Peter Drucker once pointed out that although, “we now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change…the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.” According to the Workplace Learning Report, ‘engaging learners’ is one of the top challenges faced by a learning & development professionals. The most common reason behind disengagement in training programs by employees range from lack of time to not being provided with an opportunity to not feeling the need.

Here are the six ways to create an effective and engaging learning program:

Bite-sized learning: 

Employees often complain about the paucity of time for completing training programs. One way to tackle this common problem is by introducing bite-sized learning modules– which is a short course that can be completed at a convenient time. This has a number of advantages including:

• Improves psychological engagement: This approach helps to prevent mental burnout. Instead of spending hours on a particular session, employees will be motivated to learn from short yet meaningful content.
• Adapts to modern day learning need: Bite-sized learning, unlike traditional learning approach, focuses on meeting the modern day learner needs. It enables them to access the required information without sitting through a series of lectures and long hours of classroom training.
• Better attention and memory: Longer content modules often becomes monotonous to read and is not often easily retained in memory. Byte size learning circumvents this problem by offering engaging learning modules.

Tailor content to roles & responsibilities:

Learning content is a key component in delivering a great learning experience. Ensure that the content is always aligned to the scope of the roles and responsibilities of the employees. Learners are often more willing to be receptive to training when they sense a need and purpose.

Pre & post assessment:

To track the effectiveness of the learning program, conduct a pre and post assessment so that a learner can track where they are today and the improvements they have made on the basis of their training. Tracking growth can also act as a motivator behind an employees’ engagement in a learning program.

Opportunities to interact:

This is important especially when the mode of delivery is online. Most of the e-learning programs are static and offer only one-way interaction with the subject matter experts. Interaction with subject matter expert will impel learners to understand the subject in a thorough manner and keep them engaged in the course of learning.

Update learning content:

There are a number of reasons that could indicate the need to update your learning content, this could include: low motivation levels, passive participation and resistance to learning, lack of alignment with job levels and poor performance. Ensure that you constantly update the content to meet the changing demands of the job.

Incorporate Gamification:  

Since gamification is coupled with incentives like certificates, badges which makes the learning more engaging and social, it has the potential to enhance the overall experience. Gamified courses lead to high-performance learning and help learners in committing knowledge to long term memory.

Engagement and experience of learning programs are the major drivers that ensure your learning program will reap the desired benefits. Today’s learners are very different from the learners in the past. Many a time urgent tasks or priorities seems to win out. The learners’ needs are evolving at a very fast pace and to support their needs the learning program needs to evolve to support their needs.