How Government Organizations Can Benefit from Online Training in a Post-COVID World

In a post-COVID world, the benefits of online learning for government organizations have gone from convenient to absolutely necessary. With a decline in revenue and therefore a slash in budgets, finding areas where money can be saved and time can be used most effectively is at the top of the list of priorities.

There may be some hesitancy, and certainly there are some cases where in-person learning might be seen as the better alternative. Even so, new hire orientation, management and sensitivity training, and even something as small as learning how to use a new desktop application are all examples where prepackaged training would be beneficial. It’s important to know why virtual learning should be implemented now more than ever.  

Saving Time and Money

Because of the limited budgets associated with most government organizations, it’s crucial to review the costs of in person training compared to virtual ones.

When planning in-person training, the needs of the humans in your audience cannot be ignored. Bathroom breaks, lunch breaks, and travel time all have to be taken into consideration and planned for. There’s the time required for set-up, and the time required to take everything down. Speakers who arrive late hold up the entire event, attendees who arrive late miss important information, and tech issues might take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to resolve.  

There are the time-wasting costs of this, and the monetary ones. Locations have to be booked, food has to be prepared, people have to be paid. Even if you already have a location free of charge and require those attending to provide their own food, you’ll still have to pay people (whether W-2 employees or contractors) to set up the area for your event and take it down.    

On-the-job training is also expensive and wasteful. Hours of a valuable employee’s time is spent training a new hire when they could be handling other important tasks. This is (at least) twice as much time and cost consuming as it would be if you could simply give the new hire a course to watch, read, and complete.  

Learning virtually is significantly cheaper, as it generally comes at one upfront cost. It can be carefully written and produced to be as time-effective as possible, with no opportunities for employees to miss parts of it. Once a course is bought, it can be used and reused time and time again, eliminating the need to pay for multiple events or hours of another employee’s time. 

Increased Accessibility

Even as we return to “normal”, remote work is here to stay, especially for those who are at higher risk for COVID-19. Remote employees who perhaps live hours away in another city or even another state can still receive the training they need with an online course. Not only are they receiving the required training, they’re getting the same exact information as their colleagues who work on-site and in person.   

Government organizations don’t have the flexibility that private companies enjoy, which makes accessibility an important factor in evaluating virtual training. Getting access to the virtual types of courses you might need is drastically easier than getting the same info from an in-person format. There is no travel time, and no cost required to fly or drive people to the event. It’s more easily worked into a person’s busy schedule, and all employees can review the information at a time and place that works best for them, making them more likely to retain and understand the information.  

For on-the-job training, e-learning also makes new-hire training more accessible and more consistent. With a more traditional, person-to-person method, if an employee who would normally be in charge of the training is out sick or on vacation, someone else would have to be found to fill their place. That person may not be as knowledgeable or comfortable with training, therefore decreasing the standard of knowledge in the workforce.

With a course, new hires will get a consistent onboarding experience. This also is applicable to continuing education courses for established employees. Everyone can be given the same course, or access to a webinar (either recorded or live), and regardless of who is there for work that day the same knowledge can be passed to everyone by an expert.  

Increased Efficiency

Government organizations have to be especially conscious of processes and covering their bases thoroughly due to the usually legal nature of their businesses.

There is little to no chance an important piece of information is left out of an e-learning course.  When you give your employees a course to complete and review, you know everything they need is in there. There is no human error of verbal communication from a tired supervisor who might forget to mention a seemingly small, yet critical piece of information to new hires. This also applies to seasoned employees who are learning a new application or continuing their education for work. E-learning is far more consistent and effective across the board, which means a higher quality of work from employees.   

Purchasing a course also provides the benefit of being taught by an expert in the field, someone who knows exactly what they’re talking about and can convey it well. A team of people puts in the work to build a course, so the quality is great and the information is accurate and complete.  With it, employees are quicker to be up and running.

It also provides the benefit of employees being more likely to learn the information provided.  If they don’t understand something the first time, they can go back and reread or rewatch the section explaining it. If necessary, a colleague can easily provide further clarification.

This same material can be used for a long time, essentially until it is no longer relevant or outdated. When that happens, either a new course can be purchased to replace it, or new materials can simply be incorporated into the old course to provide the required knowledge.  

Regardless of the number of employees an organization might have, or what needs to be taught, learning via a course is a better alternative to in-person training in many situations.  

It saves time and money by consolidating all required knowledge into one course, for one price, and since it can be used as many times as necessary, it becomes a long-term investment for the company purchasing it. Accessibility is increased because courses are available to anyone, anywhere, at any time. The efficiency of course learning is greater, as it does not require someone to sacrifice their time to teach, and is taught by someone who knows exactly what they’re talking about.   

