Designing punchy learning contents and delivering knockout effect you desire is easier said than done especially if you want to get the most out of your invested time, money, and effort. In this blog, we have 8 smart moves for you to consider if your aim is to provide world-class learning content with the best possible learning experience. Look no further, if you need a little guidance!
The ultimate goal is to reach and educate a vast number of learners through your content but does your content reach out to all the stakeholders? To identify your audience, conduct focus groups, interviews, and surveys to pinpoint all the contact journey points within and outside of your organisation. The assessment will also provide you insights and feedback from a variety of users (sales reps, marketing experts, technicians, customers etc.) to ensure you to develop a successful content by focusing on their efforts by integrating their needs.
Knowing your audience will help you to shape e-learning courses with relevant and practical information that helps learners perform well. Don’t forget the more users you identify the more brand ambassadors you could have.
Avoid ambiguity! The way to success is to have a clear expectation and a razor sharp purpose which links your content to the overall company objectives right from the start.
Just add a list of bullet points of the key takeaways and objectives at the beginning of your training and inform your learners how long the training will take to complete.
A big killer can be a text-heavy content, it will bore your learners to death since it is difficult to follow, you have to constantly pay attention and there is no visual element or variety for the eyes. As they say – less is more. Another great alternative is to trim down your content as much as possible as your audience will love bite-sized learning.
Never stop educating! As an extra nice touch - upload additional materials on your topic (e.g.: scientific research articles, user manuals, relevant presentations, sales briefs and summaries).
You might think you can do this in-house, but it is a great idea to hire an external agency who knows better how to turn and boost your modules from an objective and unbiased standpoint. They can work alongside and together with your team. The agency will manage your design by creating a unified look and feel and a predefined layout with vibrant innovative colors and infographics.
The agency can give you feedback how to deliver the information and how to make your content design more effective and digestible. This will shape a respectable brand allowing you to take your messaging to a wider audience. With the revamped styling and simplified structure learners will be hungry to consume more of your content.
People love stories because they can relate to it. Telling stories and implementing real life examples can be used as powerful content strategy, because shockingly it causes neurochemical changes in the brain, which helps to grab learners’ interest and engage them in their learning. You can simply make it more personal and relevant by including anecdotes or short stories related to your subject.
Scenario-driven content is another approach where you make your learners the protagonists in your storytelling. This method boosts knowledge retention and improves learners’ problem-solving skills by setting life-like situation and atmosphere. A realistic work-related scenario could be demonstrated by adding an installation or explainer video or by highlighting the key selling points from the perspective of a technician or sales representative.
Telling stories causes neurochemical changes in the brain, which helps to grab learners’ interest and engage them in their learning.
When you are looking for value for money meaning the combination of cost, quality and sustainability - reusability is THE key factor. Reusing your existing content in multiple ways is a wise strategic move because with the right diverse mix of content, you will attract new and broader audiences and it could strengthen the relation with your current customers. When you diversify your content, it also improves the quality of the information and not to forget it reduces the overall cost and drives down the cost of localisation.
3D visualisation is one of the best examples since it allows you to showcase your training materials on different channels – you can display the visuals in-store, during events, exhibitions, on your company webpage, on social media or use it in commercials. The opportunities are endless so get creative and don’t be afraid to experiment!
3D visualisation is one of the best examples since it allows you to showcase your training materials on different channels.
The more engaging your e-learning content is, the easier it will be for your audience to remember what they are learning. To grab your learner’s attention consider creating an eye-catching design by using bold design elements. By switching your content elements from text to images, infographics and videos, the users will have a variety of ways to enjoy their learning journey and accommodate the individual learning needs.
Moreover, to encourage and nurture your audience’s interest and engagement levels add gamification elements, combine emblematic rewards (e.g., badges and points), personal recognition (e.g., praise from your trainer), and real-life rewards (e.g., office perks, bonuses).
You can also spice up your learning journey with AR & VR solutions, 3D videos and other interactive elements. Fun fact: small doses of humor can be also an excellent attractor – by keeping in mind your corporate culture you can boost your learners’ memory since the brains prefer to remember unusual pieces of information.
In a fast-moving world, almost everything is readily available and accessible 24/7. Online training ensures flexibility in terms of time and effort, so that your audience can access your online training course globally, anywhere, anytime, you only need an internet connection.
No more constraints since content is available and configured for all types of devices: mobile phones, tablets, and PC’s. Just make sure that all the features are available and functional both on desktop and mobile viewer. To keep a high level of engagement, you need to take into consideration different user groups have different needs. For instance, sales reps probably need to access a course at least a week before a new product launch. It maximises impact because learners can apply the knowledge they have acquired right away and in the right context.
Learning analytics and training exams are crucial steps to have a clear vision and control over your content and e-learning program. The data enables you to react quickly and improve the effectiveness of your content and at the same time keep track of the progress of your learners. The progress reports provide an overview of the number of attendances , exam results, most attractive and least popular content, an average success rate and completion time including an overall progress of the training program. It can smartly spot the problematic sections in your courses (e.g.: training is too long or not engaging enough) and identify elements to be improved in your training program.
Whereas e-learning exams evaluate the student’s understanding of a given subject without having the real-life exam pressure, since users can retake the test to reach a higher exam score. Make it a regular habit to monitor your training analytics, since these effective reports make it easy to get all kinds of statistics which includes valuable information for decision-makers.
The world has changed the way we could have never imagined – it forced us to think outside of the box, to involve and change content and technology in a way that we do things. The global pandemic has taught us to adapt and seek for alternatives that can help us to be more effective than we have ever been. The above listed tips are small steps, but it will help you take your existing content to the next level and help your learners reaching new heights in their career. Now, it’s up to you to evaluate, improve and help your learners to excel.
Oh, and if you need any help in content production, feel free to contact us
