Learning Experience Platform: Future-proofing ADB through Digital Literacy

Implementation: 2020-2022

ADB’s capacity to transform and adapt in a world with rapidly increasing technologies will be heavily dependent on its personnel’s skills, knowledge, and capacities. As such, it is critical that the bank invests in digital upskilling not only to support its initiatives toward operational modernization, but also so that it can drive change and attain its vision of achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. Strategy 2030 stipulated that the bank needs to pursue training and development of its personnel to achieve digital transformation. Meanwhile, the Digital Agenda, which was crafted to support Strategy 2030, stated that the bank will facilitate a culture of innovation and responsiveness to respond to clients’ evolving needs, as well as to be proactive in adapting to a world that is increasingly becoming digital.

“Digital Skills for Today’s Workforce”, one of the first challenges launched by ADB, aimed to support the development of a solution that could be deployed across the bank to help employees become comfortable with using digital tools. However, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic required a shift in the approach to provide capacity building to its personnel while further emphasizing the importance of business modernization to enable adaptation, especially in times of crises. The imposed lockdowns meant that ADB personnel had to learn how to work remotely practically overnight. Some requested training to help them adjust, which led to the development of e-learning videos to build their capacity in remote work. 

Digital learning was already offered to ADB personnel even before the pandemic. However, there was no single repository of learning content; platforms to support learning deliveries were fragmented, making it difficult for personnel to find the modules they are interested in and/or need. In addition, the available online courses were limited and often came in different delivery modes.

The learning exchange platform aims to support the digital upskilling of ADB personnel and promote a knowledge and learning culture. It is populated with curated or repurposed content organized into topics so users can easily follow the pathway they are interested in or for just-in-time learning. A key feature of the platform is its personalized interface to encourage ADB personnel to explore and discover content, allowing them to learn new knowledge and skills at their own pace. The platform also enables users to track their progress. 

A roundtable discussion was held in November 2019 to consult with external stakeholders to get their insights on the digital fitness platform concept.

In August 2020, the Project Steering Committee of the Digital Learning Labs approved the Learning Experience Platform, which would equip ADB personnel with the mindset, skills, and abilities in using digital tools.

Edcast was engaged as the technology service provider to develop the learning platform, which would later be called ADB Indigo. One of the segments of ADB Indigo is the Digital Fitness program for the digital upskilling of ADB personnel.  

 Content curation was decentralized, enabling all personnel to share content. Standards were put into place to help ensure content consistency and streamline the process.

Besides featuring fresh content specifically tailor-made for ADB, ADB Indigo also featured curated content from various sources such as McKinsey, MIT Technology Review, Harvard Business Review, Wired, and The Economist. Existing e-learning modules produced by ADB were also converted into bite-sized (micro-learning) courses and uploaded to ADB Indigo to make the information more easily understandable and digestible to ADB personnel, particularly those who may not be familiar with the topics and who may be put off with long conventional modules.

The pilot featured two different tracks: Digital Fitness 101, which provides a basic overview of key technology topics, and the Driving Digital Leadership Program, ADB’s digital leadership program, which is a tailored hybrid program for ADB leaders who have completed at least one Digital Fitness 101 topic. Nine departments, meanwhile, volunteered to participate in the soft launch of the Digital Fitness program.

Orientations were conducted per department to orient them on the Digital Fitness Program, with emphasis on what they can get out of the training vis-à-vis the short amount of time needed to learn new skills and knowledge. Gamification was also employed to encourage ADB personnel to learn through the platform.