This autumn marks 20 years since the founding of Apprix. It should be clear without saying that over the two decades, eLearning has taken quite a leap forward. Jesse Jokinen, Apprix’s founding member, has been with the company throughout its 20-year journey. In this blog post, he talks about the ground covered.

In the early 2000s, around the time Apprix was founded, learning envir­on­ments mostly con­sisted of in-house web pages managed by HR depart­ments. The training content available was primarily made up of various PDF and PPT files. As such, the systems did not serve the needs very well, as it was not easy to make sure whether the trainees had actually learned and intern­alized the know­ledge. Moreover, there were no channels in the system allowing the trainees to voice their ideas and questions.

eLearning potential

Even at the time, we acknow­ledged the potential of eLearning, but felt that the con­tents were not yet func­tional. The con­tents already in use had simply been trans­ferred to the new learning envir­on­ments and the changed cir­cum­stances had not been con­sidered at all. This is why Apprix was estab­lished – we wanted to offer better and higher quality eLearning con­tents, the key to making training inter­esting, even for oth­erwise boring subjects. 

We went looking for improved attract­iveness of con­tents through gami­fic­ation. In gamified training courses, inclus­iveness was seen as the best aspect, and inclusive training courses have become the core of our business. Inclus­iveness can be utilised in all online training, gamified or otherwise.

Solutions also for external target groups

Rather soon, com­panies also exper­i­enced the need for external target group training, such as sup­pliers, main­tenance workers or cleaners staffing their sites. In this con­nection, user authen­tic­ation became necessary. Over time, several solu­tions have been developed at Apprix for serving external target groups (such as reminders of expiring qual­i­fic­a­tions), which can also be flexibly and easily included under indi­vidual training courses. This has become one of Apprix’s strengths – func­tional solu­tions for the training of external target groups as well.

Today, it is also very common that data regarding edu­ca­tional per­formance are trans­ferred between dif­ferent systems (such as HR, LMS, and access control systems). Various integ­ra­tions have been carried out for a long time, but over the last few years, the demand for them has grown significantly.

At present, blended learning is on the rise

In addition to integ­ra­tions, another popular trend in modern online training is com­bining online and face-to-face training – so-called blended learning. For example, one of our cus­tomers has online training courses used for pro­vision of the­or­etical know­ledge. After these, an on-site training day follows, which can focus on prac­tical matters, as all the par­ti­cipants have already acquired basic know­ledge on the topic.

There is no single “right” way for online training arrangement; the situ­ation and needs determine the optimal approach in each spe­cific case. However, as a general tip, I would suggest inclusion of the trainee and always making use of prac­tical examples in your training courses.

Towards the future

The pro­spects for eLearning seem quite prom­ising right now. The situ­ation in the world today has accel­erated adoption of various online training courses and their pop­ularity in the cor­porate envir­onment seems to grow even further. I believe that in the future, organ­isa­tions will learn to use online training even more diversely and expedi­ently. Here at Apprix, we are always glad to support your organ­isation, based on our twenty years of experience.

Author

Jesse Jokinen

Man­aging Partner

Apprix Oy

tel. +358 40 501 9150

jesse.jokinen (a) apprix​.fi