Training employees no longer just involves watching PowerPoint slides while relaxing. L&D teams are on the lookout for interactive training materials so that employees can effectively learn and retain the information. The name implies that interactive training content necessitates interaction between the trainer and the trainee. However, with the popularity of mobile-based training, learners and course modules must now interact.
Making interactive training materials helps keep employees interested in the course. People are more likely to remember the material if they are interested in it and actively participating in the training. An interactive training model requires the learner to take specific actions in order to advance through the training. Interaction also includes a straightforward button that must be clicked in order to advance to the next page. But that is too simple.
The millennial generation, which includes many of your employees, has access to high-quality online content. You should try to add more interactive elements, a clear user interface, and dynamic content to your training modules to make them more dynamic and interesting.
How to create interactive training content—
- Design short videos with rich graphics
- Include simulated scenarios
- Use gamification techniques
- Include game-based learning
- Include frequent quizzes, Tests and Assesments
5 Effective Ways to Create Interactive Training Content for Employees:
1. Design short videos with rich graphics:
The learners can remain interested in the training material by watching videos. Since the majority of your workforce is made up of millennials, who frequently watch online video content, they might anticipate the same level of quality and interest from a corporate training video.
You must therefore produce visually appealing training videos in order to live up to their expectations and keep them interested in the interactive training material. To make a training video, you don’t need to use actors or crew who are professionals. You can make a highly attractive video using online software in a matter of minutes. Make sure to incorporate detailed graphics and excellent photos. Alternatively, you could use stock videos that you can access for a low subscription cost. These methods for producing training videos with a professional appearance are affordable. You should keep in mind that a video is similar to a PowerPoint presentation when writing the text portion.
There doesn’t have to be a tonne of text. But ensure that you highlight the important points. Corporate training videos should be brief and direct so that employees can quickly refer to and recall the information. You can incorporate interactive elements like click and reveal, drag and drop, etc. to keep it engaging. Instead of just reading the text, it would be more impactful if you could record a voice-over. Play some calming music in the background if a voiceover is not required. As a result, you can create an engaging corporate training video that keeps your students interested in the course material by incorporating appealing visuals and relevant information.
2. Include simulated scenarios:
This kind of instruction simulates actual life circumstances. The purpose of simulation is to prepare workers for various scenarios by giving them a taste of real-world situations that could occur on the job. Employees are able to make decisions without worrying about harming the reputation of the business. Simulation is usually done in a risk-free environment. For instance, in a simulated flight environment, a pilot trainee learns to fly an aircraft while experiencing an artificial aircraft flight and the environment it flies in.
This scenario can be changed in corporate training to involve an irate customer on the phone who needs an immediate resolution from the employee. Or a software error for which the worker needs to find a quick fix. On the employee’s mobile device, each of these scenarios is displayed. It will encourage the employee to think and take the action she deems appropriate to create scenario-based training modules with options to choose from.
Allowing the learner to restart the simulation program will allow them to apply their fresh ideas and come up with solutions if they feel at any point that things are not going in the right direction. Give them the chance to change their mind about the previous decisions. This exercise helps them develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Allow the tool to provide feedback and suggestions if the employee makes poor decisions so they can learn from their errors. They will gain some practice handling challenging situations as a result of performing various tasks.
3. Use gamification techniques:
By adding enjoyment to the learning process, you can increase learner engagement. The addition of specific gaming elements to the curriculum is referred to as gamification in corporate training. Gamification is used to encourage staff members to improve. In a fun and entertaining way, it encourages healthy competition. You need to make sure they are competing with their own objectives rather than one another, though.
For instance, you could maintain a leaderboard or scoreboard with an alphabetical list of the names of the top-performing employees. Participants in corporate training strive to learn more efficiently and earn the most points possible in quizzes and activities to take the top spot on the leaderboard, similar to how a player aims to earn the most points to take the lead on the leaderboard.
For the best performance, you can award badges or certificates. These obvious gaming industry components aid in the training program’s ongoing interactivity and interest. Most workers desire recognition for their efforts. Include tasks requiring employees to contribute ideas and suggestions in exchange for managers offering them constructive criticism. It’s important to design the exercises and tests in a way that encourages staff to do better on each occasion. Thus, gamification produces better outcomes and results.
4. Include game-based learning:
Gamification and game-based learning are two distinct concepts. Game-based learning requires the learners to play games, whereas gamification uses gaming-inspired elements (points, badges, and leaderboards) in a non-game environment. The environments in which the games could be played were either digital or analog. You must first decide on your goals before deciding on a game-based learning program.
What do you hope to accomplish with this activity? You must choose the games you want to include in your training program based on that. In corporate settings, a variety of games are used to foster teamwork, mutual trust, collaboration, problem solving, etc. By including games as part of your course module, you can keep your employees motivated and mentally active throughout the training session. A game keeps the participant engaged in the activity. Your staff members can participate in serious games that call for group decision-making.
Games with multiplayer options can be added to promote communication and cooperation among staff members while they play together virtually. A practical learning approach improves memory and one’s capacity for quick thought and action. The majority of your workforce is made up of millennials, who were raised in the video game industry. They have logged numerous hours playing video games on their Xbox and PlayStation. Their interest will be piqued and their engagement maintained if games are included in the training program. Corporate training can be enjoyable and entertaining while also being educational and instructive, so it doesn’t have to be dull or boring.
5. Include frequent quizzes, tests, and assessments to create interactive training content:
Asking questions and promoting discussions are the best ways to keep a training interactive during an instructor-led session. In essence, you want people to converse and interact. That element of communication is absent from online training. Therefore, you can include quizzes and tests in your course module in place of the instructor asking questions to keep the learning process interesting with interactive training materials.
Multiple-choice questions are the most typical quiz format used in online learning. Other quiz formats include drag-and-drop, labelling, fill-in-the-blank, and many others. Employees who must reorder specific processes in the correct order can use sequencing questions to help them. You can ask employees to respond briefly in writing to questions. Instead of always giving them multiple choices, these kinds of questions will allow you to evaluate their soft skills, including their capacity for verbal expression, information retention, and thought processes.
To evaluate the employee’s comprehension and keep the training engaging, various quiz types are incorporated into the training program. Frequent quizzes and tests motivate learners to remember the information that they have learnt. Also, in case they have given wrong answers, always ensure that you provide them with the correct answers at the end of the quiz. This will help them remember where they went wrong, and they’ll definitely remember it the next time.
You can use the techniques listed here to create interactive training materials for your employee training program. An employee who fully comprehends your work process will produce better results on the shop floor. You can deliver interesting and interactive training materials that your employees will remember and recall by incorporating the aforementioned features into your training modules.