Designing Digitally
07/09/2020
Creating effective virtual training is now easier than ever. Many businesses specialize in planning, developing, and deploying remote employee training, especially in these trying times, where most of us are forced to work from home. Thus, creating employee training for remote workers is a necessity if businesses are to continue growing in the future.
Hiring an instructional (ID) or learner experience (LX) designer, a learning architect, or an eLearning developer is the next step towards retaining your employees, promoting workplace satisfaction, and reaching your business goals.
Virtual training comes in many shapes and sizes. If you're looking to grow the overall competency of your employees, remote training could help you hone in on the skills and knowledge they are lacking. Depending on what type of business you run, you might find that simulations are the way to go. Other training delivery methods to consider include mobile, synchronous (SL) and asynchronous (AL) learning, and Virtual Reality (VR) learning.
The trick to creating effective remote training courses is determined by your business objectives, learner needs, and desired learning outcomes. Add immersive learning, peer-to-peer interactions and discussion boards, as well as engaging content and you have the formula for a successful remote training program.
Effective training must captivate employee learners, keep them motivated, and allow them to personalize their learning experience. If done right, an online training course increases productivity, job satisfaction, enhances knowledge retention, and job efficiency. It sounds easy, and it can be! All you need to do is make sure you plan accordingly and follow the steps outlined here.
To know where you are going you must know where you are. You first need to survey your staff and find out what problems they have on the job, with software, and with specific tasks. Once you know what level of competency they have you can start developing an inclusive training program. This way you ensure no one is left behind and that you are addressing impending issues before they happen.
Once you know your audience you can start building clear learning objectives into your remote training course. Learning objectives are of utmost importance because they give learners a guide by which to complete each training module.
Employee learners also need to know what is expected of them. You might want them to give you consistent feedback about the training course, or you might expect them to complete the course by a certain date. Determining and expressing expectations helps keep everyone on the right path and leads to successful course completion.
There's nothing more boring than reading documents for hours on end or looking at a presentation for more than an hour. Keep your staff engaged by providing them with bite-size information chunks. These chunks will need to be clear and concise, teach the main point without much fluff, and make use of a variety of media. You can use a mix of microlearning, videos, short exercises, interactive modules, and even games to keep learners engaged and propel the training forward.
The remote training platform you choose should come with a discussion board or chat feature. Including interactive elements and giving out assignments that require employees to work in groups will foster collaboration, peer-to-peer learning, and increase productivity. The end game is to create an online community that can solve each other's problems and promotes teamwork.
Regardless of what learning platform you build, mixing up content delivery methods for your remote training program is always beneficial. Make sure your training courses run smoothly on mobile and allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning to take place so that your course appeals to different types of learners. You can even prepare a section with extra resources that learners can explore on their own during or after the course.
If you have time for a test run, do it. Either way, make sure to assess how the training performed overall. If possible, include small quizzes and polls throughout the training process to address problems as they arise. User feedback is the golden goose of online training programs, so make sure your application authorizes learners to input feedback at any point during training.
At the end of the course, your training platform should allow access to a variety of collected data. You can then interpret this data and use it to improve the training for the next wave of employee learners.
Today's online education industry is developing at an accelerated rate. This haste was prompted by the global pandemic and is changing the face of learning worldwide. Employees and employers alike are adopting new technologies, alternative learning platforms, and even new work and training mentalities. We hope that these tips for creating remote employee training have been helpful and will be a starting guide for creating your own unique remote training program. For more information on remote learning, download our eBook on this topic today!
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