How Do I Create an Interactive Training Document? A Beginner’s Guide
A shift in the use of the Internet and smartphones has changed the way online courses and training are conducted. Online courses are no longer static and linear—new technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality have increased their levels of interactivity. Users’ consumption of training modules is much different and more dynamic, to their benefit.
It has become easier to build interactive training manuals thanks to the wide range of tools that are available today. These tools help organizations produce interesting training content that goes beyond the simple text and video formats.
For instance, KITABOO is a digital publishing platform that helps produce AI-enabled interactive training content. Designing a training manual that effectively conveys the required information will benefit both the user undergoing the training and the organization, allowing it to upskill its employees properly.
This brief guide will help answer the question – How do I create an interactive training document?
Table of Contents
I. What is a Training Document?
II. What are the Benefits of Online Training Documents?
- Knowledge Retention
- Increase Work Efficiency
- Maintaining Consistency and Uniformity
- Bring New Employees Up to Date
III. How to Create an Interactive Training Document?
- Defining The Problem Question
- Length of The Document
- Determining Your Target Audience
- Language Comprehension
IV. How to Incorporate Interactive Content in Your Training Document?
What is a Training Document?
Training documents follow a step-by-step process that takes the user through a concept in detail and helps cover multiple avenues of the concept. An efficient learning document will help a user digest any complex topic within a short period of time. The student will go through one training module to another, moving from one topic to another, which is more difficult than the last.
An organization might use training documents to help employees develop additional skills, which will help them get better opportunities. Training modules can also be developed to improve customer relationships or reduce the costs related to other company processes. Different training documents can be created for different departments of an organization, such as management, sales, account managers, and so on.
What are the Benefits of Online Training Documents?
Online training documents have a host of benefits for everyone, including the company, the employees, and even the stakeholders:
Knowledge Retention
Statistics show that interactive training content can improve retention rates by 50%. It becomes easier for employees to absorb the knowledge from the courses being taught and retain it for longer periods of time. The learning process is also drastically reduced.
Increase Work Efficiency
The training document will help the employees get better at whatever they are already doing by fine-tuning their skills and processes. The content can be accessed whenever needed so employees can look back to tests and information for immediate assistance.
Maintaining Consistency and Uniformity
Having a proper training document will help maintain consistency across an organization’s different areas and departments. If everyone follows a streamlined process, it becomes convenient for both management and employees to do their jobs.
Bring New Employees Up to Date
Another benefit of using a training document is that it would help inform new managers and employees about the company’s workings. Besides their onboarding, the training documents will act as an additional resource to inform them how each department works.
How to Create an Interactive Training Document?
To create an interactive training manual, one would require a proper foundation. The objectives of the training document should be aligned with the company’s goals and objectives. The process of creating a training document involves shaping knowledge into an efficient and interesting learning experience.
Defining the Problem Question
The first step is to identify the problem you would like to address. Which area of the organization does the employee require more training or knowledge in?
Communication is the cornerstone of an excellent training module. By talking to the employees, an organization can learn the kind of problems they are facing and the areas that will require improvement.
Length of the Document
The length of the course or training document is important to create an interactive training manual. If the training document is too small, you may end up leaving out crucial information.
Some topics might need more explanation. If the training material is too long, the user might lose focus or feel overwhelmed by all the information.
Determining Your Target Audience
It is important to know the audience for whom you will be designing the training document. The training document will need to be customized based on the type of work the employee does and the level of expertise they have. Knowing the audience’s needs will also help in structuring the document and determining the pace of the material.
Language Comprehension
It is important that the material has been designed using language that the users can easily comprehend. Using difficult words and extensive terminology will make it difficult for the person reading the document to grasp the concepts in the learning material. The use of jargon must be employed accordingly, depending on the audience’s knowledge of the topic.
How to Incorporate Interactive Content in Your Training Document?
Once you have completed the basics, you can start researching how to create an interactive training manual. You can do this by using the different tools and mediums available to you.
Drag and Drop
A drag-and-drop exercise at the end of every segment can be a good way to test the knowledge retention of the employees. It can be a way for the users to revise the content they have learned. At KITABOO, you will be able to incorporate similar gamification strategies to make your learning material more interactive.
Visual Content
Visual information can be more engaging and interactive than text-based information. You can use images, diagrams, infographics, charts, and graphs to add more value to your training documents. You can also include hyperlinks to this content – clicking on them would take the user to another image, video, website, or another part of the document.
Video and Audio Content
Videos can be very effective when it comes to teaching complex concepts and practical skills. You can use lectures, interviews, and demonstrations to send the message forward to the audience.
You can also make the widows interactive, allowing the user to click and select the part of the video they want to go to. This will help them to go back and forth through the learning material and learn the information at their own pace.
Discussion Forums
A discussion forum can be set up where the users can interact with each other, ask questions, and help others with answers. Through their collaborative effort, they will be able to help each other in learning the concepts in the materials.
Conclusion
Training and research is an ongoing process. Besides producing efficient, interactive content, it is also important to stay updated with the ongoing developments in the company and update the training documents accordingly. There must be a constant update to the learning material and the teaching processes so that the audience can get better at grasping the information being provided to them.
With the corporate training solutions available at KITABOO, organizations will be able to meet all their training requirements. The training content designed using KITABOO can be accessed across multiple devices and systems. The analytic features available on KITABOO help you gain insights into how the learning material is being consumed and track the progress of the learners.
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