How can you create interactive training programs?

Have a good understanding of what your learners will need to do, i.e. what tasks they will need to perform after the training. Be very specific when defining desired outcomes and keep in mind that the training is there to enable learners to perform certain activities not just remember a piece of information.

Understand Your Audience: ? Determine the knowledge level, preferences, and challenges of your learners. ? Tailor content to meet their specific needs and interests. Define Clear Objectives: ? Outline what you want participants to know or be able to do by the end of the training.

The dynamic balance between what the sponsors of the training (i.e. decision-makers or budget holders) and the learners who attend the training each defining their respective learning objectives is the exact place to start the conversation. This conversation requires input from each group incorporated into the design of learning as well as the delivery from the onset. There may be tensions to uncover, alignments to celebrate or innovative thinking to explore in this conversation. As a learning and development partner, The Soft Skills Group, is delighed to be engaged in and at times leading this front-end heavy approach that has yielded the highest impact for our learners and built the foundations for long-term parnters with our clients.

Some of my greatest experiences with designing and facilitating adult education experiences started with a human-centered design process. Leveraging insights from stakeholders and ideal candidates allow for the development of curriculum that caters well to the needs of your participants while driving great progress toward achieving the intended purpose of the initiative overall. As soon as possible identify a framework that will establish clear expectations for how participants can best navigate the waters of their learning journey. The priorities for cohort based programs and those designed for individualized learning have a significant contrast. Setting your focus on the needs of learners is paramount throughout the design process.

Emphasizing and deifining the objectives is essential. To define your learning objectives effectively, set clear goals, prioritize them, measure progress, allocate necessary resources, create a timeline, stay adaptable, seek feedback, commit to the process, celebrate successes, and reflect for refinement.

Be mindful when choosing the activities and keep learning objectives in mind. Also consider the duration of the training, if the activities should be spaced or follow immediately one after another. The activities need to make sense as a whole as well, support the objectives, and not leave learners tired of context switching.

Incorporate Various Learning Methods: ? Use a mix of lectures, discussions, hands-on activities, and group work to cater to different learning styles. Leverage Technology: ? Use eLearning platforms, virtual reality, augmented reality, or mobile apps to create interactive modules. ? Incorporate quizzes, polls, and interactive videos to engage learners. Use Gamification: ? Turn learning into a competitive game with points, badges, and leaderboards. ? Design scenarios or simulations where learners can practice skills in a risk-free environment.

Right tool and format is very important to achieve maximum benefit from any training. You can go for any hours or number of days training but if it’s all about looking at the slides and listening to the lecturer will not give you any benefit. Nowadays, there is a trend of long-term training program which goes from 6 weeks to upto one year with 6-8 hours per month. This will give very good understanding of the each and every topics being taught via slides, simulation, real life examples and discussions amongst participants. This will give complete context of the topics and how to apply in practice.

The new crop of e-learning tools are amazing and will totally meet your requirement of creating interactive training programs for leaders. If you design this well, you can have data driven insights, gamification/simulations/virtual experiences, anytime/anywhere access, and much more. Customisation and personalisation can also make the training that much more interactive. Focus on the experience and the learner's journey when designing the training, and ensure that your content is delivered as microlearning segments.

Selecting the right format and tools for interactive training in remote operations is akin to tailoring a suit—it must fit perfectly. In my role, I've found that the flexibility of e-learning platform and webinars align seamlessly with the dynamic nature of remote teams. These formats empower our workforce to access valuable training content on their terms. Furthermore, incorporating interactive tools like chat rooms and forums creates collaboration and knowledge sharing, nurturing a sense of unity despite geographical distances. By making astute choices in format and tools, we've enriched our remote operations team's skill set while promoting a culture of adaptability.

Encourage Group Activities: ? Promote collaborative learning through group projects or breakout sessions. ? Use role-playing to practice real-life scenarios. Include Real-life Case Studies: ? Discuss real situations and challenges, allowing participants to apply their knowledge. Provide Immediate Feedback: ? Offer real-time feedback during interactive sessions to reinforce learning and correct misconceptions

A simple yet effective method is to ask learners to choose a topic relevant to the training, learn about it and then teach others.

As learning is emotional, the more practical, personal and emotional an activity is, the more participant will remember its message, especially if it was made crystal clear to them prior to the experience how it is going to help them achieve something they want and avoid what gets in the way of their success. Training and coaching are about serving people, not pleasing, there is a fine, but important distinction between the 2 approaches.

Creating "what if" scenarios for teams of participants to discuss, debate, and resolve together is one of the best forms of active learning that incorporates critical thinking and being open to hearing diverse thoughts and perspectives that can lead to innovative solutions and a shared sense of ownership for learning and doing.

This happens to be my favorite topic once again. Often, when we discuss interactivity, we tend to focus on technical interactions. However, the most effective way to engage learners is by creating meaningful interactions with your content. I find it frustrating when people label simple prompts like "Click on the buttons below to know more..." as interactivity. These are technical interactions. What our content development truly needs is a human touch or emotional engagement. Just as we become engrossed in movies without needing to click anything, it's about tapping into human behavior. Technology is merely a tool to facilitate this deeper level of engagement.

