The average person has only 20 minutes dedicated to learning at work every week. To make the most of this time, designing training materials that facilitate effective learning should be a primary goal for any Learning Management System (LMS) developer. It is also incredibly challenging to design course content for classes that keeps students engaged from start to finish.
Fortunately, there are various digital content types available to employers and teachers that help create more interactive and exciting learning programs. Find a list of the most engaging digital content types you can add to an LMS training course or class below.
1. Quizzes
Quizzes, assessments, and tests are an integral part of any eLearning course. They help learners keep track of their learning progress and give them a sense of progression. Depending on the type of the course, and whether it’s credited or not, you may decide how often quizzes are added.
Usually, they are added as a natural breakpoint between topics. When adding quizzes to your course, take into consideration the following:
- Short, informal courses typically have small knowledge checks at the end of each module/topic to ensure the user is following along.
- Longer courses often have more in-depth, formal final assessments that are accompanied by detailed feedback.
2. Video Content
Video content often engages users more than text and pictures alone. There are several ways to incorporate video content in your eLearning course:
- As standalone materials: You can use videos as the only educational material for your course. Take Udemy for example, the courses available there are mostly video-heavy courses.
- Embedded videos: Video content is included as part of your course. The videos can be content created by yourself or taken from a public domain such as YouTube.
3. Slide-Based Content
Slide-based content is easy to create yet still an effective educational tool that is used a lot in webinars, classrooms, and conferences. Slide-based content allows learners to progress through the course at their own pace, allowing users to take detailed notes at a speed they feel comfortable with. Each person will respond differently to various learning styles and many prefer texts to videos for quick comprehension.
4. Recorded Webinars
Most webinar platforms have a recording function that allows you to record the entire session with good quality. The recorded session can then be uploaded to your LMS with or without further editing to ensure your students or employees have access to the content whenever desired.
If the webinar is very long, it may be a good idea to break it up into bite-sized modules that correspond to the topic you are teaching. After each module, you can add a quiz using the LMS assessment functionality to see how well learners are grasping the materials.
5. Recorded Face-to-Face Training
Many companies that are used to doing face-to-face training have difficulties designing content for their online eLearning platform. One quick way to take advantage of your existing face-to-face training and save time and effort creating LMS content is to record live training events and upload them to your LMS platform.
For premium video quality, use good HD video cameras and high-quality microphones. Don’t forget to use screen capture software to record the presenter’s slides as well.
6. Podcasts
Podcasts are increasing in popularity and are great supplementary content to the lessons provided on your LMS platform. A podcast channel can also help a brand establish itself as a thought leader in a particular topic or industry. They have their unique advantage because people can listen to them while driving to work or waiting in line at the supermarket. In other words, podcasts are designed for busy people, and we all know how little time most office employees have to dedicate to learning.
After exploring the concept through texts and slides, videos and quizzes, users can listen to additional podcasts on their way home in which industry leaders discuss ways to put concepts into practice.
7. Dialogue Simulations
Merely reading walls of texts or watching video after video can create a dull learning experience. A creative and also advanced way to add interactivity into the lesson is through the use of dialogue simulations. A dialogue simulation simulates real-world situations in which each decision made will have consequences that lead to different outcomes. It’s also an effective tool to teach customer service and sales skills to people in a risk-free environment.
8. Interactive Videos
Normally, learners have to sit tight and watch a video from the start to the end. Depending on the content and length, some people’s attention may already have drifted by the time the video ends due to a lack of engagement. Thanks to advancements in technology, now it’s possible to add elements of interaction into your videos, for example, quizzes and click to continue buttons. As a result, learners can drag, click, scroll, or use other digital actions to interact with the content of the video.
9. VR and AR
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are no longer fancy technologies of the future. Nowadays, many companies are making use of them to provide real-world, engaging training. VR has many use cases in the aviation and healthcare industry. For example, Lenovo makes use of VR during their employee onboarding training. The result? Their employees are said to be able to retain twice as much information as they would with traditional materials such as videos, slides, and pictures.
10. Gamification
Most people are competitive by nature. That’s why so many become addicted to video games. The more they are able to compete with friends, or their own previous score/performance, the longer they choose to keep playing. Gamification is no new concept when it comes to LMS content development and getting creative with gamification can really spice up the learning process. You may have grown accustomed to the leaderboards and badges every time you log into your LMS platform. These are popular use cases of gamification.
When learning becomes fun, people forget they are learning and just enjoy the experience while absorbing the knowledge. That’s why adding exciting and interactive content types to an LMS course is crucial to maintain user engagement.
