eLearning is becoming increasingly more popular due to the many benefits it gives and the success stories we hear from businesses training their employees.
Like with each individual doing the training, each course is different. Some offer engaging visuals and live tutorials, whilst others are lots of copy and prerecorded lectures. In this post, we explore some of the examples of eLearning that make your training more effective.
Why effective eLearning matters
E-Learning isn’t just about writing up your content and publishing it online; it is more about getting people to engage with your content and helping them learn in a way that sticks.
Well-designed courses and content support a higher retention rate and increased engagement. When learners are engaged, they are more likely to complete courses and be able to apply them to real-life situations. From an efficiency and cost-saving perspective, e-learning reduces the need for in-person training sessions.
Examples for Effective E-Learning
Put the learner first
This is arguably the most important thing to consider when designing an e-Learning course. Put yourself in the shoes of the learner and think about what they will realistically encounter in their day-to-day role and what skills or tools they need to learn to handle these efficiently and effectively. How can you make their job easier? Doing this allows you to create an e-Learning course that addresses the pain points more precisely and effectively.
Using real-life scenarios
It is important, when delivering online courses, to make sure the lessons you teach reflect what the learners are likely to encounter in real life. This means you should set up questions, conflicts, and activities that cover common scenarios. Learners can then practice behaviours and solutions that they will realistically use in the correct context. Not only does this mimic the real situation as closely as possible but also stimulates high engagement.
Use compelling writing and visuals
Nobody loves to read huge chunks of text when they are trying to absorb information. Using shorter, snappier sentences alongside relevant visual prompts will help learners absorb and retain information much more effectively. With e-Learning and prerecorded lessons, users can always replay and go back to content if they have missed something. Similarly, it is more engaging to stimulate ideas and conversations among learners rather than have them try to read lots of words on a page before moving on.
Relate content to the job role
It is important to consider what trials and tribulations the learner will likely face in their role and base your e-Learning around how to provide solutions for these. This will make it easier for the learner to relate and engage with the information if they know when, why, and how to use it.
If you are teaching tools or complex processes, it’s a good idea to create a visual that can be easily accessed post-course when it is needed. This is a great approach as learners can constantly have it to hand and come back to it when necessary.
Add context
It’s important to make the learners feel like what they are learning is important to them and their role. They want to know they are going to use the information you are giving them. You can provide context by adding images of familiar locations that they usually work in, scenarios that they will likely encounter with objects or behaviours relevant to their workplace. This connects the learner to the information.
Use mixed media
Flat, static slides one after another can be boring and disengaging. Incorporating gifs, moving graphics and video can go a long way in engagement and creating a diverse visual learning experience. Mixing up the delivery of information helps strengthen your message and generate interest.
Connect with storytelling
Telling a story that relates to the learner’s working environment or experience allows you to connect with the learner and allows them to connect deeply with the information, all whilst weaving in important lessons. Storytelling can elaborate on real-life situations and demonstrate what to do when you encounter them. You can offer multiple choices and decisions alongside multiple possible outcomes and consequences.
Engage with interactivity
This is along similar lines to using mixed media. Employing interactivity into lessons means that you can easily build engagement with learners and they can apply what they have learnt straight away in an activity-based format. It can also encourage exploration and challenging perspectives if it is among a group.
Encourage micro learning
Micro learning is the idea of delivering learning through short, snappy lessons. This allows learners to gain information that is relevant in small, absorbable sections. It makes sure that the audience is consuming manageable chunks of information. To achieve this, you need to understand what your audience wants and needs to learn and make sure that, although it is a small amount of information, it contains everything they might need to apply it in the future. Think about structuring the information as bullet points or graphics.
E-Learning with Instinct Resourcing
At Instinct, we can help connect you to experts in the industry who can help with discussing e-Learning examples and courses.
If you are looking for an expert to join your team, contact us and we can help you find the right person to fits our needs. Similarly, if you are looking for a role, submit your CV to us.
Related Posts
