When companies invest in online courses for their employees, the goal is to have these employees successfully complete their online training program and apply what they have learned in their current roles. It is then crucial for these employees to absorb and retain the knowledge and skills from the course modules. How can you improve knowledge retention? Here, we will be discussing five tips for online course developers who want to build effective training programs that will engage employees and increase their knowledge retention.
Set Objectives That are Aligned with the Company’s Goals
Define the online course objectives and align these with the company’s goals. Use these objectives to guide you as you create the modules, making sure that all of the parts of the course are consistent with these objectives. Aligning your e-learning course with the company’s goals will involve providing real world scenarios that employees can apply in their current roles once they have completed the course.
Keep It Concise and Straightforward
Whether it be text content or video, it is always best to present information in short, concise, and straightforward manner in order to avoid overwhelming the online learners. Keep every module focused on one topic and present text in short sentences and bullet points to make them easy to read and recall. The ideal length for training videos is six minutes maximum. Longer videos tend to be dragging or too much for learners.
Promote Collaboration Among Learners and Trainers
While great content is invaluable in imparting knowledge, sharing information is not the sole purpose of online training. Another goal is to equip them with the necessary skills and right behavior so that they can perform their work better after finishing the online course. Encourage trainers and learners to interact and discuss the course topics through online forums and groups so that they can exchange ideas on how they can apply learnings in their own respective roles outside the training environment.
Add Interactive Exercises and Gamification
Keeping learners engaged in their training is key to knowledge retention. By adding interactive exercises and gamification in the online course, employees get motivated and driven because of the competition and recognition that these activities offer. Make the quizzes and tests interactive by including real-life problems that the employees can solve by using their newly acquired skills. You can also feature video and audio questions in these tests. Another way to keep learners engaged is with point-and-click games.
Use a Good Mix of Learning Materials and Activities
The best way to keep learners interested is by offering a variety of materials and activities on your online course. When you teach online through the e-learning platform, it can be tempting to stick to a few formats because it is easier. However, if you put yourself in the shoes of your online learners, you will realize that having to read or watch materials in the same format for ten or more modules can get really boring. And when a learner gets bored, it gets more difficult to understand and retain information.
Online training courses for companies need to deliver better performing employees after they have completed their training program. With these tips, you can build effective online courses that provide employees with the skills and knowledge that they can apply to their work.
Michelle Gonzalez has been writing for SMEs across the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK for the last five years. She is a highly-experienced blogger and SEO copywriter, writing business blogs for various industries such as marketing, law, health and wellness, beauty, and education, particularly on e-learning platforms such as www.teachable.com.