10 Active Listening Training Courses
We’ve handpicked a list of the most recommended active listening training courses that are designed to hone your team’s active listening skills. Some of these courses will cover topics such as the principles of active listening, common pitfalls of effective listening, tips on how to ask thoughtful questions, and more.
1. Active Listening
If you’re looking for an interactive training course that will fully engage your team, then SC Training (formerly EdApp)’s Active Listening course is your best bet. This active listening training course teaches your team the core principles of active listening, which is perfect if they have no fundamental knowledge of this skill. It contains a rundown of the key listening strategies that can help enhance their communication and relationship with their clients.
The second half of this course focuses on the bad practices of listening, which must be avoided at all costs. These bad practices include listening to what’s not being said and interacting with a lack of direct eye contact or expression for nonverbal cues. It also drills down the barriers to practice active listening alongside some tips to address them.
The course is made fully editable – for free. Thanks to SC Training (formerly EdApp)’s free authoring tool, you can easily tweak the content and include additional learning resources. Even better, you can apply your logo so it matches your company’s branding!
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Core principles of active listening
- Active listening strategies
- Bad listening practices
- Barriers to active listening
Created by SC Training (formerly EdApp)
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2. Improving Your Active Listening Skills
SC Training (formerly EdApp)’s Improving Your Active Listening Skills course helps you equip your team with various listening strategies and improve their active listening as they communicate with anyone, from their peers to their clients. This active listening training course takes a look at the definition of active listening and the advantages of mastering this skill. It strips down some usable steps on how your staff can listen better and improve their communication.
This course also covers the various types of listening, which is crucial in identifying the different listening styles of your team. Then, it goes over different active listening techniques and skills needed to become good at active listening.
Built with busy employees in mind, this course has been structured to follow the microlearning design model. The lessons are divided into short and targeted slides that only take minutes to accomplish. This strategy effectively overcomes cognitive overload among your learners and increases their learning retention.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Definition of active listening
- Benefits of active listening
- Steps how to apply active listening into practice
- Types of listening
- Active listening techniques
Created by SC Training (formerly EdApp)
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3. Active Listening Training Course
Enrolling your team in this active listening training course by Professional Development Training will equip them with the basic knowledge of active listening. It will also help improve the way they give responses to their colleagues and clients, and build rapport with them.
Some of the topics it covers include the definition of active listening, the difference between simply hearing and actually listening, and strategies to develop the ability to actively listen. It also emphasizes the importance of active listening in producing a more conducive work environment. This course is delivered in the form of video-based content with quizzes included.
Cost: 11 USD per person per year
Scope:
- What is active listening
- Steps to develop an active listening skill
- Importance of active listening
Created by Professional Development Training
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4. Active Listening Skills
SkillPath’s Active Listening Skills course is also a great training course to consider for your team. This training will help your team explore the power of active listening. They’ll learn the difference between hearing and listening, and the key qualities that will make them great active listeners and effective communicators, such as having good posture and paying attention to detail. It will also give them some ideas on how to properly interrogate someone to get the information they need without sounding defensive.
This active listening training course can be delivered using a variety of learning styles, including coaching, self-paced e-learning, and virtual instructor-led session.
Cost: Available upon request
Scope:
- Power of listening
- Qualities of an effective active listener and communicator
- How to question someone
Created by SkillPath
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5. Active Listening and Processing Feedback
Through this active listening training course by eCornell, your team will get to know how to use the HURIER model, a six-step framework for building and improving listening skills. They’ll learn how to create an action plan to improve their listening abilities and address any organizational challenges that are stopping them from effectively listening and understanding a person. This course will also teach them how to process and respond to feedback, and use them to improve their performance.
Keep in mind that this course is slightly longer than most of the courses on this list. It will run for two weeks, and your team will need to spend at least 3-5 hours per week completing this course.
Cost: Available upon request
Scope:
- HURIER model
- Creating an action plan to improve listening skills
- How to process and respond to feedback
Created by eCornell
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6. Improving Communication Skills
Coursera also offers great training courses that you can use to hone your team’s active listening skills. More specifically, its Improving Communication Skills course will teach them how to engage in active listening and ask thoughtful questions to a person. It will give them some tools they can use to avoid misunderstandings and improve their communication skills, as well as, build a trusting relationship with a person, a colleague, or a client. The most common cues of deception will also be discussed in detail, and some practical steps to take when noticing such behavior in the future.
