Have you tried any of the public online learning sites to expand your knowledge? Have you noticed they all use a video format for training? There’s a reason for that: It works! During the current COVID-19 shut-down, many training industry professionals have found themselves and their clients working from home. Converting on-site training to online training is more important now than ever. Since video training works, it’s a great time to transition your training to online learning formats including video.
eLearning and virtual training have exploded over the last few decades. While all online learning takes place, well, online, courses can take different forms. Virtual instructor-led training has grown lately with companies using cloud-based video conferencing platforms like Zoom to teach groups large and small. Other training courses aren’t delivered live, but are built using course authoring web apps and can be made available for access. There’s also the option to record your training sessions via video and then share them with your team. You can even take it up a level and incorporate explainer videos or animations within a spokesman style training session. When it comes to video and online training, the possibilities are endless, but how do you go about making the transition?
Engagement Leads to Learning
When you want to transfer your training from face-to-face to online, it’s not as simple as standing up and teaching in the exact same way as you would for an in-person class. This is especially true for video, where you might be tempted to do that. For online training including video, your course must be more engaging than ever.
- The presenter on a live video conference session or recording a video has to be more dynamic than they might normally be. Any slides or materials presented to the audience should be easy to digest and interesting. Inject humor into your presentation. Use captivating graphics. Keep written content on slides short and to the point, and keep the slides moving along. A live instructor needs to be relatable and make it fun for the learners! A simple way to do this? Incorporate animated explainers!
- A good instructional design includes audience participation. Live training can include polls, chats, breakout rooms, exercises, and knowledge checks.
- Videos incorporated into online training can be used to change the pace and add more information and excitement for the learning experience. Integrate how-to videos, filmed vignettes, reinforced information, animated explainers, and small video lessons by experts to create another way to engage learners! A lesson that is video-based can contain places to pause and consider information or to work on an in-training activity. Videos provide a great way to demonstrate processes and to provide a resource that your trainees can watch more than once.
When you create engaging training using various instructional techniques, a bit of magic occurs. The learners get interested in what you’re presenting. They stay with it, rather than getting bored and tuning out. The learners become engaged, and engagement leads to learning!
A Platform for Success
It’s clear that thought, time, and effort goes into transitioning from on-site to online learning. Before you revise the classroom instructional design, consider the technology-associated issues with making the design fit your chosen virtual learning platform, or platforms if you’re planning blended learning.
- For a course designed on a web application, can you design and develop the course, or do you need an e-learning designer? Can you include custom made videos or can you only make them within the platform?
- Does your instructor know how to use the cloud-based video conferencing technology, or do you need a producer to help things go smoothly?
- Do you have the skill and equipment to produce a high-quality video, or should you use a company that specializes in video production?
- Does your audience have easy access to the training platform, and do they know how to use it?
Consider each of these questions carefully. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by transitioning many projects on your own. Choose only training that supports your company’s strategic goals and works well online in the intended format. Plan your training transition schedule, and hire instructional designers, producers, and video specialists as you work to make your training successful and professional during the current stay-at-home period and beyond.
Need help with your own online training course? Looking for advice on the types of videos to create and what formats work best? We’d love to help! Shoot us a message anytime.
