4 MISCONCEPTIONS OF TRAINING & CONTENT DESIGN

Here are the four common misconceptions surfaced from various interviews and surveys collected by Quincy Wells over the last year from many global training and content design professionals.

1. Online Courses Replaces the need for Training Face to Face.

How often do the people in the face to face class move around - up/down out of seat movement in a training session? If there is lots of movement, don't judge the audience - they are giving honest feedback on engaging content and focus on skills. If there is signs of boredom in a class setting, making it into an online course based upon the same content will not increase attention. But highly interactive, engaging trainers can convey answers to the learner's questions, demonstrate more than one method quickly, and offer personal insights or experiences as examples.

What is the best method - online or in person? Quincy Wells survey found a combo of both was most often cited by many asked as their new trend in effective strategy choice. In person training and online was found by human resources performance research to offer the best experience for learning difficult topics or complex skills. Quincy Wells found this trend supported by those surveyed and interviewed so far in 2018.

The interview reasons were split on why this combo worked the best overall. In class settings, most often cited was that a trainer offers questions being answered or addressed which learners often could apply immediately to a specific situation. An online course was cited as used to replenish the memory or as resource with key points in a different way, changing content from the presentation of skills format, thus reinforcing steps in task or complex information details.

2. All Learning Must Be Measurable and Interactive.

• Assessments, quizzes, surveys – Give me data to prove they learned!
• How else can I tell they know it?
• Test them - survey how they liked trainer - have them take a quiz!

We have not changed our methods of confirming learning even though technology and human resources tools have changed over the years. Often the focus on performance feedback and setting business goals fails to consider skills learned from training courses as successful or failures. Learners should be performing better after a course, but feedback from managers or supervisors seldom reach the training team or content developers.

Interactive courses with assessment methods do not always tell the truth about actual skill development long term. Often these click and pick courses or polling surveys fail to measure real need solution knowledge, specific skills expertise, or application of methods abilities. Learners report feeling obligated to rate learning higher in face to face situations based upon peer social pressures. Online course quizzes often are less tough on knowledge application as that is too complex to set rubrics.

Influence of a course content does not always require interaction or direct engagement for learners. Sometimes, measurement right after a course is not needed. Like a baby’s first steps, walking is a combination of skills that are observed, encouraged, learned by exploration, failures, and practiced over time. A better assessment of results from training either in person or online, is the measured combination the growth of expertise skill over time and observed performance or business results.

3. People Hate Training – Online or In Person.

People hate time wasting click and point courses or talking heads on topics which add no direct value to their job or life. Just think social media. YouTube, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other online platforms are found to be the learner's first place to go over internal training. Why? It's quick, to the point, and easy to find. Conferences and skill-based workshops sell out because they offer direct answers to questions from experts.

The key to great classroom training is offering more time to good questions and giving mastery to instructional answers. Trainers offering expertise can give depth to questions that were focused on nuggets of information over steps of a skill. Anyone can read steps and act. A trainer that adds nuggets of insights and failures, add to the solutions of skill applications. Learning from answers that apply to direct needs to gain skill mastery adds value to the learner and is judged as useful and meaningful time.

The best online content design is to get to the skill quickly, give just enough information, and offer various ways to practice the skill steps. Mastery of skills with online courses come from a learner's viewpoint of success. Great online content design offers ways of personalizing a skill by simulations, follow along mirroring, and expressing multiple path solution options. This peer to peer learning content perspective offers the learner option to self-evaluate their level of successful mastery of skill by their own rubrics. And isn't that how Do It Yourself learning works?

4. Seriously Dull Content and Topics - Just Part of Training Curriculum.

Why can’t topics be FUN to learn about? They can be. Even humor-filled too according to neuroscience research. Emotional topics and skills can be better taught by using humor and creatively fun ways to introduce serious information.

Not all topics may fit the fun category, but adding a fun element to lessen stress of subject, many in the survey suggested, help learners to remember content under difficult situations. Another survey offered this example for elearning for 911 call centers where life or death information skills were designed around a game of best answers and how fast to find answers from callers.

How can dull content ever engage or influence anyone to apply a behavioral skill? It doesn’t. The survey found there are fun ways to deliver dull content in different formats, such as videos, comic books, and many other interactive games. Quincy Wells understand this and has made it a cornerstone in their strategy for clients.

Overall, the Quincy Wells' survey found creativity as a main gateway to training what is considered dull or emotional charged skills. Games, interactive simulations, and mini videos were the most recommended methods for turning dull content into engaging and memorable online courses from those surveyed. Fun and humor can be creatively added to engage learners to recall any dull skills or information.

Our Survey Conclusion:

Too often, trainers and content designers believe they must design serious content in a dull formulated method to be effective. Assessment data on training and online courses does need to be collected, however the survey found collaboration with human resources or management to measure a course's effect on business goals and performance a better data source.

Learner's self-assessment was found to be mentioned in the survey to reveal online course mastery value on skill performance to encourage partnerships with training teams. Such pairing the assessment with learner goals and performance self-assessments appear to allow a trend in learner expertise to organically grow from their application, continual job-related skill practice and experience over time. 

Think outside the box – Don’t follow the same old pattern in your training and content development by adding creativity to those dull content topics. If you have trouble with this type of strategy, contact Quincy Wells, experts at Making Learning Fun and Engaging.