This course can be taken at your own pace with a deadline that can be adjusted to your schedule.
Cost: Free
Scope:
- Engaging in active listening
- How to ask thoughtful questions
- Tools to improve communication skills
- Cues of deception
Created by Coursera
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7. Effective Communication in Customer Service
SC Training (formerly EdApp)’s Effective Communication in Customer Service course is specifically designed to improve the listening skills of customer service representatives. So, if you’re handling a team in a similar field, then this course is an excellent course to consider.
This active listening training course consists of three short lessons, covering topics such as the fundamentals of effective and good communication such as empathy, the role of active listening in building a strong customer relationship, and the barriers to effective listening. It takes your team through the steps of active listening and offers some listening tips and tricks, such as using verbal cues to show interest when speaking with clients and clarifying by summarizing and asking questions, such as open-ended ones. There’s also a lesson emphasizing some of the most common difficulties that will prevent your team from actively listening, even if they’re applying the techniques taught to them.
Within these lessons, there are some mini-games and quizzes that can help amp up your active listening training. They follow a smartphone game format, making sure that your team’s fully engaging with their learning material while also learning effectively as needed.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Fundamental of effective business communication
- Role of active listening in building customer relationships
- Steps on how to listen effectively
- Difficulties that prevent effective listening.
Created by SC Training (formerly EdApp)
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8. Active Listening Training
The experts of the Voice of Health have also put together an interactive active listening training course that you can share with your team. The Active Listening Training course will show them the ropes of becoming a good-listener. They’ll learn the principles of active listening and empathic listening, as well as how to apply them when communicating with others. Your learners will also get to explore the power of perspective and effective questioning, as well as the four levels of listening.
This course follows self-paced learning, giving your learners the flexibility to decide when they'd like to take this course.
Cost: Free
Scope:
- Principles of active listening
- Power of perspective and effective questioning
- Four levels of listening
Created by Voice of Health
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9. Active Listening
The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, or AICPA, has created this active listening training course to shed light on how active listening is the key to unlocking other soft skills, like team management, critical thinking, collaboration, and more. This course will teach your team the different listening styles – passive, competitive, selective, and active, with emphasis on the benefits of active listening. It will also show your team how active listening can help reduce conflict and crisis and improve your team’s productivity.
This course is 100% online. The only catch is that it’s not free, and purchasing it will only give your team access to the content for one year.
Cost: 69 USD
Scope:
- Active listening’s role in unlocking other soft skills
- Different listening styles
- Reducing conflict and crisis through active listening
Created by AICPA
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10. Handling Objections with Emotional Intelligence
SC Training (formerly EdApp)’s Handling Objections with Emotional Intelligence course goes over the importance of active listening and how it can help your staff handle objections better. It unpacks the skills needed to become a great active listener and discusses appropriate body language that your team must be familiar with. It also goes over some distractions that prevent a person from effectively understanding a person’s perspective.
Additionally, this active listening training course includes some strategies on how to resolve conflict without hurting the feelings of the other person. There’s also a lesson teaching your team how to take feedback like a pro, and use them as an advantage to advance their career.
All SC Training (formerly EdApp) courses, including this free active listening training course, are all compatible with any device. Your learners are allowed to take the course on their desktops or smartphones, at their own convenience.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Active listening and how it helps handle objections better
- Skills needed to become a great active listener
- Body languages
- How to resolve conflict
- Taking feedback like a pro
Created by SC Training (formerly EdApp)
Explore the courseDevelop your team’s active listening skills with active listening training courses
Active listening is a vital skill that your team can develop. By equipping them with strategies on how to listen actively and effectively, they’ll be able to build and maintain good relationships with their peers and reduce workplace conflicts. As for your customer-facing staff, having active listening skills will make sure that they can better understand their customer and offer them better services. This, in turn, will greatly benefit your company’s brand reputation. Hone your team’s active listening skills by delivering and sharing with them the active listening training courses we’ve listed above.