Digital Learning Consortium releases “Voice of the Learner” survey results

March 2, 2022

The Digital Learning Consortium (DLC) brings together many of the world’s largest firms, most innovative platform providers, and top academic institutions in order to strengthen the digital learning ecosystem for professionals. This summer, they surveyed over 5,000 learners from 114 countries on a variety of digital learning issues.

There are countless surveys, research, and data on digital learning, sometimes with contradictory information. At the heart of this survey is the nature of having receiving honest answers through surveys sent via social media by DLC members—which include MITili’s associate director, Jeff Dieffenbach–to member community on a topic that was both familiar and important to those taking the survey. Complete survey results can be found here, but continue reading below for a snapshot of insights.

Nearly one-quarter of participants were from the US, with India the UK having the second and third most respondents. Also, nearly one-quarter of respondents were from the IT sector with HR second with 13 percent. Further, almost half of those who responded said they were seeking better opportunities to build their careers.

Among the most popular ideas created by the survey was that most learners (more than 90 percent) suggested they’d value a learning record that travelled with them throughout their career to demonstrate a commitment to professional development. The DLC itself has developed a “Skills Wallet” which acts as a digital repository for completed professional development online. Also of note is pushback on the traditional Learning Management System (LMS) citing frustration with searching for broad topics and receiving too many results to make them meaningful. The DLC has suggested the path forward could be through next generation LMS, often called Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs). Combined with AI, they would yield personalized results based on individual user data.

Finally, surprisingly while the majority of respondents found learning in a classroom setting more successful than learning alone, most learners actually prefer learning on their own and at their own pace (for example in an online MOOC).

Back to All News & Research