One of the main challenges of vocational learning is to succeed in maintaining learners' motivation and engagement throughout the learning course. The participants may in fact be of different ages or have diverse educational preferences. For all these reasons, it is necessary to deploy an appropriate method in order to capturing attention and transmit the expected professional skills in an optimal way.
To help you create a dynamic learning session, we present to you 4 essential steps. These will allow you to reach the educational objectives set beforehand in a fluid manner while increasing the satisfaction of participants.
The 4 steps for a lively and successful learning session
Design and conduct learning sessions is a complex thing. Even experienced and with the best will in the world, the trainer should strive to combining quality of educational content and energy in order to engage learners.
By following a few essential steps and applying best practices, you can nonetheless deploy memorable learning sequences. Dynamic and relevant, these sessions promote effective learning of technical skills and behavioral, because the participants are involved and delighted with the course of the learning.
1. Design personalized and innovative sessions
To offer the participants of a learning session a qualitative experience, you must act beforehand. The preparation phase is then crucial. to effectively boost this session.
Identify the needs of participants
One of the first criteria for successful training sequences is the personalization. Each learner is different, so it is necessary to take this element into account in order to improve the relevance of vocational learning. Ask yourself what are expectations, the initial level and pedagogical preferences of the participants.
Meeting learners' expectations
By having a deep understanding of the desires and expectations of learners, you can then making the right choices when designing learning and various sessions. Depending on the requirements of the company and the needs of the participants, you can in particular opt for different innovative approaches to training. For example, we can cite the distance education or the Gamification that are acclaimed by different types of learners.
Check everyone's level in advance
It is also recommended to inquire in advance on the level of theoretical learning, but especially on the actual level of participants. You can provide educational and technical tools to set up these evaluations. They will be used for appreciate the skill level of each. These level tests or surveys, if properly carried out, are perfect for guaranteeing continuing education sessions in line with the real level and expectations of learners.
This first step in designing a learning session is essential. Thanks to her, learning is not only a transfer of knowledge, but also an enriching and engaging experience.
2. Favour interactive approaches
It is sometimes difficult to maintaining learners' attention throughout a learning session continuous professional. To meet this challenge, the teaching team must strive to facilitate learning sessions using interactive methods. These are intended for maintaining the attention and motivation of participants.
Integrate numerous interactive activities
If the approach to the first learning session is very similar to the next, the monotony risk of negatively impacting learners. However, it is essential to achieve the learning objectives set previously. The trainer must therefore adapt his pedagogy and integrate a good dose of interactivity.
To do so, you can take advantage of these activities:
- Role playing: They develop communication and empathy skills.
- Case studies: Learners are more involved when they observe a match between theoretical content and its practical applications.
- Simulations: Credible simulations promote the learning of skills during training sessions.
- Group work: Perfect for increasing cohesion, increasing collaborative work skills and taking advantage of each other's qualities.
Use strategies to maintain attention
To avoid any drop in performance during a continuing education action, adapt your pedagogy. Instead of trying to combat fluctuations in concentration, arrange different times throughout the learning session. Do not hesitate to take regular breaks, organize debates, or vary the teaching formats. The idea is to break the monotony to maintain learners' interest until the end of the training.
Use diversified teaching formats
The dynamism of the world of vocational education can and should infuse your learning sessions to energize them in turn. In fact, a training platform modern can offer educational materials in various formats such as blog posts, the podcasts, the videos or the digital books. All of these formats are powerful levers for enriching the learning experience.
If interactivity is so important in a learning program, it's because it creates a motivating learning environment where skills are not only acquired, but also experienced and applied by the participants.
3. Leverage engaging techniques and technologies
Commitment is a key concept of vocational learning. The latter is important because it promotes long-term learning. The ideal way to maximize engagement is to reconciling the advantages of the physical and the virtual.
Selecting the right environment
Depending on the objectives of the learning, the learning location and the target audience, it may be best to opt for a physical, digital or mixed environment. In all cases, environments must be designed to increase the performance of learning actions. In a physical location, the premises must be pleasant, well-heated or air-conditioned and promote interactions. For distance learning, opt for a platform ergonomic and accessible, regardless of the level of technological mastery of the participants.
Boosting learner engagement
Organize sessions of learning often rhymes with animation. Even if the content of the learning is qualitative and adapted to the learners, their commitment can sometimes decrease. Boost momentum by organizing debates or brainstorming sessions. Leave no one behind and do everything to create an environment conducive to exchanges and the sharing of ideas. Encourage everyone to speak up and ask open-ended questions. Let's add that we suggest to the trainers of learn animation techniques may be a relevant idea.
Use innovative technologies
Harness the potential of new technologies to boost your learning session. Augmented reality, , online collaboration tools or mobile applications are all ways to design courses that are out of the ordinary. If carefully selected according to educational goals, these technologies have the ability to create strong public engagement and increase information retention
Maximize attendee attention and involvement by using all the physical or digital tools and technologies at your disposal, as long as their use is relevant.
4. Continuously assess and improve your sessions
Boosting a learning session is often a long term effort. To identify the right levers and optimize your learning plan, it is necessary to improve it little by little. That's where the comes in need for continuous evaluation.
Measuring the impact of training
Your first mission as a trainer or learning organization is to meet business goals. The content of the learning and the various sequences must therefore adapt to the learners and allow them to improve their skills. In order to verify that learners have actually succeeded in acquiring knowledge or improving their skills, measure the impact of learning through questionnaires or evaluations.
Leveraging user feedback
The quality and dynamism of the learning offer must be measured by evaluations, but also by direct feedback from learnerss Careful analysis of these testimonies is a good way to refine your method and understand what is not suitable for participants. You can then adjust your approach to become more relevant during the next learning session.
Design a feedback system
Whatever the type of learning, the best thing is to offer a continuous and interactive feedback system. It allows you to gather valuable feedback throughout the training. Objective and honest feedback can be used to identify the least engaging elements of your learning sessions. This allows gain in responsiveness by making changes in real time.
Taking feedback into account is essential to ensure that your organizational and teaching methods are as dynamic and evolving as the learning sessions.
Planning, engagement, stimulation and feedback
To boost a learning session, you must carefully prepare the learning as well as use animation techniques or collect user feedback. Each of the steps builds an enriching and memorable educational experience.
Edflex can help you in this process! Our platform offers a vast library of resources sourced from premium quality editors and offered in various formats. Employees can then benefit from a innovative and interactive online learning where personalization and engagement are omnipresent.