It’s time to evaluate the needs of your government organization, and see where e-learning can be used to make the most of the time and resources available to you.

 

Experience the proven, easy-to-use, and cost-effective benefits of online training by scheduling your free online training consultation today!Schedule Free Consultation

7 Digital Learner Preferences to Know in 2019

Digital learner preferences
Digital learner preferences vary between each individual and across different organizations and agencies.

 

What are the digital learning preferences of your employees?

If you don’t know, your employees may secretly hate learning, or worse, they aren’t absorbing what you teach them – leading to constant retraining, poor performance, and bad customer service.

All of which can be reversed when you do know about digital learner preferences.

And the Digital Learning Consortium is here to show you just what they are.

They recently released a survey titled Voice of the Learner conducted during the spring and summer of 2018 that gathered responses from 5,000 learners spanning 5 generations from 114 countries in 15 professions.

So you know they found some good stuff.

We’re going to detail the major takeaways from this study below to show you how to design digital learning programs that your employees look forward to taking.

7 Digital Learner Preferences

1. A.I. Without Privacy Violations

Most respondents said they would use A.I.

They recognize the benefits of A.I., such as automatically identifying skill gaps and recommending learning activities to fill the gaps.

There’s just one sticking point:

Privacy.

Many respondents said they were worried about how their managers would use information collected using A.I. They’re afraid it may be used against them when being given assignments or during performance evaluations.

Keep this in mind if you decide to implement A.I. and attempt to keep things as transparent and voluntary as possible.

2. Learning Records That Are Controlled by Individual Learners

The majority of survey respondents (over two-thirds) want learning records that follow them throughout their career, enabling them to view and share their progress with anyone.

But once again, the issue of privacy crops up.

These same employees want to be in complete control over their records instead of giving control to a 3rd-party. Essentially, they would act like “supercharged resumes or LinkedIn profiles” that were kept secure by the learner themselves.

3. Online Courses and Digital Reading over Video

While online courses had the highest mean importance, respondents spent the most time each week (1.6 hours) on digital reading, both overtaking video in importance and time spent.

It seems respondents didn’t enjoy audio or webcasting.

4. Learning Alone

Another surprising finding from this study is that 58% of respondents said they prefer learning alone rather than in groups (when engaged in a Massive Open Online Course environment).

At the same time, 70% of respondents agreed that peer-to-peer interactions enhance the learning experience. But if they form learning groups, most of them preferred group sizes of 3-6 instead of large group sessions.

5. Longer Learning Sessions over Microlearning

As if this report didn’t feature enough shocking information, it turns out that most people don’t prefer microlearning.

Here’s how the numbers broke down:

  • 51% prefer 20-45 minute learning sessions.
  • 24% prefer 1-2 hour long learning sessions.
  • 9% prefer 5-10 minute learning sessions.

This tells us that a mix of learning experiences would be best, allowing individual employees to tailor the learning experience to their preferences.

6. A Clear Link Between Learning and Their Career

Now, this next point should come as no surprise:

Over 70% of respondents are more motivated to learn when they see a clear link between what they’re learning and how it furthers their career.

If you can create a culture of continuous learning that rewards intelligent and competent employees with raises, promotions, perks, rewards, etc., then you’re employees will gladly engage in your learning programs.

7. Centralized Learning Hub

78% of respondents prefer a centralized learning hub where they can access all of their training from anywhere.

They don’t care much about seeing the speaker or in virtual reality, but they do care about having personalized recommendations and an organized knowledge database they can use at will.

The Next Step in Meeting Digital Learner Preferences

Now you know what your employees want from your learning initiative.

The next step is to give it to them.

But you don’t want to provide it haphazardly – one program for this and another for that.

Like the last point in our list above, you want to give your employees a central hub of information they can access while in the office, on a train home, or in their bedroom.

You have to make learning easy for them.

And it should include courses, reading material, and videos to cater to all different needs and learning preferences.

Where can you find all of this in one package?

Right here at Enterprise Training.

We have over 6,000 online government training courses covering everything from cybersecurity to project management.

If you need a one-stop-shop for your employees’ learning needs, then try a 14-day free trial of Enterprise Training today by clicking the button below.

Experience the proven, easy-to-use, and cost-effective benefits of online training by scheduling your free online training consultation today!

Schedule Free Consultation

How to Use Microlearning to Increase Productivity in Your Agency

Microlearning offers quick, easy to understand lessons for maximum comprehension
Microlearning offers quick, easy to understand lessons for maximum comprehension

Microlearning has been revolutionizing employee training and development in the corporate world, but is it applicable to Government agencies?

With increasing budget cuts, Government agencies have to maximize their returns on every dollar they spend.

