If you’ve ever sat through boring compliance training that looks like it was made in the 70s, you might have been left with a bad impression of what training can be.
At Skilljar, we work with companies that take a fresh, innovative, and user-centric approach to enabling their customers. Many of them are reinventing training from the ground up, in a way that uses modern technology that appeals to today’s self-paced adult learners.
In this blog post, we share 5 best practices on creating training content that people actually will want to take!
1. Design each course to take 1 hour or less
In today’s fast-paced world, one hour is the maximum length of time in which many of us can schedule and process information. If your curriculum is longer, that’s totally ok! Just create distinct sections within a course, or multiple courses, so that students can make progress in hour-long chunks. Think of it as chapters within a textbook.
2. Design each lesson to take 5 minutes or less
Bite-size learning is a great match for busy students who are on-the-go. By keeping each lesson to 5 minutes or less, students can easily absorb modules when they have time. Short lessons also enable students to see positive visual feedback and get confirmation on their progress.
3. Add interactive quizzes and ways to apply knowledge
To effectively “close the loop” on learning, students need to both absorb and apply knowledge. Interactive quizzes are a great tool to mix passive and active content in a way that prompts the students to recall their learning. Quizzes can be simple knowledge checks or full assessments, depending on the context.
4. Ensure mobile accessibility
Learners today expect to access training on computers, tablets, and smartphones. To be successful, keep mobile in mind when designing content and choosing an LMS. From a content perspective, ensure that content is responsive across devices (for SCORM this requires certain publishing settings) and that the template is usable and readable on mobile devices. Think large buttons and minimal text. From an LMS perspective, the LMS navigation should also be mobile responsive, as well as support mobile responsive content, whether that’s SCORM, video, HTML5, or another format.
5. Offer incentives
It’s always nice to be rewarded for a job well done. Incentives could include badges, certificates, points, continuing education credit, or other rewards. An LMS like Skilljar enables students to share their incentives on social networks, such as posting their certificates on their LinkedIn profiles.
Conclusion
Customer training content can be designed and implemented in a way that students learn and enjoy the material. By following the 5 best practices above, you’ll be well on your way to success!