How To Engage Remote Learners

Engaging remote learners requires different techniques than engaging classroom learners

Training managers have been asking how to better engage remote and online learners for years, but the question is now more urgent than ever. 

While you may be tempted to postpone training in the face of everything happening today, don’t. If certain training and meetings were already scheduled and on the calendar, keep them there. Maintaining your regular schedule gives employees a sense of normalcy that they may need right now. 

Engaging remote learners requires different techniques than engaging classroom learners, but with a little creative thinking, you can deliver truly engaging online training to remote learners.

Consider allowing your employees to take a pre-assessment of the training content and let them test out of areas they are already competent in. This type of adaptive learning strategy often results in higher engagement as employees appreciate being able to focus specifically on their weak areas without having to mindlessly click through content they already know.

If you’re doing synchronous online training, you have tons of virtual communication tools at your fingertips. Having a live chat or video feed going during the training is a great way to keep people engaged and talking about the content. You can also break up the training content with live polls or knowledge checks. Keeping a live participation leaderboard running may also drive a little friendly competition among learners.

Classroom trainers can use visual cues to know when their group is getting restless and needs a break. Asynchronous remote learners need those same breaks, and you can’t assume that they will opt to take them on their own. Build reminders into your eLearning content to pause, stretch, and even get a snack. 

Creating self-paced video content is another great option for asynchronous training. Short video microlearning modules keep learners engaged and allow for a natural cadence of breaks in between videos. Try adding annotations to your videos to reinforce the key points and add another layer of multimedia to the experience.

The more interactivity you can build into a self-paced online course, the better. Sliders, drag and drops, and click to reveal interactions can make a knowledge check much more engaging than a multiple-choice question. Interactions like these can be created in no time with pre-built templates. 

Incorporating polls and showing your learners’ real results and feedback from other team members can be another great way to help remote learners stay connected to the rest of their team.

Consider scheduling post-training one-on-one video calls to debrief and make sure each employee received value from the training. 

If you’re tracking your learner progress using an LMS, you should have a good idea of what areas a learner still needs to work on. However, one-on-one discussions enable you to learn more about what aspects of the online training experience your employees liked or didn’t like, in addition to whether they understood the content. This can help you create more engaging training content the next time around.
 
With any online training, technology can be your best friend. Do your research on different learning management systems and authoring tools, or seek out a learning solutions provider that can help you implement an effective, engaging training solution for your remote workers.