how an engaging technical online course

Make your technical training interactive by asking questions, building in quizzes, having the group annotate on the screen, use polling, gamification and ‘guess the stat’! Of course the most interactive way of interacting is conversation.

Full Answer

How to create engaging online courses?

How To Create Engaging Online Courses. 1 1. Keep The Learning Modules Short. The attention span of learners is much shorter than most learning modules. Traditional education wrongly convinced ... 2 2. Use, But Don't Overuse, Video. 3 3. Keep It Simple. 4 4. Create Interactive Elements.

How do you turn highly technical content into engaging training?

Once the learning objectives are clearly defined, the key to turning highly technical content into engaging training is to break it down and determine the nature of the content: What do you really need to teach, and what type of content is it? For example, consider this learning objective: Perform steps in a process.

Is it hard to design training for highly technical content?

Designing training for highly technical content, or any content for that matter, does not have to be complicated. If you follow a few simple steps, you can engage and challenge learners and yield business results. Michele Graham, M.S., is a director for the KPMG Tax Business School.

How do you engage in an interactive training session?

Engage Within First Five Minutes The key to an interactive training session is participation and engagement. Integrate opportunities for participation in the first five minutes (ideally in the opening) to set the expectation that you will be requesting engagement throughout the session. 4. Ask for Engagement Every 10 Minutes

How do I make an engaging online course?

How To Create Engaging Online CoursesKeep The Learning Modules Short. The attention span of learners is much shorter than most learning modules. ... Use, But Don't Overuse, Video. I've tried creating engaging content with audio over a presentation created in PowerPoint or Keynote. ... Keep It Simple. ... Create Interactive Elements.

How do you attract students to online classes?

5 tips to attract students for your online courseBe clear about your course. Nothing is most annoying than visit a site and didn't immediately find the information you seek. ... Provide infoproducts. ... Learn from your competitors. ... Take advantage of those who are already your student. ... Give something of value for free.

What 3 things can you do to engage students in an online session?

Student engagement in online learning – what works and whyBe present.Create interesting learning materials.Provide 1-to-1 sessions.Assign some group work.Create an online forum for discussions.Provide and ask for a regular feedback.Challenge students.

What are some innovative ways we can continue to engage students online?

8 New Ideas for Engaging Online Students#1: Train instructors in online learning. ... #2: Give students a sense of ownership and control. ... #3: Plan for delivery diversity. ... #4: Be a storyteller. ... #5: Regularly update course content. ... #6: Assign success coaches. ... #7: Encourage accountability.More items...

1. Keep The Learning Modules Short

The attention span of learners is much shorter than most learning modules. Traditional education wrongly convinced us that students will pay attention for forty-five minutes or more. The truth is they were never paying attention, they just didn't have an "off" button.

2. Use, But Don't Overuse, Video

I've tried creating engaging content with audio over a presentation created in PowerPoint or Keynote. That works for a short time, but it isn't effective for an entire course. Another client had a very successful course, but he was intrigued by my claim that I could make it even more engaging. He accepted the challenge.

3. Keep It Simple

Professional videographers cringe when they hear me tell people to use their phones and a wired lapel microphone to record course videos. Professional videos do look better, but a simple video can get the job done. You can purchase a tripod mount, microphone, and extension for less than $50.

4. Create Interactive Elements

Most Learning Management Systems include various tools to facilitate interactivity. Simple quizzes are one option. By placing a single multiple choice question at the end of each lesson, you can evaluate student engagement. Of, course, you also can use some of the more advanced tools. The trick is to give learners something to do.

What is the best strategy for online learning?

Strategy 1: Integrate New Online Learning Best Practices. In online learning, you don’t have the traditional elements of a classroom such as conversations, hand-on activities, and physical presence. These are the pieces that foster communication and encourage deeper learning.

How to increase interactivity in a course?

One of the easiest ways to increase interactivity and engagement in your course is by integrating gamification. Gamification allows learners to make decisions and get feedback as they learn, similar to playing a video game. It can activate intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to stimulate learning in a fun way.

What is sequence of events?

Sequence of events. The learning content should be set to a pace that will not overwhelm learners but also won’t bore them. It should also follow a sequence of events that builds and reinforces knowledge. Storyboard your lessons and learning activities ahead of time to ensure your course is engaging.

How much money is spent on corporate training each year?

With the onset of COVID-19, many corporations will never return to a traditional learning model. An estimated $300 billion is spent on corporate training each year.

Why should we think about engagement?

Why You Should Be Thinking About Engagement. Engagement is one of the key elements of knowledge retention in online learning. When you are engaging online learners, you are keeping them involved, motivated, and invested in the learning process. This cultivates a stronger connection between them and the learning goals.

1. Who creates the slide-decks? Make friends with them

For technical training, it is often the technical experts who create the training materials – or for technical product this might be marketing or comms departments. The point here is that they are not designed with learning in mind. They are often a brochure or technical document with everything you need to know.

2. Create a separate handout

Okay, so we get it… you still HAVE to provide all of the content to participants. Fine. Give them all of that as their take-away handout. Make lots of references to it in your workshop but then strip out the detail from your slide-deck and distill the key points that will help your participants understand and retain what they need to know.

3. Let go of your grip on the slides

It does take a shift in mindset to accept that ‘not everything has to be on the slides’. This is especially so if you have a comprehensive take-away document too.

5. State the (not so) obvious

If you have graphs, charts of data-heavy content to share, consider this… what is the key point we need participants to take away from this. Most charts have a purpose, a ‘so what’. What is it for yours? Then consider having the full data in the take-away materials and just the headlines in your slides.

6. Go analogue

Before venturing into the virtual world, many technical trainers relied on good old flipcharts and pens to bring diagrams, processes and content to life. Well here’s the good news.

