How interactive learning transforms workplace training

Out with the old, in with the new! Interactive learning is here to transform traditional training into something more engaging. Say goodbye to boring training and engage employees better by making learning a dynamic, two-way street. 

With a more hands-on and personalized approach, you’ll see teams collaborating, actively participating, and fully immersed in their training. Explore the benefits, examples, strategies, and platforms for employing interactive training in your workplace.

What is interactive learning?

Interactive learning emphasizes mutual and reciprocal participation in training. It veers away from traditional forms of learning because instead of being centered on the facilitator, it puts the learner right in the driver’s seat where they can actively shape their learning journey.

The learner drives the learning process through various ways, including discussions, brainstorming, hands-on activities, critical thinking exercises, and game-based assessments. This helps avoid passive and monotonous learning that makes it dreadful and tedious for people.

What are the benefits of interactive learning? 

There are many reasons why interactive learning is a great method for workplace training and other forms of learning. We’ve rounded up some of its key benefits here:

• Improved engagement - When we incorporate immersive elements into training, teams become more interested in sharpening their skills and knowledge. 
• Enhanced critical thinking skills - With teams actively involved in learning, they’re encouraged to think critically and apply problem-solving skills to real-world scenarios.
• Increased retention rates - Making learning interactive is a science-backed method. An Oxford study shows that e-learning, which includes interactive training content, can improve retention rates by up to 60%.
• Personalized learning - Training is more effective when it’s tailored to individual learning styles.
• Adaptability - Interactive learning strategies pair well with technology. Maximize the use of online platforms for more engaging learning tools and assessments to make training more interactive.
• Collaboration - Since discussions and brainstorming sessions are often part of interactive training, collaboration becomes embedded into how your teams work together.

Examples of interactive learning in the workplace 

There are a lot of ways to incorporate interactive training in the workplace. To help kickstart your journey, here are some examples of interactive training ideas that you can incorporate into your organization depending on your needs:

Sales training

Make sales training more interactive by simulating real-life sales scenarios, including pitching, objection handling, and closing deals, or rotating roles to see the different perspectives of the salesperson and the customer.

Deploy interactive workshops for negotiation and active listening or incorporate gamification through ready-made online training courses. Try this Creating Tension in Sales Calls course from SC Training and let your teams drag, drop, and swipe through sales training.

Safety and compliance training

One of the top ways to enhance the interactivity of safety and compliance training is through live demonstrations where experts are invited for on-site training sessions. This easily opens the floor for discussion where trainers can easily answer questions and give clarifications.

You can also incorporate ready-made courses with engaging content that feels like your own through online training platforms. Check out these safety and risk management courses from SC Training that carry content vetted by regulatory agencies like HACCP International and ASSP.

Manufacturing training

Peer-to-peer learning where workers get paired with more experienced colleagues is extremely effective in the manufacturing industry because it’s a practical way to share knowledge in a field that involves hands-on skills.

Maximizing technology is another great way to enhance learning and retention in manufacturing. You can do this through augmented reality so teams can integrate digital information with physical environments like a factory. You can also use online platforms with interactive content on essential topics like risk assessment and handling power tools. 

Leadership training

Everyone, including leaders, will benefit from a more interactive form of training. Train them using real-world case studies to improve their leadership skills or apply a 360-degree feedback mechanism where both the employee and their leader can give and receive feedback. Try SC Training’s discussions feature to get feedback and facilitate meaningful exchanges easily.

Hospitality training

Having role-playing exercises like simulating crises or customer experience interactions can prepare teams for real-life scenarios. Site visits to different hotels and restaurants to observe best practices or job shadowing more experienced employees can aid in making training more effective and interactive.

Skip the paperwork and automatically track in-person training with SC Training’s practical assessments feature. You can use it to make sure that your teams are doing their tasks correctly on the job with just your mobile device.

5 Interactive learning strategies for employees 

Make learning active and collaborative

Assign group projects, encourage discussions, and give real-time feedback. Make learning active rather than passive by engaging teams to take part in the learning process through different activities. This facilitates a deeper understanding of important information, all while collaborating with peers to reinforce what they have learned and help widen their perspectives

Break down the lessons

Microlearning is the way to go. Making training interactive entails delivering highly-targeted, bite-sized training to fight short attention spans. When you get your teams up to speed faster, training becomes more efficient and they retain knowledge better.

Use technology to your advantage

If you haven’t incorporated technology into your company training, now is the best time to do it. There are plenty of tools online that do the hard work for you by delivering training quickly and smoothly, all while making it an engaging and interactive experience. Making the most out of interactive learning platforms like SC Training so your teams get the best results from training. 

Gamify the learning experience

You can never go wrong with gamification. It’s fun, engaging, and effective. It also allows immediate feedback on your team’s performance through scores and other indicators. Using fun training games for employees is a great way to create some friendly competition that motivates them to perform better. 

Try the Socratic method

This teaching approach named after the Greek philosopher Socrates encourages using open-ended questions to promote critical thinking. The person in charge of training keeps teams fully engaged by asking thought-provoking questions that encourage them to dig deep into their assumptions and reasoning, helping break down complex information.

Top 5 interactive learning platforms 

1. SC Training (formerly EdApp)

If we’re talking about interactive learning, we can’t leave SC Training (formerly EdApp) out of the conversation. This online LMS is the perfect tool for interactive workplace training with its cutting-edge gamification features that help your teams retain information better and increase productivity.

It has 80+ gamified templates that you can use to help you make your training course more interactive. Some of its most popular gamification templates include image-word match, true or false, and memory (tile matching).

Encourage your teams to brainstorm and discuss with each other using SC Training’s social and peer learning features. This is a great way for them to easily ask each other questions, clarify information, and solve problems whenever they have to.

2. Nearpod

Nearpod is another great educational tool for students, teachers, and administrators. It carries interactive learning activities like gamification, drag and drop, drawing, matching, and collaborative discussions designed to enhance the classroom learning experience. 

3. Kitaboo

Kitaboo is another online platform designed for interactive corporate training. It has a wide suite of learning solutions that you can use to engage your workforce. Your teams can use the interactive elements on their platform such as simulations, gamification, and quizzes. Aside from corporate training, it also caters to publishers, associations, and training institutes.

4. Genially

Genially is a content creation tool that can help you create interactive learning and communication materials for your teams. Suppose you need to turn a PDF or a presentation into interactive content. This platform lets you do just that while also allowing you to incorporate gamification into the material to help increase engagement.

5. Echo360

Echo360 is an LMS software that houses Echo360Point, its interactive learning tool. It has a variety of features to support engagement in the classrooms. Some of its interactive teaching strategies include live polling to insert real-time questions, instant assessment to quiz learners, or interactive homework for comprehension checks after class time.

Revolutionize training with interactive learning. Sign up for SC Training today!