With advances in eLearning, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and mobile technologies, workplace training is evolving faster than it ever has before.
Businesses have historically been early adopters of learning technologies—they jumped on the eLearning bandwagon long before higher education—mainly because of the increased efficiency and cost savings offered by these innovative products. Now, with autumn approaching and learning and development programs starting to ramp up, businesses will be looking for new ways to increase their training ROI.
Here are five great tools you can use to create more effective and more engaging training programs:
DesignJot, by Allen Communication Learning Services, is an instructional design iPad app that helps you assess your organization’s learning and development needs and then design training programs to meet those needs. Based on the answers to a standard set of questions and Allen Communication’s unique analysis method, the app will help you identify your training needs. Then, using a flowchart application, you can articulate the desired behaviours and develop relevant learning strategies. This information will assist you in writing training objectives, planning learning activities, and categorizing content.
Once you have your plan in place, the next step is to actually create the training. ProProfs Training Maker is a complete learning management system you can use to create and administer training programs online. This cloud-based application allows you to import content and organize it into modules, create and grade quizzes and tests, conduct polls and surveys, and even issue customized certificates upon completion. The courses are scalable for an unlimited number of employees at no additional cost. The best part is that the user interface is so intuitive for both instructors and students that there is virtually no learning curve. Read this case study in Training Mag for an example of how eLearningArt.com used ProProfs’ software to improve their training programs for graphic designers.
The main difference between eLearning and instructor-led training (ILT) used to be that eLearning was done in isolation and ILT in a group. However, with MOOCs bursting on the scene, this distinction is no longer relevant—now even hundreds of thousands of people can participate in training together, no matter where they are located. Glasscubes provides collaborative workspaces where employees can share files, manage projects, and communicate with one another. These secure online spaces allow an unlimited number of users to discuss course materials, share learning resources, and work on group projects, even if they are in different time zones.
Some training programs need to be delivered face-to-face in real time, but that doesn’t mean everyone needs to be in the same room. With GoToTraining, you can hold webinars and other interactive training sessions online for up to 200 people. Schedule training sessions, invite and track participants, and broadcast a screen cast or webcam video. You can even hold a follow-up evaluation session and generate reports on audience attendance, engagement, and more.
Let’s face it, when people hear that they are required to attend anti-harassment or business ethics courses, they don’t exactly jump for joy. But True Office provides a way to put a little fun into even the dullest training programs. True Office turns compliance training into a series of computer games, most about 15 minutes in length, which are both more enjoyable and more memorable than flipping through a PowerPoint presentation.
With recent innovations in eLearning and mobile learning, corporate and workplace skills training are losing their reputation of dull wastes of time. These technology-enabled learning tools can help you turn your training and development programs into fun, interesting courses that employees will both enjoy and remember. Check them out today.
Author: Kamy Anderson
