In early 2022, Software Advice polled nearly 300 HR leaders for the Toxic Culture Survey[*] and found that nearly half (49%) are spending more than they have previously on upskilling employees in 2022. However, despite the increase in resources devoted to training initiatives, organizations are struggling to create engaging, effective training modules.
At least, thats what employees are saying: Recent research from Gartner revealed that more than 40% of employees report that the compliance and ethics training they received in the past 12 months did not help them perform their job better[1].
Obviously, this is not the outcome that employees that are responsible for developing training programs are hoping for. But the reality is that if you want to create more memorable training programs, youre going to need to go beyond the basics and start incorporating advanced e-learning elements into your training modules.
So, if youre a corporate trainer or team manager whos taken on the task of leveling up your current training modules, say goodbye to hastily slapped together slide decks, because weve laid out a step-by-step process for creating effective e-learning training modules.
Follow the five steps outlined below to start building e-learning modules that improve training retention.
Before you begin the process of creating training content, you need to determine what it is you want your employees to take away from the module youre building. Is it a concept, a set of best practices, or a new process theyll be learning? Depending on the answer, how you format your training module will be different.
According to Ebbinghauss Forgetting Curve, people forget an average of 50% of new information theyre presented with within an hour and 90% within a week[2]. Knowing this, we suggest keeping your training modules short and focused (rather than trying to provide as much information as possible on a topic). This may mean breaking down a larger training objective into smaller milestones.
For example, lets say that youre working on creating an e-learning module that will help prepare a new sales representative for their first call with a lead.
In this scenario, the goal of your module could be for the rep to master the sales script your organization follows. Or, the goal could be to teach the rep how to research the lead theyre calling and tailor their pitch to their background.
Either way, the idea is to be specific about the training objective your module is targeting and to not cram too much information into one e-learning module.
One benefit of using an e-learning tool or learning management system to create training modules is that theres a whole wide world of content formats available to you. With that level of possibility at your fingertips, knowing which content formats to use (and when) to get a point across is essential in order to boost your employees knowledge retention.
Below, weve provided you with a cheat sheet that gives an overview of seven common types of e-learning content formats and what theyre best used for.
Use this table to determine what content format(s) your module should include, and to avoid overloading trainees, stick to two or three content formats per module.
Continuing with our example from the first step, if your goal is to help a new hire master your companys sales script, you could first show a video of two employees running through the script, then have new hires reinforce what theyve learned through roleplay (social learning) with another employee or through an e-learning simulation.
A roleplay scenario used to train customer service representatives in Day One[3]
Once youve determined what your content will cover and how you will present it, its time to start creating your e-learning modules.
A dropdown menu shows content format options in TalentLMS (Source)
Lastly, before you begin, have a quick brainstorming session, and map out the contents of your module in a data management tool, such as a Microsoft Word document or a spreadsheet. Keep this step simple: Write down the information you plan to share with the learner and the content formats youll use to accomplish that. That way, youll have a reference you can turn to when you begin building your module in your course authoring tool.
Now that youve built your module, all thats left to do is follow a few steps to ensure that employees know how to access it and by what date theyre expected to complete it. Follow the four tips below for a successful training rollout to your workforce or team:
Tool tip: Most LMS have a reporting feature that shows you completion rates for training modules. You can use this feature to determine who needs a follow-up reminder to complete the training, as well as how long it took employees to complete it, and how they performed in any knowledge tests.
A manager dashboard shows completion and participation rates in 360Learning (Source)
Lastly, in order to prevent the concepts or practices presented in your training module from becoming long forgotten, you need to provide a chance for your employees to use what theyve learned. Without doing so, the new information theyve taken in will fade away, and the work you put into building the training will have been a waste of effort.
For example, if you watch a YouTube tutorial on how to bake a souffl, but then you never pull out a ramekin or beat an egg white, the chances are low that youll remember the specific set of instructions youre supposed to follow.
So what does this look like in a professional setting? The truth is that it will be different depending on the subject of your training, but here are a few examples of how this step could play out:
As someone whos in charge of developing training programs for your organization, think about how the contents of each module you create will be applied in the workplace. Then, once a training module has been developed, look ahead a few weeks and plan an opportunity for employees to apply what theyve learned.
In this guide, weve covered five steps for creating engaging, retainable employee training modules:
Our final piece of advice is this: Adjust your training as necessary based on your employees performance and feedback.
As we mentioned in the fourth step of this process (plan for a successful deployment), most learning management systems have reporting functions. Use this feature to track your employees engagement with training modules, and ultimately, determine if your e-learning strategy is successful.
A reporting dashboard in Looop shows learners activity time and resource views over the course of a year (Source)
The majority (86%) of businesses that increased their L&D budget for 2022 say they plan to spend more on learning and training technology[*]. Join your peers; connect with an advisor to find a learning management system that works for your organization today.
Sources
Survey methodology
*Software Advices 2022 Toxic Culture Survey was conducted in January 2022 among 294 HR leaders at U.S. companies. An HR leader is defined as any HR employee with the role of HR manager or higher at their organization. The goal of this survey was to learn how the transition to hybrid and remote work impacted toxic employee behaviors.
Note: The applications mentioned in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.
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How To Create E-Learning Modules That Boost Training Retention - Software Advice