Online training conducted via a Learning Management System (LMS) is becoming increasingly popular as it provides a digital training space that both learners and trainers can engage and interact with. An LMS has two main advantages:
- Trainers can create interactive content, deliver the materials to their learners, and track their training all in one place.
- Learners are able to access training content anywhere, anytime.
By switching your manual training to online, your organization can consolidate and optimize, adding value to your business.
3 key things to remember when moving your training online
The biggest problem when undertaking online training is keeping engagement levels high. A study by Qualtrics found that 31% of trainers faced challenges when it comes to learner engagement levels.
A learner-first training model is being adopted by companies around the globe to increase the success of their online training. This model is focused on the most important part of the learning strategy—the learner. When training is designed with the learner as the focus, trainers will see more engaged learners, better training results, and more efficient, happier workplaces.
Tip #1: Know who you’re training
This sounds like a silly thing at first, however, when starting to create any training, most trainers focus on choosing their tools first, rather than understanding their learners before building their training out.
A learner persona refers to the representation of a group of learners. Learner personas should contain demographic information (e.g. age, department, geographic location) and psychographic information (e.g. motivations for learning, preferred methods of learning) as this will allow you to understand the best methods to train and maximize engagement from your learners.
You may end up with several different persona’s in several training groups, the idea is not to develop different training for each of your individual learners (as realistically, most trainers just do not have the time), instead, you should identify the learning requirements per persona and create your training materials with the requirements in mind.
Tip #2: Integrate different materials and tools
Now that you’ve understood your learners and your learning goals, it’s time to select your training tools and begin designing your online training program. Remember to keep the learner in mind during this stage.
When you’re selecting a tool, an LMS has many helpful features, however, these are not the only tools at your disposal – some other examples include video, podcasts, predictive learning software, and even social media. Most tools can integrate into most LMS’s to create a more powerful and well-rounded training experience.
When you’re designing content, there are three key principles to create learner-first training materials:
- Make it interactive: This should be like a two-way street—the learner must be able to interact with both their training content and with their training. You want to engage your team to invest critical thinking skills so they enjoy the training more than having to read a basic manual.
- Challenge your learners: This refers to creating content that has depth, formative assessments, and gamification, in turn, leading to engaging and powerful content. Teams that experience this type of training typically have higher knowledge retention rates.
- Sharing and recognition opportunities: This refers to the learner being able to share their knowledge and content completion either via a certificate or results. Recognition can vastly improve the training experience and incentivize your team to do well.
Tip #3: Evaluate your training
After you’ve completed your training, it’s important to evaluate your online program so that you can improve your future training. Effective training assessment will allow you to clearly see where your training is successful and not so successful.
Training evaluation should not only be from the trainers but also the learners. Trainers should evaluate how if their learners have learned anything and applied that learning, which should be measured quantitatively (e.g. results from pre and post-assessment).
Learners should be able to gauge their understanding of the training content through their learning results, however, trainers should also provide feedback with their results so that students know how to improve for the future.
So whats the wrap?
The learner-first training model is an effective way to create an online training program that is proven to provide a powerful and meaningful training experience as it focuses on the learners themselves.
However, there is some serious groundwork in successfully implementing this model as it aims to tailor content to your learners and requires evaluation and improvement regularly—but who said success was easy?