While the point is accurate, it’s incomplete. This point is specifically referencing interaction designed to break up content delivery. When thinking purely about content delivery, you absolutely don’t want to go too long without something to break things up; however, it needs to add to the content and be intentional. However, unlike interaction amidst content, I’d advocate interactive, experiential activity should be the vast majority of where people spend their time, not just to break up content. Content should be available but not the main event and in many learning experiences that’s where it is today. We need to prioritize experiences where people are actively applying the content versus simply making consumption more engaging.

Additionally, it's crucial to avoid inundating your audience with an overwhelming deluge of technical information. Most people have shorter attention spans and a lower inclination to retain vast amounts of knowledge. What truly distinguishes content is the singular "idea" you aim to convey within a specific section. One of the most effective means of ensuring that your audience retains meaningful takeaways is through the craft of storytelling. Mastery of this art transforms you into a gifted educator, motivator, engager, and inspirer.

Theory without action is like reading a menu without ordering and eating the food while expecting to feel full and satisfied, although being forced to eat without choosing the dish can be unpleasant, too. The same challenge applies to training, as well. Too much theory makes it boring and dry, while playing and practicing something without enough knowledge can backfire, too. It is hard to reflect on something we are not aware of so new and relevant knowledge must be learnt and put into practice immediately on a regular basis. Intensity and repetition are key to mastering a new skill.

Interactive training programs are more than just a trend - they are the key to engage learners, amplify retention, and cultivate an efficient learning environment. ? Balancing Theory & Interaction While foundational theories provide the backbone, interaction breathes life into learning. It fosters active engagement, facilitating the application of theory in real-time scenarios. ? Diverse Formats To cater to varied learning styles, it's essential to blend different formats - visual aids, hands-on tasks, discussions etc. Variety enriches the experience! In order to prepare learners to put knowledge into action I'd recommend to focus on engagement, embracing diverse formats, and ensuring that theory meets practice seamlessly.

In remote operations, finding the right balance between content and interaction is paramount. Overloading our team members with constant interaction can lead to burnout and hinder their ability to absorb vital information. On the other hand, too little interaction can make learning monotonous and disengaging. Our approach has been to ensure a well-paced training programme, with interaction points strategically placed to reinforce key concepts. This balance has not only kept our team engaged but has also enhanced their learning experience, resulting in more competent and confident remote operators.

Find a way to evaluate your program beyond learners' feedback and surveys. What learners get from training should be applicable in their job tasks, and if you find a way to see how their performance change after the training, you'll have a strong evidence of whether your program succeeded or needs improvements.

Facilitate Discussions: ? Encourage learners to share their experiences, challenges, and insights. ? Pose open-ended questions to stimulate critical thinking. Incorporate Hands-on Activities: ? Allow learners to experiment, build, or create, making the learning tangible and memorable. Ensure Accessibility: ? Ensure your program is accessible to all, including those with disabilities. This might mean adding captions to videos or ensuring online components are screen-reader friendly.

My experience in a remote operations team has highlighted the importance of evaluating and improving training programmes. In a dynamic environment, it's crucial to gather data on learning outcomes and collect feedback from learners. Using methods like quizzes, surveys, and interviews, we assess what works and what needs enhancement. Feedback from our remote team members helps us fine-tune our training to meet their evolving needs, ensuring a relevant and effective learning experience. In the ever-evolving landscape of remote work, continuous improvement is not just a goal but a necessity.

In my experience, creating an interactive program is important, but co-creating it with the participants based on the data we gather and insights we collect from them takes it to a much higher level, people are more engaged and motivated to participate. In general, people do not want to change or transform, those are expressions used by coaches and trainers while people on the receiving end hear that they are not good enough and the process will be painful. That is not a good starting point. On the other hand, people are much more willing to level up, to get even better results knowing that they are good enough already, but there is an even better way of doing things.

In my view, it's essential to divide programs into two distinct parts based on how our brains acquire knowledge. Our brains undergo learning through the neocortex and the limbic system. The neocortex is responsible for analytical and technical abilities, whereas the limbic system governs emotions, impulses, and drives. It thrives when motivated, practiced, and provided with feedback. If we design programs that start with limbic stimulation to ignite participants' excitement and curiosity, then transition to neocortex-based learning, and ultimately return to limbic engagement, we adopt a fantastic sandwich approach to comprehensive learning.

Include Real-life Case Studies: ? Discuss real situations and challenges, allowing participants to apply their knowledge. Provide Immediate Feedback: ? Offer real-time feedback during interactive sessions to reinforce learning and correct misconceptions. Facilitate Discussions: ? Encourage learners to share their experiences, challenges, and insights. ? Pose open-ended questions to stimulate critical thinking. Incorporate Hands-on Activities: ? Allow learners to experiment, build, or create, making the learning tangible and memorable.

The content needs to suit a variety of users. For example, risk training should include general scenarios where everyone can understand; and scenarios to specific roles / skills in the organization (e.g., technical areas for the technical folks).

One of the biggest problems with training programs is that they take very little account of the individuals who are being trained. It's high time we got beyond simply trying to account for different people’s learning styles (audio/visual/kinaesthetic), and add to this the accurate and purposeful adaptation of content for each individual’s specific and personal motivations. But it’s now easy enough to plan sessions, knowing exactly who in the room needs to feel in control, who is inspired by innovation, who needs a sense of connection, who seeks entertainment and variety, who needs hard numbers and evidence, etc, etc. Attempting to train people without such foreknowledge will fail to meet their needs and render training largely ineffective.