4 Techniques for Innovation in Corporate Training
Take an honest look at your corporate training programs. Are your learners truly engaged? Are you leveraging the latest and greatest technologies to help learners achieve their goals and ultimately drive business results?
If not, don’t worry. Putting together an innovation plan for your training programs can feel like a “nice to have” rather than something necessary. But consider this: innovative training (specifically, eLearning and VILT) doesn’t just save the business time and money, it’s also been shown to deliver better learning outcomes, improved job performance, long-term savings and revenue growth for the business.
Here are four techniques to help your organization provide a more innovative e-learning environment.
1. Make Learning Fun with Gamification
Gamification is an exciting way to ensure your learners are engaged with digital content. Through the use of gamified elements like simulations, challenges and rewards, and competitive elements like points, leader boards, and levels you can raise the stakes for learners while making your courses more interactive and memorable.
There are a plethora of ways to apply gamified elements to your courses, and we are touching on a few of those in this article. But if you’re ready to add gamification to your innovation plan, here are a few initial considerations:
Does my LMS support gamified elements? You can’t incorporate gamification without the right tools, so take a look at the capabilities of your tech platforms before planning out which elements you want to include.
What would more learner engagement through gamification do for the business or organization? If you can tie the value of gamification back to its business value (for instance, more engaged sales reps means increased sales or pipeline), you can then build a business case for investing in new technology that’ll allow you to make your courses more gamified.
Which courses or trainings would gamification help the most? Some topics or courses may lend themselves better to gamified elements, such as onboarding or compliance training.
2. Up Your Technology Stack with Virtual Reality
In addition to incorporating game design into your learning strategies, virtual reality can help take user engagement (and learning outcomes) to the next level. According to Forbes, VR market volume is expected to reach 98.4 million sales by 2023.
Training professionals have already seen the power of virtual reality, especially as it applies to learners getting to “practice” hands-on skills. This is especially important in high-stakes environments — operating heavy machinery or medical equipment, for example. VR provides a low-stakes environment for the learner to practice, fail early on, and learn from their mistakes on the fly. This ultimately leads to more effective onboarding and adequately prepares them for the real-life pressures of the job.
Besides ease of training, VR can save your organization a massive amount of budget. For example, rather than training delivery drivers in physical vehicles with mentors, you can take thousands of these employees off the road, eliminating liabilities and training expenses.
3. Incorporate Mobile and Video Learning
Over 700 million hours are spent watching YouTube videos on mobile devices every day, making mobile learning and video training an unbreakable pair. Apply this formula to learning and consider mobile-first design as well as including video learning into your training. A short video has the potential to convey concepts and frameworks quickly, creatively, and successfully. Video learning can enhance knowledge retention and engagement and may even minimize training time because of the powerful combination of information being presented in a direct, dynamic, and creative way.
Combining video learning with mobile meets learners where they are and provides them with the ability to consume course content on their schedule from anywhere in the world. Anytime, anywhere learning gives people the support they need when they need it and helps learners stay on track with their training, which results in less dropouts and increased learning outcomes.
Evaluate your current learning programs for opportunities to convert written or instructor-led training (ILT) into eLearning, while including video in the mix. Before starting with video, write a high-quality script to make the filming and editing as smooth as possible, to ensure an engaging and professional final video.
In addition, keep your videos short and entertaining, so learners can access them at any time. Consider integrating emotional storytelling or humor in order to keep your learners engaged. While you don’t want your video to be too goofy, showing a sense of humor and natural on-screen rapport will ultimately make for a more effective e-learning video.
4. Seek Expert Help to Affect Internal Change
If you don’t have the resources to create an innovative learning environment, consider turning to experts with experience in implementing and using the modern tools that you need to bring effective innovation to your learning plans.
Look for consulting companies that offer deep experience developing learning strategies and has experts with a proven track record that can help you quickly adopt and implement innovation tactics. Seeking this expertise ensures your company adopts innovations quickly and achieves a strong ROI with a tailored learning strategy that is purpose-fit for your organization.
Ready to provide a more innovative learning environment? Drop me a note at learning@prime8consulting.com with any questions about bringing innovation to your learning programs.
