Learning and development insights from Learning Technologies (London 2025)

Last week, SecureClick attended the Learning Technologies Conference and Exhibition in London. As always, this event did not disappoint. Some fantastic speakers delivered a wealth of different learning and development insights from a broad spectrum of industries. Here are just a couple of them.

How a UK railway company used AI to transform its testing process

The learning team of GB Railfreight presented a fascinating talk on how they’ve revolutionised their testing process with AI-powered tools. Previously, their testing process, according to their training and development manager, was a very “Victorian” pen and paper-based affair. This involved multiple-choice and open-text questions. However, being in a safety-critical industry, they found this means of assessment far from ideal. Multiple choice questions did not have the testing depth they were looking for. In terms of test marking, they found that manually corrected tests often meant subjective results from their two testing centres. Moreover, this was a very time-consuming process. Now with AI tools from their learning partner (Learning Pool), they can use open-text questions as an assessment format, an AI-grading tool then automatically marks against pre-defined model answers. Result: they can now easily deploy and grade open-text questions and have a standardised testing process between their two testing centres. What’s more, a process that once took a whole week now takes just two hours. 

How a medical device company reduced learner “unconscious incompetence” with meta-cognitive assessments 

As anyone who works in L+D knows, pre-training, some learners will always believe that they’re fully competent in the subject matter already. There are also learners who often mindlessly click through an online knowledge check. The super-enthusiastic team from Merck (medical devices division) discussed how they now append “meta-cognitive” questions to some of their assessments. Meta-cognitive questions get learners thinking about their thinking. For example, their learners (such as members of nursing teams) might be asked a question about one of their medical devices, followed by a second question, “How sure are you about your answer on a scale of 1-5…?” This assessment technique encourages learners to move away from surface-level memorisation and encourages self-awareness.  Not only do meta-cognitive answers aid deeper understanding, but they also help reduce learner “unconscious incompetence” where learners think they’re skilled in a subject matter when they’re not. By letting their learners see what they don’t know before the course, Merck reduced the number of learners with “unconscious incompetence”.  Moreover, an average course completion rate of 92% was achieved, and the average complaint rate (related to product misuse) about their products reduced by 24%. 

How the London Stock Exchange made a Code of Conduct an enjoyable learning experience  using a Storytelling Approach 

One doesn’t usually associate a stock exchange with storytelling, but the learning team at the London Stock Exchange now uses a storytelling approach to educate its members on its Code of Conduct. Previously, this document was ensconced inside a dry PDF file. But after much discussion, they decided to bring the document’s main principles to life using a storytelling video narrated by actors and hosted on their LMS. As part of the analysis stage of their learning design process, they contacted several LSE members to discuss their workflows and discover persona types to help make their video as relevant as possible. To encourage learner self-reflection and test for understanding, the punctuated this video with on-screen questions. The result: learners reported that the Code of Conduct was now “more understandable”; some learners even noted that the video was “actually enjoyable”. The new format resulted in a whopping 408% increase in  positive feedback. And the LSE saw a 25% decrease in the time between enrolment and completion. This perfectly illustrates the power of adopting a narrative or storytelling approach in your learning programme, where even a Code of Conduct can be brought to life and even made enjoyable. 

AI – the great course creation accelerator 

You couldn’t swing a lanyard in the exhibition halls without hearing the phrase “AI-assisted” uttered somewhere. AI has become the de facto course creation accelerator. Numerous organisations feed their policy documents, SOPS, operations manuals, health and safety manuals, etc., into custom and sometimes public chatbots (ChatGPT, CoPilot) to get checklists, quizzes, summaries, and transcripts churned out in record time. This can be great as the content production process can be lengthy.  However, some organisations like Barclays (banking) are taking a more holistic approach. One of their L+D team reminded the audience that “AI will do the grunt work”, but “the real value of working with AI is augmentation”. And this is what some organisations miss with AI and learning design. Good learning design is not just about giving your workforce quizzes that an AI Chatbot has regurgitated. Good learning design involves addressing sometimes particular needs where, for maximum effectiveness, you need to contextualise the learning. You meet learners where they’re at. A one-size-fits-all approach is rarely the best approach. So, while AI might be revolutionising L+D processes, the old rules governing robust and effective instructional design still remain the same.