Creating Strong and Effective Online Training Content

Posted by: Jill Tullo, Senior Strategist Apr 08, 2009 0 Comments

Moving training online can save significant time and budget dollars, but you lose the valuable one-on-one interaction between instructors and learners in the classroom. Or do you? You certainly will if you simply put your existing PowerPoint presentations, handbooks, and manuals online. But there are ways you can organize and present your content so that learners are engaged and receive a valuable learning experience throughout the online training.

Avoid Information Overkill
Because you want to make sure your learners are getting the information they need, you may be tempted to include every single detail in your training. The last thing anyone wants to do is click through hundreds of slides, and there’s a good chance that they won’t retain most of the information or even make it through half of the presentation. When you’re creating your content, stick to the basic information that learners must have in order to successfully do their job. Point them to a more detailed handbook or manual if they desire more information. If you have a lot of material to present, consider breaking it up into several different 30-minute to 1-hour modules.

Show, Don’t Tell
In online learning, you have the unique opportunity to make your content come to life. Don’t just tell your learners what they need to know and move on to the next topic. Involve them in the learning experience by asking questions, presenting real-life scenarios, using case studies, and including relevant graphics. Encourage your audience to think about what they’re learning and how they will apply the knowledge when the learning is over. Even if you don’t have the budget to create interactive games, you can still include examples, descriptive language, and scenarios in your written content to guide your audience through the learning process.

Talk TO Your Learners, not AT Them
There is a bit of conflicting opinion in the business world about writing in a conversational style. Contractions are forbidden because they’re too casual. Humor is taboo. But who wants to listen to a robot spouting off information? If you want to engage your learners, present your information in a conversational style. You can do this by using contractions, incorporating organization-specific jargon, asking thought-provoking questions, and referring to the audience in the 2nd person (“you”) instead of 3rd (“the analyst”). Adding a bit of humor and levity to enliven and break up dense content also works if you don’t overdo it.

If this sounds like a lot of work, well, it is! It’s definitely more time-consuming than putting content-heavy PowerPoint slides online. However, taking the steps to creating engaging content will result in learners who are better able to retain the information and who are more motivated to apply what they’ve learned in real life.

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Jill Tullo

Senior Strategist

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