How to Develop Engaging Content For Online Training Courses

The pandemic has sent all of us home to work in a newly adapted 'work-from-home' setting. While the pandemic might be over, most organizations have stuck to this work model for various reasons. But doing so means adapting entirely to this new work environment and changing all organizational processes to make them more suitable for remote operations. One of those processes is training.

Training is essential for all organizations to upskill their employees with the necessary knowledge and skillsets. But that requires strategic development of content that will target and train the employees in exactly what is needed. Organizations use different training content development strategies to get the bullseye for their goals.

But while you might focus on content strategies, remember to add flavors to your content. It should be interactive and engaging to cater to the short attention spans we have developed in recent years. 

If you are also creating a training course for your team, this article will tell you why you need to make engaging content to train your employees effectively. We will also discuss some strategies you can use to make the content engaging. 

Why Is Engaging Training Content Important?

When it comes to virtual training, engaging training content is more important than is often considered. More importantly, because the instructor is only playing the role of a facilitator, active engagement from the learner's end is absolutely necessary to build an efficient and effective training course that meets its goals. Here are a few reasons why you must make engaging content for your training course:

- The training must fill in for the absence of a live instructor.

- It should encourage employees to explore new concepts and lessons actively.

- It should allow participants to interact with each other, share their experiences, and learn from them.

- It should hold their attention so that effective learning and retention take place.

Critical Characteristics of Engaging Training Content

How will you know whether the content you have made is engaging enough? Do rely on your research and instinct, but for your ease, we have listed a few key characteristics of engaging content below:

- Visual Appeal: The visual appeal of digital content is a game changer. It should have elements like charts and images that make comprehension easy to understand. Make sure that your content is exciting to the eye.

- Short and Concise: Long and stretched content always bores learners. Good training content contains short and crisp pieces of information that also hold their attention span. 

- Scope For Exploration: The course should push the learners to explore beyond the standard scope to maximize their learning. You can link videos, charts, lectures, and other resources to encourage this atmosphere.

- Self-Assessing: Don't just give information. Good training courses offer frequent practice exercises and self-assessment tests for learners to check their understanding of the covered topic. Progress is always a reinforcer to learn more.

Tips To Make Engaging Training Content

If you have set your foot into strategizing a training course for your employees, how can you make it engaging? Check out the following few tips:

Customize The Content

Remember that your instructor-led training (ILT) sessions might not always be successful for classroom and eLearning training. However, you can use your current training materials as a solid foundation when developing online training materials. 

You must precisely choose and filter the relevant information, course format, learning objectives, and target audience. Additionally, if the original training material was created for users from a different geographic location, remember to utilize appropriate language and cultural allusions.

Don't Stay Stuck On Factual Information

It is insufficient to maintain your training presentation as data-centric and information-rich. More information, figures, and dense writing tend to overwhelm and divert audiences. To avoid this, instructors must be more creative by creating a narrative based on these facts.

The objective is to create courses that accurately deliver the information so that online learners may better comprehend and use the knowledge. Using descriptions, examples, and case studies based on facts can raise your learners' degree of attention. Additionally, they aid users in placing the concepts presented in a more relevant and realistic perspective.

Use Humor And Entertainment

Add some amusement and humor to your training materials and sessions. Learning does not have to be boring. Gaining the learners' attention and improving their understanding of the instruction can be accomplished with comedy and leisure. You can either rely on your own sense of humor for this or strategically employ available materials like humorous illustrations or webcomics as part of the course.

Use Simple Language

Only some employees might have the same amount of fluency in the language of the course as you or other employees. Make sure that you are considering this. Plus, complex language intimidates learners. Ensure to keep it simple. Use easy words that clarify the concept to the learners instead of confusing them further. They should be able to handle language barriers when the course is progressing at a good pace. 

Use a conversational tone, simple sentences, and common phrases to convey your thoughts. 

Incentivize the Completion Of Training

You want to motivate employees to complete the training so they can use that knowledge in their performance at work. To do that, you need to show them that they are making progress and that progress is acknowledged. After dividing the course into stages, you can share some incentives, like certificates, goodies, or prizes, after each stage. You can give tangible incentives before the very end of the course. 

This strategy will also boost other employees' engagement in training. 

Conclusion

Creating and delivering online training programs makes one explore various content kinds and use them to their advantage to engage learners throughout the course. Communication and interaction are essential at every step of the training course to guarantee significant engagement, boost motivation, and promote performance. It is upon you to deliver an approach using the tips mentioned above to ensure the training makes users learn in an exciting and interactive way.