An employee is not typically excited by the prospect of doing eLearning. It’s our job to make training interesting for our learners whilst ensuring that they take in and retain the information required. A learner shouldn’t sit there clicking the next button in order to get through the training as quickly as possible.
There needs to be interactivity, engagement and visual interests that keep the employee engaged. Over the years we’ve gained a lot of knowledge within the industry and luckily for you we’ve decided to share 5 of our top tips to capture an audience with eLearning.
Give your eLearning visual appeal
Content is central to training, but without visuals the learner will lose attention, immidiately. For most, visuals are the element the viewer will react to. Typically they will be the first noticeable feature before they click start to begin.
There are four main factors to consider when using visuals.
- Colour Scheme – The colours and styles used should be those correctly associated with the brand of the company. Colour schemes are a good starting point for creativity.
- Know your fonts – This is normally subjective but, a rule of thumb is the simpler, the better.
- High-quality images – If you use blurry or pixelated images then it can create an obstacle between the learner and content. High-quality images are the only way forward!
- Don’t go overboard – Too many graphics, videos or conflicting colours can become distracting, so think simple!
Position the eLearning to benefit the learner’s needs
Most training programs have objectives but most often aren’t user-friendly. This creates difficulty in understanding for the learner. Think about the learner, how will they benefit from the training? Who are the objectives written for? What real-life situations do the objectives impact?
It might be you need to alter the wording or emphasise how it’ll ease their job to ensure the learner is at the centre of the training.
Active Participation
Training is only beneficial if the learner gains the information they need. If they can just flash through it, they won’t have collected any extra knowledge to what they had prior to the course. Essentially to avoid this there should be interactive elements included; this could be recap quizzes at the end of every module or activities throughout as knowledge checks. The learner will then be better engaged and go through the course correctly whilst maintaining interest.
Be conversational, friendly, and energetic
No one likes a robotic voice talking them through their training. It becomes repetitive in both tone and wording which for the learner begins to become boring, leaving them disinterested in the training topic. Think about your wording! Try to make it as conversational as possible and relative to your company, whilst still providing the relevant information. Think about, how would you like to be spoken to?
End with a call to action
So, an employee finishes the training course and that’s it. No reminder of what they’ve learnt, no circle back on the modules but, just an abrupt ending. What is the purpose of training if the employee can’t tell you why they did it and what they learnt?
Instead of cutting the course dead, once completed you could circle back around to the objectives shown at the beginning. Alternatively you can suggest ways in which the training could be used in their role. Providing a purpose to the learner will likely leave them feeling fulfilled from the training and to revisit in the future.
Because our team consists of Learning & Development experts we’ve worked with various companies, gaining knowledge from each project. We take on challenges with enjoyment and love to turn training into an engaging and enjoyable activity that includes interactions whilst ensuring they gain the information needed.
We hope this has given you some ideas as to how to capture an audience with eLearning. For more information take a look at our eLearning section
