Is your team engaged in strategic planning for the upcoming year? Chances are you already have some idea of the changes needed to improve your employee learning and development programs. You’re likely also planning new initiatives.
Whether you’re developing an entirely new program or updating existing content, there are best practices you can use to improve all of your employee training programs. The methods outlined center on the learner experience (LX) and will improve learner engagement and the overall effectiveness of your training.
Here are three important steps recommended by experienced instructional designers that can improve your training offerings:
Improve Course Navigation
Is your training program easy to access and well organized? If it’s a blended learning solution or a fully digital course (or more than one), does it indicate where learners are in the overall module or program? Can learners stop and play back portions if needed? These might seem like minor details. But ease of use, control of pacing, and awareness of where you are in the overall timeline make a huge difference in how effective a course is for your learners.Add Interactive Elements
Whether in-person or online, all courses should include time for Q&A and activities that require participation. When learners are asked to engage, it improves attention, retention, and motivation. Passive learning includes watching presentations or videos, listening to lectures, or reading. All of these are foundational ways to provide information, but learners must then be asked to reflect on the material, use it in practice, and recall it after to really get the benefit of training. Add Q&A sessions, short assessments, demonstrations in which learners are asked to complete a process, and practice time.Use Microlearning Principles
Shortening training segments is a powerful method to enhance learning. All people have a finite amount of attention at any given time. Use of microlearning respects constraints on schedules and attention and allows time for practice between information sharing to encourage skill acquisition. Bite-sized modules that focus on specific skills and processes also serve as valuable reference material after training to refresh memory and supplement on-the-job coaching.Bonus Tip: If you have the budget, media and graphics will enhance your learning courses. Never underestimate the value of good visuals and audio. Learners are immersed in digital media daily and expect quality. They will be positively influenced and motivated if your training courses are well designed. Demonstration videos and quality graphics also help create a more immersive training that better hold the attention of learners and enhance their understanding of skills.
These tips are the foundations of any effective and successful training program because they increase engagement to enhance learning. And you can integrate these strategies into nearly any course—even those being updated after initial development. So let’s kick up our training in 2023!
