Digital tools have the power to enrich the experience of students and instructors during a face-to-face. Those tools promote active learning which is essential for an engaging learning experience during the training. In order to maintain this positive perception certain facilities, such as a good internet connection, need to be present. There are many tools available, but it is important to match the choice of tool with the learning goals and purpose you wish to achieve with your training. Do you want to use a tool to facilitate your brainstorm and collaboration between learners? Test your learners’ knowledge after the training using a quiz? Or do you want to provide clear and instant feedback? The purpose has a big impact on the tool you will need, so make sure you have a clear idea about what you want to accomplish in your training.
Facilitate a brainstorm and collaboration between learners
Brainstorming is a popular and successful strategy for empowering individuals to produce ideas and thus improve productivity. A brainstorm often starts with establishing a general topic. Related issues to that topic can be written on sticky notes and hung near the topic. With a large group, this can quickly become chaotic and messy. This can be resolved by using an online tool. Furthermore, the knowledge remains available to the learner after they have left the room. Examples of such an online tool are Miro and Padlet. Other content, such as documents or pictures that may be relevant to the topic, can be added to the whiteboards.
Test the knowledge
You probably know some tools to introduce a quiz at the end of a training and you probably already participated in one. Some examples are Kahoot and Gimkit which are game-based response systems. With Quizlet, you can make flashcards and games in addition to traditional quizzes and by using Quizizz, you can even include learners in the quiz-writing process to keep them engaged. The effectiveness of adding a quiz at the end of a training has been proven in the past. The fact that knowledge will be tested at the end, keeps your learners motivated during your training. In addition, it is also a way of measuring what they have absorbed from the learning content. This is valuable information for both the learner and you. Based on the results, you can adjust your training to increase its effectiveness and clarify unclear topics.
Provide instant feedback
Effective learning relies heavily on feedback. This can be included at the end of an assignment you gave during your training. Instant feedback is delivered contextually and in the flow of learning and contributes to the expansion of a learner’s comprehension. It reinforces knowledge by rectifying mistakes, reinforcing competency, or dispelling misconceptions about the issue after your learners have submitted a task. In this way, learners can anticipate the feedback and incorporate it at once into the rest of the training. Kaizena is one of the many tools to provide real-time feedback. It can be integrated with Google Docs and feedback can be given by voice comments. Cool, right? Formative, on the other hand, makes it possible to analyze and review students’ assignments.
The tools above are some examples from the wide range of tools. It’s impossible to list all the available ones. Incorporating (some of) the above examples is already a great start!
Need help?
Features of the tools above are often available in a Learning Management System or can for example be embedded into a course in the platform. Want to know more about Learning Management Systems or The Learning Hub?