Does this training scenario look familiar? Many of us have attended product trainings that perhaps no one except the person who developed the product would have loved to attend. Typically people find product trainings a waste of time and they stop attending them. And, some don’t want to understand the product from the developer or designer’s perspective but would prefer to understand the benefits of the product, not a feature-by-feature account of the product. So why is product training important and who needs this training?
Let’s look at the need for product training in detail.
Why product training?
One of the most important factors for organizations to succeed in today’s competitive landscape is through a successful speedy launch of its new products and services. The time-to-market of new products and services is critical to both survive and succeed. Added to this challenge is the increasingly compressed product life cycles of most products today. Users expect the training to be rolled out at the same time as the product itself. No longer does the market tolerate any delays. It is for this reason that we cannot hope to rapidly distribute this knowledge on the product or service through classroom training because it is not a practical solution for a globally dispersed workforce.
Product training is Critical for successful speedy launch of new products. Almost every organization that has a product to sell recognizes the need for product training. Despite having user manuals and technical documents and data sheets on the product available to end-users of the product training, there is a felt need for well developed, comprehensive product training solutions.
Who needs product training?
So who are the takers for product trainings? Here are a few target audiences:
- Sales and marketing
In many cases, product information is required not only by end-users of the product and employees of the company launching the product, but also by extended partners such as customers, vendors and suppliers. Product training is not a one-off event. You will find that it is required for different audiences at different stages of the process. You might begin with employees, then move on to the sales and distribution channels, and on to the consumer, or end-user. As you can see, for any new product to be launched successfully, many diverse audiences must be reached and educated through highly effective product trainings.
Needless to say, a poorly designed product training will fail to equip consumers with the skills required to make optimal use of your product, further leading to low adoption rates and subsequent switching of their brand loyalty in the longer run.
Subscribe to Our eLearning Design Blogs
Get CommLab's latest eLearning articles straight to your inbox. Enter your email address below:
In eLearning, assessments are usually in a way of click and go, which will not impact the learner more. How to design an assessment which engages learner? Using some design approaches we can make assessments more effective and engage to the learner like scenarios, case studies, interactivities like drag and drop, roll over etc. Assessments designed using games in background can be more engaging to the learner like cricket, football, golf etc. Games in assessments make the learner to show much interest and it helps in reinforcing when applying on job.
Under a good administration, the Nile gains on the desert. Under a bad one, the desert gains on the Nile. – Napoleon Bonaparte
Avatars enhance the quality of learner engagement by grabbing and retaining his attention. They go a long way in motivating your people in the online learning environment. However, if we want to use avatars/ characters effectively in our eLearning courses, we must understand what avatars are, why they are useful and how they can be used in eLearning.
Learning affects all aspects of our existence, every day. The process of learning new things or refreshing existing knowledge keeps our minds up to date and also improves the quality of our life. So, it is very important to retain what we have learned as it helps us to be effective in yielding desired outcomes. Generally, most of us have the tendency to forget most of the things.
Instructional designers usually come from different educational backgrounds, and most of them do not have a degree in instructional design. So, what does it take to become a good instructional designer and design effective eLearning courses?
All instructional designers wish to create excellent eLearning courses that capture the imagination of their learners. But, what does it take to design a top-notch online course? How can you make a course that leaves learners spellbound? Well, you need to focus on 4 critical aspects to create a first-rate eLearning course. Let us see what they are.
The effectiveness of classroom training and eLearning is often debated. It is common knowledge that classroom training and eLearning are used extensively to deliver training. But, which of these media is more effective? Well, training in a classroom enables real-time interaction with the instructor. On the hand, the online training medium is highly flexible and learners can access courses anytime, anywhere. Which of the two is more effective?
In his article, Facing Down The Biggest Challenges In Manufacturing Today, Tom Bonine, President, National Metal Fabricators lists down the following as the most important problems dogging the American manufacturing Industry.
In eLearning courses, two types of assessments are used – formative and summative. Formative assessments are conducted after completing each topic. On the other hand, a summative assessment is conducted at the end of the course. In formative assessments, feedback is given after each question is answered. The goal of a formative assessment is to reinforce the learning. Whereas, the goal of summative assessments is to evaluate the learner. A summative assessment is similar to a final exam where feedback is not provided and results are shown at the end of the course. This info-graphic shares some information about formative and summative assessments, used in eLearning courses.
All eLearning professionals, when developing eLearning deliverables, must ensure that their training material achieves the most encouraging results. Therefore to achieve better training outcomes, we must always keep the following 3 things in mind.
Assessments in eLearning courses play a vital role. Assessments help the learner understand the level of knowledge he has gained from an eLearning course. At the same time, they help the trainer evaluate whether the learning objectives of the eLearning course have been met or not.
We all remember our school days. Don’t we? We still cherish the happy moments spent with our friends during those days. But, there were a few times where we faced difficulties with certain subjects. The formulae in mathematics, complicated equations in physics and chemistry and important dates and years in history was no less than a “haunting movie”. But, thanks to our teachers who would try out all possibilities to make these difficult subjects interesting, we could learn them effectively. The same is the case with instructional designers. They need to act as teachers and make eLearning interesting, so that learners are engaged effectively.
India ranks on the top of the outsourcing destinations for Information Technology, according to a study by the consulting firm AT Kearney. Six Indian cities, including Hyderabad, ranked in the top 6 of this list.
Preparing the audio script for an eLearning course is a very important task which must be done carefully, as a small mistake in it may lead to a lot of rework. If we take care of a few things before sending the script for recording, we can avoid mistakes.
How are eLearning courses made effective? The answer – through effective instructional and visual design. The most significant part of eLearning course development is the design phase.
Do you believe that you can get better results by including games in your online courses?
Companies across the world have following the trend of globalization for new market opportunities. This led to the expansion of their workforce exponentially. Now, a big question arises as to how quickly can you train this workforce, so as to make them ready for the job. In this regard, cost-efficient training methods like eLearning could help companies meet training challenges in the age of globalization. Let us see how eLearning can help reduce training costs.
A picture paints a thousand words and is very effective in communicating what often can’t be said through words. A picture can also break the monotony of words and present a breath of fresh air. Right from childhood, all of us are fascinated by pictures, their vivid hues and the depth of emotions they evoke.
What is content in the context of an eLearning course? It is the training material that is made available for developing an eLearning course. This is collected by instructional designers from various sources. Some of the content is provided by the subject matter experts, other materials may be shared by line managers or training managers. The content is usually developed by multiple authors and therefore lacks consistency in the way it is presented. After all, each author has his/her own style of writing and expressing thoughts.
It is common knowledge that an interactive eLearning course engages the learner very effectively. But, how can you make an excellent course that captures the imagination of your learners? Well, you can create wonderful learning experiences using videos.
It is well-known that the ultimate goal of an online learning course is to bring a measurable change in the performance or behavior of the learner. Therefore, as instructional designers, it is our job to make effective elearning courses that impart first-rate training.
There are many instructional design strategies which engage the learner in an online learning environment such as scenarios, case studies, interactivities, etc. Now-a-days most organizations want to gamify their courses to create better learning experiences.
There are many instructional principles and models that guide us in creating an effective learning process. One such model is Gagne’s instructional principles. These principles keep learners glued to eLearning courses. Here are a few of these principles.
Most of the eLearning experts concur that learning requires learner’s engagement. The aim of any instructional designer is to engage the learner in an online learning environment. How to create learner’s engagement in eLearning courses? In this blog I would like to share some ideas and approaches to engage learner in eLearning courses.
According to Edward Tufte, “Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time, with the least ink, in the smallest space”.