5 important reasons to build and maintain an online academy

Until a year ago, it was perfectly normal: gaining knowledge in a room with a group of fellow students. An instructor at the front of the class, occasionally breaking off into small groups to have intense discussions around the same table about a pressing issue.

Then came COVID. Suddenly, it was no longer a given that everyone could attend training in the same room.

Online academy for talent development

For organizations that had already found the digital highway, talent development continued steadily, COVID or no COVID.

Others were left empty-handed for a moment. They weren't equipped to bridge the distance.

After a brief moment of panic, more and more employers turned to companies that build online knowledge platforms, such as Pluvo.

Digital academies are now popping up like mushrooms. Is this a hype? Will all these knowledge platforms disappear as soon as COVID is over? We don't think so! Here are a few good reasons to build and maintain an online academy:

1. Always up-to-date

A digital knowledge platform is easy to update. Are there new scientific insights that contradict the course material, or have certain employees left the company? One click of a button and you're back up to date.

The flexibility of the content has another major advantage.How great is it to be able to immediately bring your employees up to speed on a change in production methods or the launch of a new type of service?

2. Time and cost savings

Especially in a time when important ecological choices must be made, reducing travel miles is a significant consideration. That is one major plus of online training.

But being able to conveniently log in to a training session from home or the office also saves a lot of travel time. Those scarce, precious hours are better spent getting some actual work done.

Or, of course, using them for quality time to recharge yourself. Because that's important too!

Create an online academy for free with Pluvo!

3. Ultimate customization

An online academy is super flexible. You can literally determine the learning path for each individual employee, or what their onboarding program looks like. If they are a fast learner, the curriculum can skip a few redundant chapters or include extra in-depth material.

And why would you make the onboarding program for an HR manager the same as for a new production worker? Make it custom.

That's no problem at all with an online knowledge platform: you can easily mix and match the different modules.

Is someone having more trouble absorbing the information, or is there a delay due to personal or work circumstances? That’s no problem at all online. You can easily review one or more lessons, repeat a recorded lesson indefinitely, or share handy tips with your colleagues.

4. All-you-can-learn menu

Think of an online academy as a digital menu in a restaurant full of knowledge and news. Every customer can choose from a wide, varied selection to suit their own tastes and needs. If you make that menu as appealing as possible, those customers will keep coming back. Not because they have to, but because they can!

An online academy offers endless possibilities. You don't have to limit yourself to dry theory; a funny video about a specific topic, a pub quiz, or a game where you can put the material you've just learned into practice: it's all possible. And it makes learning or onboarding a lot more fun right away.

5. Talent management

Last but not least, we also want to touch on the more business-oriented side of an online academy.

It is, of course, very useful to have an overview of the knowledge level of all your employees. That way, you know exactly where there is still a need for knowledge, or which talent with which motivations you have available at which location when a vacancy arises.

In short: talent management becomes a lot easier with a digital knowledge platform!

Online academy is here to stay

‍A knowledge platform therefore provides extra management information. It makes your employees future-proof and caters to individual information needs. Without wanting to toot our own horn, we are convinced that digital learning is here to stay.

Are there really no downsides to setting up an online academy? Of course, it requires some investment. You have to build a foundation.

Now, that doesn't have to be very complicated; there are all kinds of ready-to-use formats on the market. Information needs to be collected and written to be put online. Yet, that often isn't as bad as it seems: over time, almost every company has already digitized a great deal of information.

In many cases, it is therefore a matter of harvesting all that low-hanging fruit and keeping it up to date.

Another 'minor drawback' can be the lack of live, personal contact. Solve that with blended learning: alternate between online and live. Once it is possible and allowed again, organize the occasional old-school live lesson on location.

If we may offer one final tip: record such a live training session. Then you immediately have a new asset for your knowledge platform!

And these were just a few of the benefits

‍Pluvo is an expert when it comes to building online knowledge platforms. Naturally, we love to share our knowledge (that's what we do)! Create a free account to get started with your own online academy.