*This post was updated on 3/30/2017.

In our latest webinar, which took place on Tuesday, March 28 at 11 AM PST, Molly Barber and Linda Schwaber-Cohen from Skilljar discussed the findings from our study on the anatomy of a training course.

Whether you have an existing training program in place or you’re looking to build one from scratch, it helps to understand the benchmarks for success.

To start, we discussed completion rate by lesson count. Our data pointed toward an overall downward trend in completion rates the more lessons per course. According to Linda, this makes sense since it’s harder to keep learners engaged in a longer course. Higher time commitments for a course lower the overall expected completion rate.

Additionally, Molly shared that the purpose of most customer training is to teach users skills they can then apply within the product. For that reason, training managers and content creators need to build calls to action, which encourage users to leave courses and try their new skills within the actual product. Remember, if the purpose of training is product adoption, the goal is not for students to just learn something: it’s for them to go out and do it. Plan strategies to re-engage learners after they’ve left the training so that they can come back and complete it, maximizing their knowledge.

This webinar also covered types of training content. In other words, which modalities (in our study) were the most common? As previous studies have shown, video is by far the most popular type of content in customer training. We discussed a few possible reasons why video is the preferred method to deliver training content, and also why it is the preferred platform for learners to receive training. Other popular lesson types below video were text and quizzes.

No matter what the data shows, the most successful training programs are tailored to their specific audience. Training managers and instructional designers should follow best practices, but also pay attention to their analytics and their audience’s preferences to create engaging training courses.

In this webinar, you’ll learn about key content creation trends, including:

  • Completion rate by lesson count
  • Number of lesson types per course
  • Lesson type by popularity

…and more! Click here to access the full recording

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