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Forj has acquired Mobilize, a community engagement technology provider, to expand its Member Experience Platform for associations and professional networks. Building upon its recent merger with Web Courseworks, this investment accelerates Forj’s innovation to reimagine community-driven learning.
In the earlier part of this century, I gained experience in corporate online learning and later shifted my focus to digital transformation for association education. I believe that corporate education design innovations are slightly ahead of association trends, I intermittently attend corporate training conferences put on by ATD, Learning Guild, and Training Magazine to stay current. I recently attended and spoke at Training Magazine's conference in Orlando, which is a quasi-community of practice for corporate L&D departments. Here's what I learned at the conference that is relevant for member-driven learning.
The average professional can dedicate just 24 minutes per week to formal learning. With so much competition for members’ time and attention, associations are challenged to reimagine traditional learning—and their offerings.
Each year, we examine trends to explore how learning has evolved and predict where it's likely to go in the future. The Learning Hype Curve is a visual representation of what's trending, built using the Gartner Hype Cycle theory. The theory holds that technologies emerge with little initial recognition and grow in familiarity until they reach their maximum "hype" at five points: Innovation Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment, and Plateau of Productivity.
I have been involved with online education efforts for national associations for over 20 years. My interest began when I was tasked with moving hundreds of Credit Union National Association (CUNA) correspondence courses to an online format in 1998. CUNA is a community of practice, and one of their missions is to provide education for their members. My effort to transition their courses involved building software to rapidly create online courses and a platform to deliver and manage that learning. Since then, we have come a long way with regard to what is good content and what is a friendly delivery experience.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a member who doesn’t cite “community” as a driving force behind their decision to join and engage with a professional association.
When now-legendary TED Talks first made their way online in 2006, presentations varied in length, with some exceeding 20 minutes. Today, more than 15 years later, talks are strictly limited to 18 minutes, and TED officials often advise presenters to speak for just 3, 5, or 9 minutes.
Since medieval times, communities have banded together to enhance mutual strengths and slay their respective dragons. In the European Middle Ages, towns developed around trade routes and castles, and townspeople formed communes—or defense alliances—to protect their people, liberties, and commodities.
