How to develop the best interactive online training program

It’s no secret that static courses belong to the past.

All the leading factors come together to make this true: presentation technologies are rapidly improving, creating and managing online programs is less effort than it was ever before, and user experience is becoming increasingly important.

In fact, according to a recent report by Deloitte, “by 2025, the global workplace will be transformed by advances in the technologies of interactivity and digitization.”

How to create interactive online training modules

Creating an online training module may seem like a daunting task. But if you can break it down into small elements, the process will be much easier. Select one or two elements and narrow down your objectives based on your audience. Then identify just one or two training types that best fit the audience and subject matter.

With TalentLMS, setting up a course is a breeze. Wether it’s for employees, customer or the students, the sky is the limit here. You can even easily monetize your courses with TalentLMS if you are a private or an online tutor.

To make sure your course is interactive, there are a few specific things you can do. Here are a few suggestions!

• Incorporate an interactive element on each slide
• Add digital storytelling to your courses
• Include interactive 360° images and videos
• Create simulated environments where learners can freely practice
• Devise branching scenarios

Let’s talk a little about each.

1. Incorporate an interactive element on each slide

An Interactive Online Training Program Should Include Interactive Elements. An online training program would be completely nonreciprocal without interactive elements. If you are using slides or pages, including interactive elements will boost learner adoption and engagement. It might be a simple click on a button for something pop up or a basic drag-and-drop activity. Anything that can get learners to take action to progress can do the trick.

The thing about an online training course is that it really needs to be interactive to work. Passive, static training slides don’t get people engaged in the course. And you know what? That defeats the purpose of online training altogether. Interactive slides keep people engaged and help them to learn best.

so, make sure that learners have to interact with something on every single slide.

You want active learners, not passive spectators.

2. Add digital storytelling to your courses

Digital storytelling is a creative learning approach that puts learners at the center of attention.

Learning is best achieved when it’s immersive and makes sense to the user. Digital storytelling allows you to achieve this by taking advantage of learners’ emotions and attention spans. With digital storytelling, learners are the ones who control a course’s content as well as how it will unfold.

3. Include interactive 360° images and videos

Interactive 360° video is a great addition to any training program, who wants something really engaging that engages their learners as well. This type of video allows you to take control over your learning environment, whatever it is. You can create a virtual tour of your workplace, and have your trainees learn from a first person perspective what the space looks like and how the functions work, even before they actually go there in real life.

4. Create simulated environments where learners can freely practice

The idea of creating simulated environments to practice in is a great way to make sure that learners are able to practice in a safe environment. It also makes it more fun and engaging for the learner and without fear of making mistakes.

Learners can visit these online learning environments repeatedly until they’ve mastered newly acquired skills and feel confident to put them into action. And since making a mistake in a simulated environment has zero impact in the physical world, they’re great for showing learners the possible consequences of making wrong choices.

All in all, online learning environments don’t only engage learners more, but they also encourage exploration.

5. Devise branching scenarios

Branching scenarios put learners in charge of how the entire course will go. with TalentLMS, you can add decision points to give the learners the ability to change the narrative based on the choices they make.

Branching scenarios make a course feel like an adventure game with different storylines and outcomes that change with every choice made by the learner.

by using Branching Scenarios, you will boost learners’ engagement and assess your learners’ decision-making, critical thinking, and analytical skills.

Why should you implement interactive online learning in your training program?

Having an interactive online training program comes with a lot of benefits. For the purpose of this post, we’re going to take a look at just four of them:

1. It enhances exploration: When learners have the ability to explore a learning environment, they get more interested and keep coming back for more.
2. Interactive simulations are based on reality-based situations: Scenarios provide better learning opportunities than lectures, static text or videos, and give learners the ability to put knowledge into action.
3. Assessments that make sense: An interactive online training program allows you to assess learner performance spontaneously and non-intrusively. Assessments for interactive courses usually come in the form of decision points for branching scenarios, instead of regular quizzes or tests.
4. Interactive training programs build emotion: As an old Chinese proverb says, “Tell me and I forget; teach me and I may remember; involve me and I learn,” and this might be the most important benefit of making online classes more interactive. With interactive training, learners feel part of a group, they tap into their emotions and increase their knowledge retention.

But, of course, aside from making a more memorable impact on your learners, immersive online training programs in general boost engagement and motivation.

The lowdown on how to build interactive training

Now you know what makes courses interactive, the different levels of interactivity you can have, and the best ways to begin and make your training interactive. But the question remains: “Is it really that simple?”

The answer is yes.

With accessible technology already available to help you create online courses and an immersive and highly interactive online training program, you don’t need to spend that much or even be technically proficient.

With the right combination of interactive training software and hardware to create online training modules (plus some creativity from your end), creating an online, interactive training program is entirely feasible as well as entertaining.

Save time, frustration and money with TalentLMS, the most-affordable and user-friendly learning management system on the market. Try it for free for as long as you want and discover why our customers consistently give us 4.5 stars (out of 5!)

Contact us at IOTech Solutions if you need any information or support. IOTech solutions is based in Bahrain and serves the GCC region (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates , Dubai , Kuwait and Oman)

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