5 Expert Tips to Make Online Technical Training Engaging and Effective

Would you like to provide your employees a learning experience that not only informs but also keeps them engaged and motivated throughout the learning journey? If the answer is yes, then this blog is just for you! In case you’re wondering can you even pair technical training and engagement together, then let me tell you that yes, it’s very well possible! In fact, in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, where technical skills are in high demand, making online technical training engaging is more essential than ever before.

Engaging online technical training is the key to unlocking the full potential of your learners! It helps you ensure that the learners not only grasp complex technical concepts but also retain and apply that knowledge effectively.

So, without further delay, let’s check out the 5 expert tips to make your online technical training engaging and improve its effectiveness.

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5 Expert Tips to Make Online Technical Training Engaging

Tip 1: Create Interactive Courses

If I ask you to sit through a long online technical training session where the instructor is conveying information endlessly without any interaction. What would you say? I’m sure you’d reply, “No, thank you!” The reason is pretty understandable. The training is not very engaging, right? But when your learners don’t have an option, they join the training session but somewhere in between in session they go into hibernation.

Because that’s not what you’d want, it’s important to make your online technical training engaging. And for that designing interactive content comes to rescue! Interactive content actively involves learners in the learning process, thereby making it more enjoyable and effective. It engages them by offering them opportunities to interact and respond to the learning material. Interactive content in online technical training is like a two-way street! Learners acquire information and at the same time share it back.

Interaction can be facilitated through different eLearning interactivities. For instance, you can use quizzes to assess learners' understanding and identify areas for improvement. You can also leverage click-throughs, drag-and-drops, etc., to boost interactivity. And if you want to take the interactivity and engagement level up a notch, you can try integrating game-based elements, such as coding challenges, points, leaderboards, etc., in the technical training material to inject some healthy competition!

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Tip 2: Leverage High-Impact Instructional Design Strategies

Who said technical training can't be fun and engaging? Because with instructional design strategies like gamification, storytelling, simulation, and scenario-based learning, you can easily ensure an engaging, immersive learning experience for your learners. Gamification refers to applying game-elements to non-game scenarios for better participation and engagement. It leverages human nature of taking up challenges and competition to captivate their attention and initiate response. You can integrate elements like points, ranks, badges, rewards, leaderboards, etc., to turn learning into an exciting game-like experience.

Apart from gamification, you can also try scenario-based learning where you present the learners with different, relevant scenarios to furnish their critical-thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. This engages the learners as they are encouraged to try different scenarios yielding multiple different results, thereby helping them improve their knowledge application part. Then we have storytelling. It is an effective instructional design strategy that allows you to capture the attention and interest of your learners' by connecting with their hearts and minds. You can use storytelling to showcase real-world applications and impact of technical concepts. This will help the learners elevate their understanding and thus boost learner engagement. Check out the video below to know 5 tips for effective storytelling.

Tip 3: Integrate Multimedia

The saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" holds true, especially in online technical training. I mean imagine explaining a lengthy technical process and on the other hand showing a well-designed, comprehensive infographic depicting the same process. Which one would be better? The infographic, of course! Because infographics help learners visualize the information, thereby making it easier to understand and remember. Well, that’s the power of multimedia elements. They help boost learner engagement in online technical training. You can try incorporating other multimedia elements, such as images, audio, videos, animations, etc.

Multimedia elements, apart from the abovementioned benefit, also allow you to cater to different types of learning styles which further work wonders in enhancing engagement and overall training ROI. But remember, for maximum impact and engagement it is important to keep your multimedia elements relevant. Adding unnecessary multimedia elements can overwhelm and distract the learners.

Tip 4: Ensure Personalized and Adaptive Learning

One-size-fits-all approach doesn't really work well when you’re trying to make your online technical training engaging. If you’re wondering why, it’s because everyone learns differently. Check out the infographic below to see the different types of learners.

To make online technical training engaging for all of them equally, you need to ensure that the learning courses are personalized and adaptive. That’s right! By catering to individual learners' needs, you foster a more engaging and effective learning experience.

But before you jump into curating personalized courses, you can even conduct a pre-assessment. Personalization allows you to provide relevant, required content to the learners which actually helps them accomplish their goals and increase their productivity and performance. And based on their performance, you can modify the instructional methodology and tailor content to match their learning needs. This adaptive learning proves really effective in bridging the knowledge gap and fostering engagement in online technical training.

Tip 5: Promote Collaboration and Social Learning

Learning doesn't have to be an isolated journey taking place in silos! Therefore, to make your technical training engaging, try designing courses in a manner that encourages collaboration among learners. This will make the learning experience even more enriching and enjoyable. To promote collaboration and social learning, you can integrate various activities, assign projects, conduct discussions, polls, etc. When learners interact with each other, they share knowledge, exchange ideas, coordinate, cooperate, and grow together as a team. Check out the infographic below to know the top 5 digital platforms that offer amazing features to promote online collaboration and social learning.

To Sum It Up!

Importance of making online technical training engaging cannot be emphasized enough!! It is the making or breaking point in the journey of employee and organizational success. With that said, it’s time to put the tips mentioned in this blog to practice and see results for yourself! Higher engagement, better productivity, skilled employees, improved performance, to name a few. And if you revisit the basics of instructional design, then we’ve got just the right resource for you. Given below is a handy instructional design reference guide for eLearning designers. Check it out right away!