Training programs represent a significant investment. With ongoing pressure for increased productivity, corporate leaders are looking for proven ways to boost training effectiveness and demonstrate that employees are applying what they have learned to drive organizational results.
Over the past decade, research measuring the effectiveness of traditional lecture and click-to-read learning programs shows that "I tell, you listen" methods are significantly less effective for training today's tech-savvy young adult workers. These workers, under the age of 30 and often called Millennials, require a higher level of participation in the process of learning.
In "Keys to Engaging Millennials" (The Journal for Quality and Participation, April 2010), author Jan Ferri-Reed says that millennials learn differently than adults from earlier generations, and they require a different approach for engaging them in the training process. According to Ferri-Reed, Millennials:
- prefer to be actively involved in the presentation
- like to be able to network, discuss the materials and work collaboratively with their peers
- want to be able to guide the discussion toward topics relevant to their jobs
- appreciate the ability to provide honest feedback and know that their input is being received
Interactive audience response technology has proven to be invaluable not only for helping to engage the younger training participants in learning presentations, but also for measuring the effectiveness of the training. Companies continue to turn to interactive technologies to enhance the effectiveness of their training and performance improvement programs in the following ways:
- Active engagement. Using interactive response systems to ask questions during an instructional presentation has been shown to boost attentiveness, understanding and retention of the presented information.
- Interactive participationallows audience members to see how their responses compare with others and fosters a sense of competition in a non-threatening (i.e., anonymous) environment. It stimulates discussion.
- Audience response technology allows training leaders to receive real-time input about whether the information is being understood and is being presented in the most effective way. Presenters can go back and cover difficult topics or teach them in a different manner if feedback shows that the participants are not grasping the important topics.
- Audience feedback allows presenters to determine which topics are most usefuland relevant to the needs of the audience so they can structure their presentations accordingly. Responses can also be used to predict if and how participants will use the information in their jobs.
- Before and after polling can gauge the effectiveness of the trainingsession and help leaders continually improve the content and delivery of their presentations.
- Measuring change; Post-training measurement with an interactive system and tools like our ROI Tool Kithelp assess the amount of actual behavior change on the job brought about through the training.
If you would like to learn more about how you can improve the impact of your training programs, please click the button below!