Custom Courses Can Fit Any Budget by Utilizing Different Levels of Interactivity
With new technology coming out constantly, it can be overwhelming to attempt to keep up. Your organization needs to foster learning and growth among its workforce, but what type of learning management system (LMS) will work for your needs? Do you need to hop on the latest VR trends, or create a custom mobile app? Will your employees even go through the training exercise if it is not turned into a game?
The answer is complex, but the short version is, no, you do not always need the latest, most expensive methods in order to upskill your team and create a culture of learning.
Just as there are different goals behind learning and development, there are different ways to meet those objectives. Employee learning can be accomplished by anything from a simple conversation to a wildly immersive, hands-on experience. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.
Let’s talk about 4 different learning goals you may have, and what types of custom courses can best address them.
Goal #1: Check the Box
We never want learning to feel like it is just checking a box, but sometimes, that is precisely the goal behind a training exercise. There are cases when an organization needs to move a lot of employees through a compliance course, or briefly introduce them to a new procedure or piece of software. In instances where a concept review or simple recall to pass a test are required, simple, presentational style learning will get the job done.
A click-through journey with audio, graphics, and text, and basic knowledge checks along the way to ensure the concepts are getting through is easy and fast to build. Granted, this type of learning course is definitely passive. It is mostly about watching and listening, then responding. These basic courses should not serve as an excuse for poor design or terrible graphics. Simple doesn’t have to mean boring or ineffective. A basic custom course design can accomplish basic goals within a reasonable budget and timeframe.
Goal #2: Messaging
Sometimes, you need to get across more complex ideas for individuals to understand and internalize. Organizational messaging is a good example of this. The information is straightforward, but you want workers to organize the data in their minds so they can remember it later.
To accomplish this, you might seek out content creators who can make a course with more clickable options, some interesting animations, and a community interaction element. Allowing users to sort and classify data is a plus. All of these pieces will help take learning to the next level and ensure the message gets across.
Goal #3: Cognitive Work
If your learning objectives require a bit more thought and energy, your training has to follow suit. Any type of material that is asking employees for empathy will be better received when learners are allowed to arrive at their own conclusions, based on specific scenarios that apply directly to them and the people around them.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), along with many types of soft skills learning, are good examples of goals that make sense to invest a bit more time and resources into. Custom imagery helps learners put themselves into the situation and interactive, gamified elements allow them to internalize the information in a different way than a simple quiz might.
Goal #4: Understanding a Completely New Concept
One of the most challenging goals that L&D professionals have is getting those within their organizations to understand information that is completely foreign to them. Getting hundreds of people on board with a new project management system, or presenting a software solution that is unlike anything people have seen before––big, sweeping concepts that will change the way people think and work will naturally meet with resistance.
For these types of situations, putting the learner at the center of their own story can help break down that barrier. Typically, more immersive learning experiences will explore a theme. Something like surviving on a desert island or taking a journey through time. The fun theme will mirror actual scenarios that learners are likely to encounter. Users can explore, make choices, and earn rewards. In the end, they are applying what they learn right there within the course. This type of learning requires a significant investment of both in time and money, but it is worth it to give learners an effective and fun experience.
Goal #5: Emotional and Technical Learning
When the training experience requires a lot from the learners, it is only fair that it offers them a lot back in return. Emotional, social, and highly technical material can all be more effectively taught with a course that is high on engagement and active learning.
These highly immersive courses can sometimes utilize virtual reality (VR), with or without headsets, to really put the learner in the situation you want them to understand. Here, they can operate machinery, role-play with others, take risks, and more from a safe space. They learn from the natural consequences of their choices instead of from a talking head. This is an experience learners will never forget.
Organizations will get highly engaged learners, but they will also get a high volume of data from this type of instruction. VR and its partner augmented reality, can be used to gather valuable insights into the skills, persona, and mindset of users to paint a complete picture of what still needs to be learned.
Whatever your learning goals are, there is a course type to fit your needs. The best part of reaching out to a professional course-building team is that they are building something just for you. You can tailor the level of design, the final experience of the learner, and the interactive elements to make sense within your budget and timeline.
In the end, the important thing is for your team to see that your organization values their time, skills, and energy by investing in learning programs that will help them reach their full potential. Whatever type of technology helps you do that is the perfect fit.
Want to learn how ELB Learning can help you create the learning you need? Chat with our custom services team today.
