1.1.1 Background to the Volume
The purpose of this section is to introduce the reader to the main themes of the book. It seeks to outline the key context and concepts explored across the chapters and enables the reader to examine the importance of understanding future trends in Human Resource Development (HRD) across the globe. The idea of producing this volume arose from the 20th University Forum for Human Resource Development (UFHRD) conference in Nottingham. Participants across the globe travelled to the city to advance HRD thinking and practices and, together, celebrate the achievement of the HRD community. This was a great platform to debate how organisations prepare themselves to address future HRD in establishing effective organisations. It was the beginning of a journey to produce a set of chapters that offer the reader insightful knowledge on how to address future challenges and opportunities. It is simply not enough to highlight the important role of academic debate in organisational development, but resources that can have a meaningful impact upon organisational and individual thinking must also be produced. It is essential to explore how HRD influences organisations and individuals from a multi-level perspective. This entails considering the effect of context, both internally and externally, as well as employee perceptions and understanding of HRD and what this means for learning, creativity and growth. Covid-19 reinforces this point and the need for HRD to shape future practices including innovation, performance, flexibility, well-being and management behaviour. The scale of the change is extraordinary as the pandemic has drastically changed, in just a few days, the way we work, communicate, socialise and learn. The range of the latter is not restricted to organisations or employment. Millions of children and higher education students across the world are studying at home, many in the case of the latter with support from academic staff now also facilitating learning from home. Some degree of such a scenario will remain with us for a foreseeable time. Home study is not, however, exclusively focused on formal learning contexts with many people taking advantage of tuition provided by professionals in, for example, cooking, baking, gardening and a wide range of crafts. Those learners and those providing tuition are doing so as a means of occupying some of the time that has become available to them because of the pandemic requirements to stay at home and are using technology to facilitate learning. Therefore, this volume could not be more timely given the new realities that everyone is now facing. People need to rethink how they learn, how they implement learning activities, identify new methods of learning resources and, most importantly, how technology can change the way HRD is understood and conceptualised by the academic and professional communities.
On a personal level, it was sometimes difficult to understand existing management perceptions in addressing organisational HRD needs. We believe that any attempt to fully utilise HRD principles requires sufficient knowledge (both at individual and at organisational level), effective leadership skills and appropriate assessment of the wider business environment. It is now the time to take effective actions in changing old-fashioned perceptions on learning and development and offer the space where organisations can feel secure in making effective changes through evidence-based information. In an increasingly technology-driven business environment, significant changes are taking place which are challenging long-standing assumptions about the nature of work and the roles that humans will play in the workforce of the future (Schwab 2016; Manyika et al. 2017). Digitalisation is a significant and influential factor in shaping the roles of humans in future workforces, hence the title and focus of this volume. The following section provides a further assessment of how HRD can respond to some of the challenges associated with digitalisation and related changes in the future.
1.1.2 Status and Future of Digitalisation and HRD
Loon (2017) lists fifteen learning technologies current at the time of writing his book. These include virtual learning environments; digital/learning repository and document sharing tools; blogs (and vlogs); media streaming systems and video learning; synchronous communication tools; digital/video games; simulation games and mobile learning (p. 8). Some of these have come to the fore in response to Covid-19. For example, virtual learning environments have long been established but have probably been the saviour of being able to continue provision of higher education courses which have switched to online learning across the world. Synchronous communication tools such as MS Teams and Zoom have been the lifeline of many business operations by facilitating staff meetings, client/customer interactions and other processes carried out from homes rather than from or in offices. The technologies in the list are also being utilised to deliver and facilitate learning required to prepare for a return to work during the crisis; for example, training employees on how requirements for continued social distancing will be met in workplaces.
The final item on Loonās list is the ubiquitous āotherā and thus implies more than the fifteen discussed in detail. Two forms of technology that enabled learning but are not specifically mentioned in the list are Webinars and Massive Open Online Course (MOOCS). Webinars can utilise a range of software and be incorporated into learning platforms and virtual learning environments. They have been found to be welcomed by learners as a development tool (Gegenfurtner et al. 2020). However, Gegenfurtner et al. (2020) make a number of points on possible drawbacks in the use of webinars. These include the length, timing and opportunities for interaction with those delivering the webinar. They also make the point that strong and reliable internet connections and bandwidth are essential requirements, which varies across countries. That point could, of course, apply to most forms of digital learning. MOOCS is an acronym for Massive Open Online Courses. Then use of the word ācoursesā may suggest learning associated with education and qualifications. This impression may be reinforced by the origins of MOOCS in open educational resources, and so early MOOCS being made available by universities. However, while many are still provided by universities, this is no longer the case and other providers are now active. Those still provided by universities are also not necessarily linked to qualifications and can be taken for whatever reason an individual has for engaging in them. There is also no reason why employing organisations cannot take advantage of MOOCS by recommending selected courses to their employees as a means of meeting their development needs or indeed by incorporating completion of such courses in their own in-house development programmes. MOOCS are by definition open access. They are also, according to Farrow (2017), an argued exemplar of disruptive innovation in learning. Farrow though does also question the potential of MOOCS and not least by challenging the claimed levels of disruption that they are argued to represent.
We have chosen to highlight webinars and MOOCS because they are likely to have been among the most common responses to the āstay at homeā conditions introduced by national governments. The former will have been a fairly easily implemented way for employers to continue to deliver learning to employees. The latter, if not necessarily being a first-choice response by employers, may well have enjoyed increased use by individuals with unexpected time on their hands at home. So, those two forms of digitalisation of learning are probably among the most common current examples at the time of writing during the Covid-19 crisis. For that reason, they may well also quickly become more ubiquitous post-crisis and so two of the more common examples in our everyday experience. There is one further aspect of digitalisation that we are confident will also become more common, although in a less overt or obvious manner. This is the use of learning analytics.
Learning analytics can be an umbrella term to encompass data, metrics and analytics which can be used to enhance the effectiveness of learning experiences. However, it is also used in a specific sense to refer to collection and analysis of learner behaviour and interaction with digital learning (Stewart 2017). For example, time spent on the learning programme or on individual components, such as reflective exercises or progress checks, can be monitored and compared across the learning populations. More sophisticated data such as time spent in discussion boards; number, nature and content of contributions to discussion boards and learner preferences for different components of multi-media programmes as measured by usage of each can be monitored and analysed. Analysis can also include differences against variables such as age, gender and time-related variables such as day of week or time of day. Statistical techniques are often applied to produce such analyses. The primary purpose of learning analytics is to improve digital learning experiences, sometimes for current learners where adjustments are possible but always for future learners. There are nevertheless legal and ethical questions that need to be addressed in the use of learning analytics (Jisc 2018). That said, it is believed that their use will continue to grow, especially in digital learning, and that the results of that growth are likely to lead to innovative and disruptive impacts on digital learning.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the notion that machines can, one day, perform the same cognitive tasks as human beings. AI is a broad suite of technologies that also include machine learning and learning analytics. A fundamental characteristic of AI, such as Appleās Siri, is its ability to learn effectively, which places learning in the same frame as intelligence. The case AI in HRD, or learning and development (L&D) as it is perhaps more widely known in the workplace, provides some key insights as to the trajectories that are likely to further grow in the future.
