We all know by now, rich content and active demonstration are basic items in the checklist for a great training course. To qualify as a great training course the most essential thing is to create a great learning experience for the user, resulting in improved performance, enhancing the quality of work, acquiring or upgrading to new skill set and so on.
The core objective is to equip the learner with the knowledge and skills that, he can apply in a real-life environment to yield better results.
Choosing the right content
Content should be visually appealing at the same time it needs to be specific to the subject. It is imperative to identify the target audience before choosing the content for any course. The information that is valuable for a novice is a useless filler in a course for an intermediate or expert level trainee, the content has to be user-centric.
Planning a roadmap
A table of content is the backbone of any training course. It gives an overview of the topics covered, the time frame and what’s expected, in short, it should give a gist of the learning experience to the user. It helps the learner to conceptualise and makes it easy for him to focus more deeply on pertinent topics when required.
Apart from making the basic concepts clear the course should serve the learner in his job-related activities. The learner should be able to determine when, how and which situation he will be implementing those skills or applying that knowledge.
Make it engaging
Expert level courses are often overloaded with information. If the content is text-heavy or consists of scrambled scripts it exerts the learner only to recollect the information. It’s best to keep a practice session after a few sections of the course or after a handful of topics. This helps the learner to shift from recollection mode to application mode. Experts believe that throwing random questions or surprise tests make the sessions engaging. This exhibits the learner’s understanding and skills related to the topic.
A lot of courses end with a quiz or objective questions and this is one of the common reasons why most training courses fail to deliver on their promises even, after putting great content together. This does work in case of knowledge-based courses, but skill-based courses require practice assessments and activities.
Deliver what is promised
A good training course delivers a personalised learning experience to the learner and successfully transfers the skills and knowledge. It compels the learner to share and explore more possibilities within that domain.
After all, learning is a never-ending process of improvisation…Isn’t it?
