Professional trainers know that the least effective way to teach is to talk non-stop and hope that people in the audience are paying attention and learning something along the way. To be effective, training needs to be engaging and relevant, participants need to be involved, assessments need to be utilized and data needs to be collected.
You wouldn’t expect a child to attend school all year, sit there passively and never have the opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned so you shouldn’t be satisfied with an employee training program that doesn’t include active participation, assessments during training, and learning analytics.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Measuring learning, engagement and performance is an important aspect of any solid training program. Understanding engagement during training can offer insights into engagement during work. The right analytics provides a snapshot and a detailed review of how participants engage, how they learn and where they are focused during training. These analytics can drive strategic training programs based on employee results and performance.
Analytics should also include details on what the trainers use, how often they request and encourage engagement, what teaching style and content seems to be used most often and how they include learning assessments. This information also adds to the overall training strategy, so the entire learning and development team are focused on the same goals and delivery.
70% of business leaders agree that employee engagement has a direct relationship with how they will perform financially. Companies can’t afford training programs that don’t include high levels of engagement, assessments and analytics.
Every employee should take the initiative and be an active member of the learning team. Through virtual training, based on the virtual training solution being used, each participant can “own their learning experience”. Tools are available to the trainer that offers a differentiated learning model that’s easy to use. This ultimately drives department and company outcomes through highly engaged and knowledgeable employees.
The learning, behavior and performance analytics you’ll receive when you partner with a virtual training solution like Jigsaw Interactive will prove to be an invaluable resource for your company. Training analytics should include data based on what you need to understand. Whether it’s reviewing engagement, learning styles, preferred content, assessment reviews or something as simple as attendance, your analytics should let you sort through the information in multiple formats to get to your needed data points.
Learning analytics aren’t collected for punitive purposes but rather to understand how successful training programs are. They help identify new training opportunities, help instructional design teams deliver better content, identify what learning styles are most prevalent on the team so the content and actual delivery is set to meet these learning styles. They also assist trainers in understanding the value of individualized learning, so their delivery is more participative and less lecture. Getting people actively involved is challenging so immersive and “ownership” learning is key to delivering a great learning experience.
Learning is a journey, not an event. Analytics are the roadmap that guides the trainer through the various routes and roadways. Trainers are producers and coaches. They are the GPS system that participants listen to that gets them from point A to point B.
As you’re reviewing training programs and strategies be sure to look at the learning analytics. If you have no analytics look for a virtual training solution that offers detailed information on all training, trainers and trainees. The more information you have on the effectiveness of training the more effective your training will be.
If you don’t have engagement analytics data, you don’t really know if your employees are engaged. And if you don’t have learning analytics data, you don’t know if your employees are learning.
