Continuing education has become a cornerstone in the job market. It helps us stay up to date in a world where knowledge is constantly changing. It’s also a great way to improve our professional practices—as long as we leave nothing to chance. As a manager, you can help your teams get the most out of each online training session. Here are a few tips you can use before, during, and after online training for best results.
A supportive learning environment
For your team to get the most out of their online training, you need to set up optimal learning conditions. First, you need to know your performance objectives and clearly communicate them to your team.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What is your training topic?
- Why is it important to update your knowledge on this topic?
- Which skills will this training help sharpen?
When your team knows the company’s motivations and goals, they can understand the value of the training and more easily identify when they can apply this new knowledge. If you’re having trouble setting your goals, our expertise in instructional design can help you identify your needs and the best way to meet them.
For your employees to give due attention to this training, they need to see that you value it as much as they do. Ask them to set aside time in their schedule to attend the training, just as they would for a mandatory meeting. Scheduling a time to take the training helps organize tasks and fosters learning. You can also build an optimal learning environment by sharing best practices to limit distractions and keep your team focused throughout the training. You can suggest, for example, that they close their email, put their phone on silent, set their TEAMS status to “Do not disturb” or tell their colleagues that they won’t be available during the training period. Making it possible for every team member to focus throughout the training will lead them to take the training seriously and to absorb the new information better.
Behaviour during training
You can also ask your team to be active throughout the training. When it comes to developing new skills, being passive is not enough. Here are some tips for promoting engagement during online training:
Whether it’s keywords, a graphical representation of a concept or a summary of a new process, the important thing is that they make the training content their own by explaining it in their own way.
Its a simple way to stay alert throughout the training. The goal is to learn new things, so testing their understanding by immediately applying what they’ve just learned is crucial.
Mistakes are part of learning, and they help us make progress. If your team members get it wrong, it shows they are committed to the training and try to apply what they are learning. Remind them that there’s always room to learn and improve.
Knowledge retention is better when people think it’s going to be helpful in their day-to-day. This helps quickly refresh what they’ve just learned.
Reactivate the new knowledge after training
Your work is not done once your entire team has finished the training. The next step is to put this new knowledge into practice in the real world.
The first step is to ask your team members to discuss what they’ve learned during and after the training. You could, for example, create a TEAMS channel, a forum or even have a short meeting. Discussion between colleagues helps confirm understanding, consolidate learning, and make it easier to form connections between past and new knowledge. The second step is to use this forum for concrete examples of where to use this new knowledge. You can also present scenarios and ask your staff what the best approach is, based on what they’ve just learned. The more quickly and regularly people use new knowledge after training, the more fully they will master it. In addition, the forum will show your team how relevant the training was by reminding them of the goals you presented at the beginning of the process. You can plan this kind of reactivation and learning consolidation activity with our instructional design team and use it when the time is right.
These tips will help you create a learning culture within your team or company while encouraging your staff to continue their professional development! Acquiring new knowledge and developing new skills that the learners will quickly put into practice is a net positive for their confidence and creativity. You also encourage your team to be proactive by finding solutions and rethinking their work methods to be more efficient. Ongoing training has become a must because it allows learners to continue their professional development, and companies to face new challenges in creative and innovative ways. And Novaconcept is there to help you achieve these two complementary goals!
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