that allows you to upload any file format as part of your course structure. Litmos has a specific video module that simplifies the video course development and delivery process. The system will also “bookmark” your location if you need to stop viewing the video for any reason. But the many specific features are only the icing on the cake. With an LMS like Litmos, you have everything you need to support your video training strategy.

It’s quite easy to get approvals for an LMS. It’s expected that you have one. You are the training department. They know you need an LMS to run your organization. However, they are less likely to approve the expense of a unique stand-alone video delivery platform.  Luckily, you don’t need their approval for that. When you invest in a system like Litmos you get more than just the ability to manage SCORM courses. You also have the ability and flexibility to re-define what a course is. And delivering video based courses has never been easier. You can deliver learning content/experiences via video simply and easily within the Litmos LMS. And let’s not forget your ability to track usage and generate usage reports. It’s everything you need all in one learning platform.

The future of learning involves the delivery of many different types of experiences. That means delivering many different types of media to different types of devices. Litmos LMS is already ahead of the technology race. Stop waiting for your IT department to upgrade their systems when all you need to do is update yours. Video is a big part of the future of learning. You need to prepare your teams now.