7. Get up close and personal

Do you have a piece of equipment or a process that you need to demonstrate? You could record a video where you move the camera around to show the different elements you need to showcase. Better still, use 2 webcams.

8. Use analogies

Are there any example analogies that you can use to bring a complicated process to life? For example when explaining an investment product, you might show how it is similar to building a house – having the foundations in place etc. Then as you build further rooms on your house, it becomes more valuable, but also more costly to maintain.

1. Change Up the Online Learning Format and Delivery

It might be easier to use the same lessons and methods for your online course. But, ask yourself this: does it feel fun to you? If it doesn’t, then it might not be enjoyable for your students either.

3. Add Social and Interactive Elements

Students will expect that they will have to listen to lectures and take notes. So, change it up and make their learning fun and interactive!

4. Create Space for Humor and Playfulness

Students learn better when they feel comfortable. And, humor makes an online classroom more inviting. So, show your students that you’re both human and humorous.

5. Show Up When Needed

Your students know that instructors get very busy. But, that doesn’t stop them from wanting their questions answered and receiving your feedback on their challenges.

Create Better, Engaging Online Courses By Going Above and Beyond

These 5 simple tips to keep your students engaged throughout your course. You might be surprising your students with your innovative online teaching methods, but the success of the course will come as no surprise.

What Is Not Engaging?

"Talking at people, giving people some stuff to read, and then giving them a test."

How To Create A More Engaging Online Learning Experience For Your Students

To be powerful, online learning experiences also need to be meaningful. And that means the same ol’ teacher lecturing in front of a whiteboard isn’t going to work in online learning. Here are 5 ways to create meaningful experiences with your online course and keep students glued to your online classes:

The Last Word

Student engagement directly translates to online learning success. The more engaging your course is, the more valuable it is to students, and the more successful your course will be.

How to create a course to solve a business problem?

When charged with creating a course to solve a business problem or close a skill gap, first make sure you are asking the right questions.

What happens to training as a designer?

As a designer, you can develop training that will be impactful and effective at all stages of the learning continuum. As you develop your content, think about what learners should learn before, during and after the main training event.

What do you expect your learners to know when they leave your training?

Once you have a better sense of the problem at hand and the organization’s goals, you can define what you expect your learners to know, or be able to do, when they leave your training: your learning objectives. Be sure to write objectives that are specific and aimed at the level of learning expected. Ask yourself:

How to support continuous learning?

Use social networks to support the continuous learning process and share learner experiences and knowledge. Provide content after training in a number of formats, such as readings, videos or games. Use just-in-time communications to highlight certain tools or resources to support professionals in performing tasks.

What happens to learning beyond the classroom?

Learning happens beyond the classroom (live or virtual). It happens throughout the year as new challenges arise and obstacles are overcome.

How to improve engagement rate in training?

That being said, there are strategies that you can integrate into your training to improve your engagement rates. Here are 10: 1. Set Expectations up Front. As you kick off the session, let learners know that they should plan to actively participate throughout the program.

What is the key to an interactive training session?

The key to an interactive training session is participation and engagement. Integrate opportunities for participation in the first five minutes (ideally in the opening) to set the expectation that you will be requesting engagement throughout the session.

What are the challenges of virtual training?

Virtual training is becoming more and more common, and one of its biggest challenges is keeping learners engaged and participative. There are more distractions in a virtual setting, and it is also difficult to keep participants engaged through a computer.

Why is it important to have a video on a training?

Simply having their video on improves learners’ engagement in training sessions, because they will want to appear attentive and engaged. However, encouraging participants to use video can be tricky. Here are three tips that can help:

How often should you engage participants in a session?

To keep participants engaged throughout the session, aim to engage them every 10 minutes. While it may seem like a lot, the engagements don’t have to be formal; in fact, casual engagements work best. This cadence will keep learners paying attention, since they know you could ask a question at any time.

1. Integrate video creation and sharing with your LMS

One of the keys to training faculty to create quality online course videos is to start with a video platform that is easy to use.

2. Create videos for online courses

With the right strategies, instructors can interact with online students, pay attention to their questions, and give personalized feedback, all while measuring participation and comprehension.

3. Encourage faculty to create accessible course materials

In their fourth year with an accessibility awareness committee, the University of South Carolina Upstate had a significant challenge – to make sure all of the user community is educated about the need for captions, and to encourage faculty to generate them when they create recordings.

4. Get data to share effective online teaching practices

Winner of an Aspen Prize Rising Star Award based on student engagement, retention, and performance, administrators at Odessa College carefully monitor success rates, but not just of students. They monitor success rates of faculty as well.

5. Engage the reluctant online learner

After ten years of teaching online and face-to-face classes, Tracie Lee hit a trifecta of hurdles – teaching online Introductory Business Statistics.

6. Encourage reluctant faculty to create quality course videos

Training faculty to create quality online courses can be challenging. It can involve overcoming barriers in technology, workflow, student-instructor relationships, and mindset. Here are some tactics from other colleges on how they encourage faculty to begin creating course videos.

7. Create mobile videos for effective, in-the-moment instruction

Instructors at Aims Community College needed a way to create valuable, in-the-moment video lessons for students, beyond traditional lecture capture. After adopting software-based TechSmith Knowmia, faculty jumped at the chance to create engaging video lessons from any location, at any time.

Keep The Learning Modules Short

Use, But Don't Overuse, Video

Keep It Simple

Create Interactive Elements

• Most Learning Management Systems include various tools to facilitate interactivity. Simple quizzes are one option. By placing a single multiple choice question at the end of each lesson, you can evaluate student engagement. Of, course, you also can use some of the more advanced tools. The trick is to give learners something to do. Discussion boards...

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