What Is Digitalization In Learning & Development? (2024)

By Ramesh Ramani, CEO, ExpertusONE

The phrases “digital economy” and “digital transformation” have been everywhere in the last year. And while they are buzzwords, they have plenty of weight: the business world has gone digital, and there is no turning back. But people don’t understand the difference between digitalization and digitization.

What is Digitalization?

Digitalization means using technology to transform business processes and create new ways for customers to interact with businesses. The term refers to any process where information is exchanged electronically between two or more parties. Digitalization has been growing rapidly since the early 1990s when the Internet was first introduced. Today, digital technologies such as LMS software are becoming increasingly popular and transforming businesses.

The goal or purpose of digitalization for an organization is to transform business processes and operations by leveraging digital technologies to increase efficiency, productivity, and innovation. Digitalization involves the integration of digital technologies, such as automation, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, into business processes, products, and services to create new value and improve customer experiences.

Digitalization can help organizations transform the way they train employees, sales teams, customers, and partners, making training more personalized, efficient, effective, and accessible. By leveraging digital technologies to create new value and improve customer experiences, organizations can enhance their competitiveness, increase customer loyalty, and drive growth and innovation.

What’s the Difference Between Digitalization and Digitization?

These are two vastly different topics, and their distinction is essential. Digitalization is a process that happens when you convert something to digital forms—like a print book that’s converted into an ebook. In the business world, Gartner defines digitalization as “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business.”

This business-related definition is vital at this point because, due to the pandemic, many companies rely even more heavily on digital technologies. This change is for the better, but it has produced unique challenges for businesses that were not up-to-date on tech before 2020.

Digitization is a more complex technical process, converting text, pictures, or sounds into a form that a computer can process. This means that those tangible things (words, pictures, sounds) are represented by a series of numbers that a computer understands.

When we talk about the digital world, we must make the distinction between the two processes. Many, if not most, industries have undergone digitization—they use computers and tech to complete everyday processes.

But few companies have undergone the total transformation required in digitalization because it requires a perspective shift and a revitalization of the overall strategy.

What separates digital tech from digitized tech?

This is how I think about digital and digitized technology. Digital tech is designed for the digitalized world. It starts and ends in the digital world. Digitized technology was created to bridge the gap between the analog, for lack of a better word, and digital worlds. It is a tool that stands between the two, not one that originates in one space or the other.

You could think of it this way: digital tech is native to the digital world and exists solely to support digitalization needs.

On the other hand, digitized tech is the bridge between the analog world and the future; it’s something that started in “paper” form that was put into 1s and 0s to make it readable in the digital world.

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Companies that use digitalized technology are choosing systems designed with the end goal of digitalization in mind. They’re using that exact definition from Gartner: the digital tools support new digital business goals. As a digital tech entrepreneur, I believe this is the most important step companies should be taking in 2021.

Business leaders should prioritize digital technology that sets them up for success with a digitalized business model. Switching from analog to digital is long overdue for large-scale companies, and there is no excuse in 2021. Plenty of technology exists to support the needs of digitalization across every industry.

Don’t get digital learning confused with digitized learning.

One of the biggest challenges on the tech side of the learning and development sector is that most consumers mix up digital learning initiatives with digitized learning initiatives. I believe this is why many companies haven’t invested in adequate employee training software—they are thinking of the old way; they are thinking of digitized learning.

Let me provide some clarity on the issue. As mentioned before, digitized technology bridges the gap between the analog and digital world. Digitized learning, then, is any learning system that acts as a go-between for in-person training and online training. When you think of boring, cumbersome learning platforms that are, essentially, a set of presentation slides to click through, you’re thinking of digitized learning. This type of system is what turns company leaders, managers, and employees off to e-learning strategies.

Of course, this is why we are championing the message of digital (not digitized) learning at ExpertusONE. We believe there is a new precedent to set in the world of employee training, and we think that a new precedent starts with the best digital tools.

Digital tools aren’t those things that most people associate with online learning. They’re not boring. They can be engaging, interactive, and support the overall employee experience. Instead of a set of presentation slides, digital learning platforms use quizzes, video content, polls, virtual conferencing, and other interactive elements to make learning engaging and effective. Digital training tools account for the entire learning process, from strategizing to the end goal of user completion. When using a digital learning platform, companies are not sitting in offices writing down the learning objectives they have for each department or even each team member.

Digital tools offer AI capability that makes it possible to create and recreate training objectives through machine learning that is tailored to the individual employee. And digital tools make it possible for managers to follow up on course completion or encourage their team members to finish a class all from the same app.

Digital learning is a comprehensive experience that coincides with a comprehensive digitalization of how the company functions and the overall business goals.

Companies need digital learning strategies and digital learning technology to succeed in today’s market. Digital learning technology is critical to success because it provides all of the resources needed to accomplish the goals, from the actual tech infrastructure of the platform to the concrete tools needed to reach learning objectives like engagement and compliance.

A digitalized learning strategy starts and ends with digital technology. As company leaders adjust their tech budgets for the next year, they should focus on investing in digital infrastructure that supports their overall goals of digitalization. A digital enterprise LMS platform is a great place to start.

Digital learning can help employees become more unified in overall company goals, streamline communication, and facilitate engagement even as companies are grappling with in-office, remote, and hybrid workstyles. However, legacy LMS platforms that fit under the banner of “digitized” systems only offer the bare minimum required for learning, and they will not stand up as companies move farther into the digital world. Companies need native digital learning technology that can support the next decade of digitalization.

Don’t get caught in confusion between digitalization and digitization. Remember this: digitalization is an overall ideological shift, and it affects everything from strategy to processes. Digitization is simply converting something from the analog world into a form that a computer can process.

Our understanding of business strategy has changed significantly in the last year, and it has only proven further that digitalization is critical to success.

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