The Best Online Training

The Psychology of Online Training

I have researched the psychological factors of attention, comprehension, memory and attitudinal change in educational content for over twenty years. I have taught this at the college level and have successfully applied this knowledge to PA audiovisual content to tackle high-risk social behaviors like the prevention of breast cancer, reducing the risk of teen pregnancy or curbing domestic violence.

My research describes not only how to influence attitudes but also how to develop complex cognitive skills. As a case example, I wrote a book on the design of databases, one of the most arid and niche subjects I could find. Yet in its first five years amassed more than 60.000 downloads from several repositories that cared to carry it, became required reading for the online MA program on Archival Studies by Clayton University, and is being translated to Spanish and updated by the OpenDocument Foundation for their LibreOffice Base app (which you should totally check out, by the way).

The effectiveness of my content is not provided by flashy transitions or dramatic camera set-ups, but by understanding perception, cognition and the psychology of audiovisual communication, and organizing the content and its presentation accordingly. This way, my training material can:

• Better handle the attention of perceivers,
• Aid comprehension,
• Produce longer memory curves and
• Facilitate application.

You can learn all about my research in my book “Master Online Teaching: The Psychology of Online Education” which I have available to my workshop students and that soon will be offered through Amazon.

Why Train Online?

The covid-19 pandemic and now AI are profoundly changing the landscape and composition of your workforce and its environment.

Big portions of your workforce will become obsolete as AI applications continue spreading. But experts predict that you will struggle to find the high in-demand new personnel adapted to it. At the same time, decentralized environments and multicultural teams will challenge your managers, who will need to develop new skills to remain competitive.

This is a big challenge for any HR department!

You can foster a bond of loyalty if instead of firing your obsolete workforce you train them for the new roles that AI and related technologies will create. This will be equally true for the training of your first-line and mid-level managers.

The new workforce, decentralized and more conscious of a work/life balance, will also prefer online training, which forces you to make sure that your online content is effective and efficient. For example, is your training material adapted to be effective in asynchronous or hybrid environments? How will you measure acquisition? How will you detect difficulties with comprehension?

Training Tool Options

You need to train your workforce and have a limited budget. What options do you have?

First, you can use pre-made training content available in Learning Management Systems (LMS) which is acceptable for general uses but could be insufficient for more specific needs. Also, you might have to buy access to big libraries for just the one or two titles that really interest you.

You can also create your own content with the use of templates. Many LMS and content producers offer “inexpensive” templates to create training material. Unfortunately, results are often ho-hum because templates, by definition, fail to take into consideration the specifics of content, target audience and level of acquisition that influence the design and presentation of educational content. They also leave the onus of the work with you.

Another option available is to engage video and film production companies to generate your training material. Their specialty is audiovisual content and they will generate breathtaking images and sounds. But more often than not you will need to spend an arm and a leg to produce fancy videos with spectacular transitions and special effects of what are really just talking heads and word-heavy slide shows. Talking heads and PowerPoint presentations do not guarantee attention, understanding, memorization or application.

Trainees are seldom excited by spending time clicking "next" on slide shows or by watching videos of people talking. To counter this, some options offer “engaging” and “inspiring” content. Usually, they attempt to engage by presenting games to the audience. Unfortunately, these games treat trainees more like toddlers than professional adults. And there is no need for your trainees to feel “inspired” by your content. The only thing you really need is that your training material:

• Attracts and keeps your audience’s attention,
• Helps them understand the concepts presented,
• Helps them memorize and
• Helps them properly apply the information provided.

Attention, comprehension, memorization and attitudinal change don’t happen just because of fancy video effects or expensive on-site filming. It’s about organizing content based on the psychology of perception and cognition.

Selecting The Right Option

The most apropriate option is determined by several factors:

1. What is the audience that you need to reach?
2. What content do you need to present?
3. What level of acquisition do you need to achieve?
4. What deployment platform will you use?
5. Are you using synchronous, asynchronous or mixed modalities?
6. How are you measuring the efficacy of your content?

Sometimes you need to create original content. Other times you can use content from libraries or templates. I can help you decide what instruments to use or how to create efficient content that is cost-effective and can be produced in a manageable timeline.

Book: Master Online Teaching

My Book "Master Online Training" describes the psychology of online education and training that makes the concepts in study easier to attend, understand, rember and apply. The book has been available to educators and filmmakers taking my workshop and will soon be available on Amazon in printed and ebook format"

Read more about Master Online Teaching