E-Learning has now found its way into more and more organizations. Not surprisingly, of course, because online learning offers a lot of advantages in terms of scalability, logistics and success rate. But how do you actually ensure that you offer that online learning as effectively as possible? Time for four important tips for (even) more effective online learning.
How well do you absorb knowledge from a book? How much better do you do when you write your own summaries? Or when you have to use theory from the same book in a role play? Interactivity with lesson material ensures that knowledge becomes anchored, so that you can refer back to it more easily in the future. Of course, this principle also applies to online learning. Twelve paragraphs of text ending with a multiple-choice question; you can do better.
Can you think of game elements where a student has to click the correct points of interest from the material on an image? Or must recognize them in a video? Or drag a series of processes into the right order? Interactivity not only contributes to a better landing of material, it's also just a lot more fun for your student!
If you already know something, why go through that information again? Making texts mandatory; it creates demotivation or, worse, dropouts. We can't put it any simpler than that. So that means that a learner should be given the opportunity to skip pieces of theory if a passage contains ready knowledge for him or her.
Note that you should be able to skip the theory, but not the testing. Think your student already knows everything about this subject? Time for show and tell: go straight to the test questions in the e-learning. By organizing your e-learning in this way, you take your student's knowledge and time seriously and drastically reduce the time it takes for experienced staff to complete a module.
Anyone with a manual process AND their own training volume will recognize it: the administration surrounding online learning can quickly become an out-of-control day job. Because if you want to ensure that your colleagues and/or trainees become active participants, you have to arrange quite a lot:
Choosing Learning Management Software (LMS) instead of just an E-Learning tool helps to set up the above once: set it and forget it. As an administrator, this saves time, but as a learner, it also ensures a smooth and fast running learning process. We have already written extensively about the difference between an LMS and E-Learning here.
Piece by piece, in bite-sized chunks. An important principle to apply in your e-learning: make sure you have clearly defined sections that you can easily pick up separately from each other. Online learning usually does not take place behind a desk for four consecutive hours, but much more often an hour here and fifteen minutes there. By dividing your material into logical, but short components, you offer students the opportunity to better organize their time to absorb the material.
Faint perhaps. In an article about online learning, still mention offline learning. Yet there are always training topics that lend themselves better to a classroom approach. That benefit from a trainer who looks your student in the eye to see if the message has landed. That stick better through the use of live role plays. So why here in this article as a bonus tip?
You can use online learning as a differentiator for those cases: only when you have demonstrably successfully completed the online material can you participate in an offline session. Suddenly, your physical trainer does know what the basic level of his group is (because he has the online test results in his pocket) so students do not appear in the training room if they have not yet successfully completed the online module. You will notice that this greatly increases the effect of your training efforts.
With the Learning Management Software from Procademy you shape the complete learning process of your student. From administration to attractive and interactive content, from off- to online learning; Procademy gives you control over your learning process. Want to explore together what our software can do for the learning goals in your organization or those of your customers? Feel free to contact us.