Long-form training–where participants sit in a conference room for hours, learn from a hefty manual, and then take a test–can be costly and time-consuming.

Microlearning, on the other hand, can be consumed virtually anywhere, is delivered quickly, and the results are impressive.

A study from the Dresden University of Technology in Germany found that microlearning resulted in 20% higher information retention than long-form learning.

This means less time, money, and resources spent on retraining employees in your agency.

But, microlearning may not be the end all be all of learning and development that some companies would like you to believe.

To help you understand the proper role of microlearning in your agency, we’ll define microlearning, compare it to long-form learning, and discuss some of its benefits and drawbacks.

What is Microlearning?

Microlearning is characterized by short, focused modules that help the learner understand one topic or idea at a time.

Modules are usually 3-5 minutes long (or shorter), and they incorporate video, audio, and written material for a full-sensory learning experience.

Microlearning can be deployed on any device which makes it ideal for busy learners and educators who want to be able to quickly learn and apply what they’ve learned immediately.

What’s the Difference Between Microlearning and Long-Form Learning

Traditional learning typically involves an instructor who decides how participants will be learning (text vs. audio vs. video vs. a mixture of all 3).

Participants usually go through the training only once, and training lasts for a few hours or a few days.

Microlearning, on the other hand, guarantees a variety of learning tools will be available to participants so that they can “drive” their own learning experience, and use only the tools that help them individually learn better.

Microlearning modules allow participants to learn at their own pace, and to break information into manageable chunks that are easier to remember long-term.

Traditional, long-form learning is very formal in its tone and setting–you arrive at one location, go through the whole training in the same place and in the same way, and then test your knowledge.

Microlearning is flexible enough to allow you to learn formally–like in a conference room with an instructor–or informally, like while riding the bus or on your lunch break.

Microlearning modules are designed to be consumed whenever you need to learn or relearn a topic or idea.

What are the Benefits of Microlearning?

Spaced Repetition

The most commonly cited benefit to Microlearning is how helpful it is in counteracting the famous “forgetting curve”, which hypothesizes that you will lose most of your acquired knowledge if you don’t attempt to retain it.

Because Microlearning modules are so short, they’re easy to consume again and again over time to solidify the knowledge in your memory.

Wide-Range of Applications

Microlearning modules can be used for teaching one-off ideas, for quick reference, or as part of a series of other microlearning programs.

Effective Outcomes

Microlearning will help you remember more of any given subject–especially if it’s complicated–because it breaks information down into bite-sized pieces that center around one big idea, allowing you to focus without distraction, and put your newfound knowledge into practice immediately.

Learner-Centered

Every individual has different capacities and preferences for learning.

Microlearning gives you the flexibility to design lesson plans and training sessions that will maximize the educational experience for each individual employee.

Plus, since some employees don’t have the time nor the interest in sitting through a long-form training session–especially if it’s filled with ancillary or discretionary content– you can deliver the essentials of the session in a compartmentalized, easy-to-consume format.

What are the Drawbacks of Microlearning?

Can’t Create Experts

If you really want to master a subject and become an expert, you’ll have to dive much deeper into your subject matter for much longer.

Concepts, definitions, and explanations can all be understood with microlearning, but complex topics, advanced skills, and in-depth knowledge require long-form learning.

More Planning Ahead of Time

If you’re tasked with creating a microlearning program, you’re going to have to wade through all the material you want to teach, identify the most essential parts of the course, and then break those down into easy to consume modules.

A microlearning program may not provide a complete picture of the subject matter because it usually covers only one aspect of a topic or idea.

Also, if the program creator misses a crucial bit of information when developing the course, they could make the learning experience feel disjointed or fragmented.

How Should Microlearning be Used?

Microlearning is best used as part of a hybrid learning program that also includes long-form learning and hands-on training. It is an ideal performance support tool, since it can be delivered anywhere, on any device, at the exact time an employee needs to learn or relearn a subject.

It’s not useful for complex topics, but it can be used as a spaced repetition tool that reinforces complex ideas by delivering a shortened version of them over time.

It’s also ideal for busy employees who travel often and only need to keep up-to-date with the latest training and development requirements.

At the end of the day, you need to decide what’s best for each individual employee based on their current level of skill and knowledge in order to provide them with the learning that suits them best.

Need a Microlearning Program For Your Agency?

We have over 6,000 online training programs designed specifically for Government agencies and employees to refine their skills, upgrade their knowledge, and perform their jobs better. You get 24/7 access to all of our courses and they can be viewed on all devices. Every Government agency we’ve worked with has benefited from our elearning courses.

Experience the proven, easy-to-use, and cost-effective benefits of online training by scheduling your free online training consultation today!

Schedule Free Consultation