A recent survey conducted by Deloitte shows that when it comes to benefits, young professionals find ‘opportunity to learn’ to be the most desirable than any other reward or incentive. This builds the case for organizations to provide high-quality content and training to their staff. This blog talks about How to Create an Online Course Module for Employee Training
Building courses can be a complex task – not only do you have to ensure that they are educational but at the same time, also manageable for your learners to complete and assimilate. Here, in this article we look at How to Create an Online Course Module for Employee Training and Learning.
Let us first understand what an online training module is-
Simply put, an online employee training module refers to one structured section of an eLearning program. Each module is a building block focused on a particular topic or skill.
Online course modules can be in the form of various content types such as video tutorials, demonstrations, presentations, interactive eBooks, informational e-courses or quizzes or assessments. By creating these modules in different content types, you can provide your learners with a richer and more robust learning experience.
These modules are then delivered through a learning management system (LMS).
Related: How to Transform Employee Training with Bespoke L&D Solutions
Guide:
How to Choose the Right LMS for Your Business
Here is a step-by-step guide on How to Create an Online Course Module for Employee Training:
Step 1: Understand Your Audience-
The first step is to identify or know your audience, or the people who will be taking this course. This will help you determine the content format and the tone you will use within each online course module.
For example, your course may be focused on senior executives to improve their decision-making skills, in this case, a more formal tone would be suitable. Then again, if your sales personnel are the focus of training, the online course module in the form of a theme-based game would do the trick.
Case study: Here’s How Hurix Developed Collaborative Training Solutions for Pre-Sales Consultants
Knowing your audience will help you decide how long the course should be and how many modules you require.
It may be that your learners take the training while on the go or in between tasks; in such a case, microlearning modules designed for mobile devices would be more appropriate. If they are taking the training on their desks, then the modules could be longer and denser. Here are the Benefits & Use Cases of Mobile Learning in Enterprise Training.
It is also vital to communicate with your audience to understand the nature of the problem to be solved, know the knowledge or skill gap to be filled, know their current level of knowledge and performance, and understand what is the expected level of knowledge or performance they should have on a particular topic.
Step 2: Break Your Course into Modules-
Once you know your audience, the next step is to think about how to organize your course content into different modules. To explain with an example, you have to create an onboarding course for your new sales hires, which they have to complete on their day of joining. Here’s all you need to know about eLearning Content Development for Effective Training
The course can be broken down in the following modules:
- Introduction:This module will provide the company background, main departments and teams, and roles and entitlements. It will provide your new employees with an insight into the working of your organization and what they can expect in their new roles.
- Company Culture:The second module can provide an insight into the company’s culture, its core values, support teams and social groups within the company, etc. The module will help them to settle down before taking up the more challenging aspects of onboarding.
- Sales Team Overview: This could focus on a brief introduction to the sales team with an explanation to their roles within the organization.
Step 3: Plan the Content Format-
To plan the content format, keep the learner engagement in mind. As said earlier, the format you choose for creating your online course modules will depend on the audience – a more formal tone would suit senior executives, while a more informal would work for your junior staff.
The bottom line is the format you choose should be able to hold the attention of your learners. There are various content types to choose from, for example, videos, presentations, demonstration, simulations, webinars and so on.
You can use an LMS to create content in various formats. Besides, it’s a good idea to take feedback from your learners on their training content preferences and update the content of your online course modules regularly.
Step 4: Add Knowledge Checks-
Each module of our online course should have assessments and quizzes, which the learners clear before they move up to the next module. These assessments are a great way to reiterate the important points covered in the course.
Taking forward the example of sales personnel onboarding course, a quiz at the end of the introduction module will help the learners recall all the information they have acquired.
Secondly, putting checks on the modules, for example, that you have to achieve a certain score before moving to the next module, is a great way to ensure that your learners have assimilated the information provided in it.
Step 5: Create Responsive Content-
Each module of our online course should have assessments and quizzes, which the learners clear before they move up to the next module. These assessments are a great way to reiterate the important points covered in the course.
Taking forward the example of sales personnel onboarding course, a quiz at the end of the introduction module will help the learners recall all the information they have acquired.
Secondly, putting checks on the modules, for example, that you have to achieve a certain score before moving to the next module, is a great way to ensure that your learners have assimilated the information provided in it.
To Sum it Up
Keep in mind that learners use a range of devices to access your online course module, be it the laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile phone. Here’s How To Use mLearning in Employee Training.
Make sure that your module content is built and packaged for streamlined access on all device types.
Use a good LMS to create responsive content that resizes itself to fit the screen size on which it is displayed. With your modules working seamlessly on all devices, your learners will be able to take the training while they are stationary or on the go. Here are the Benefits of a Mobile-First LMS Platform in Employee Training
Related:
10 Reasons to Invest in Corporate Training Solutions
How to Implement Microlearning in Corporate Training
How to Leverage your LMS to Create a Blended Learning Environment
