Designing the Future: This Week’s Corporate Learning Headlines
- marleegeiger
- May 19, 2025
- 4 min read
From microlearning to emotional intelligence, these five fresh stories sketch a living blueprint for where corporate learning is heading—and who we’re becoming as designers.
“The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed.” — William Gibson
There’s a pull between the past and the future in LxD. Most corporate learning is stuck in the past with frameworks that haven’t been updated in a decade. But if we take a closer peek at the world of LxD, we can see the future peeking back at us.
This week, I dive deeper into the future.
Through these five stories, I got to see evidence of evolution. Some of these might seem like just trends, but truly, they’re shifts in building LxD to be something greater. They offer us a lens and a mirror to reflect.
So let’s take a closer look.
We’re entering into somewhat of a second renaissance for personalized learning. It came onto the scene hot in the early 2010s, but plateaued sometime after that. It gave a good foundation, but it’s time to push further.
The Learning Guild looks at how AI-powered platforms are helping to map entire developmental ecosystems. All for individual learners. By tracking performance, skill gaps, and learning preferences, we can start to scaffold entire learning journeys for each user.
Why it matters:
So what does it mean for us? Instead of building a course, we can build pathways. We’re enabling choice and making learning feel timely and continuous. It makes me wonder, what does the learner need next? To just perform, or to grow?
Microlearning. You heard it for years. But I started to look into how organizations feasibly deploy it at scale. It’s signaling a structural commitment to learning that fits real life. Learning that fits in between the 1 pm stand-up and the 1:15 all-hands.
In some of the organizations that have started to embrace microlearning, it’s not just bite-sized content. It’s part of their infrastructure. It’s an always-on, self-serve library of solutions. Likewise, it’s meant to meet people both where they are and when they’re ready.
Why it matters:
A “complete course” is a myth, and this proves it. We can scale back the hour-long courses nobody has time or attention for and start to think about how people learn.
To be radically learner-centered in our design, we have to start to design for interruption and re-entry. We can design focused learning that is sharp, usable, and alive.
As someone who loves a good video game, this next article is right up my alley. CYPHER learning writes about immersive technology and how it’s not just for impressing your mom on Christmas morning. It’s finally here to prepare us.
We can finally do VR-based simulations or AR field tools for frontline managers. Organizations are investing big time in learning experiences that can simulate real decision-making environments. So far? The data is encouraging. It seems like skills are getting learnt faster, there’s higher engagement, and stronger recall.
Why it matters:
Now, I’m not saying run out and buy the latest Oculus, but we can start to think outside the box of our laptops. We can start to see when innovation such as this may take our learning to the next level. When something can help the learning not only about knowing something, but also how to do it.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is something we’ve all heard. It’s not new. It’s not the next hot topic… or is it? Exemplar Global is making a case for EQ as the next frontier in workforce development. You may think to yourself, “but isn’t that just soft skills?”, and sort of. But they’re using EQ as a core competency for feedback, collaboration, digital ethics, etc.
AI may be able to automate logic, but emotion is becoming strategic.
Why it matters:
Clarity and structure are always at the forefront of our minds as LxD designers. But maybe we need to start to think about connection as well.
Learning that lasts, especially in times of ambiguity, must incorporate vulnerability. This means we need to start to rethink everything from simulated scenarios to the tone of our feedback.
People don’t grow from getting that certificate on an eLearning course. They grow because they feel something shift.
For about five years, things have shifted in the workforce. Hybrid is the new reality for most people. CodeCondo confirms this reality and reaffirms that training needs to follow. The best organizations are redesigning how learning fits into distributed lives.
Modular programs, mobile-first platforms, LMS integrations, etc. These are a few of the ways learning is transforming for the hybrid workforce. Not that Slack channel, you sometimes feel like you're posting to the void.
Why it matters:Classrooms are probably the least common way learners are picking up information in this strange new world. So that means that we, as LxD designers, need to deeply understand the tools we have access to. We also have to look at the constraints, but also the rhythms, of the hybrid workplace.
We have to make our learning accessible, and not just in the ADA-compliant way (although that’s very important too). Can the learner find it on their iPhone quickly? It needs to be reachable in every sense of the word.
Learners are in motion, and it’s time we meet them there.
Your Next Step: Reflect, Redesign, Reimagine
If this week's trends sparked something in you, a nudge, a curiosity, a quiet “maybe I could…”, don’t let it fade.
The future of LxD isn’t waiting. It’s unfolding in the dashboards you open, the templates you tweak, the prompts you rewrite, and the conversations you start.
And if this resonated with you, share it. With your team. With your manager.
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