Why Interactive Learning Is the Future of Product Training

In this article, we’ll learn what interactive learning is, why it is the future of employee training, and why it beats traditional teaching techniques … at least when it comes to digital product training.

But first, we should understand the digital workplace.

The digital workplace, after all, is what is fueling today’s biggest trends in employee learning and product training.

Digital Transformation, Perpetual Change, and the Digital Work Environment

Today, digital disruption is fueling change in businesses, markets, and entire industries.

This cascade of changes has resulted in several major trends which make interactive learning so important:

• Digital Transformation – The term used to describe organizational changes that fundamentally transform the way businesses operate, use technology, and deliver value to their customers.
• Ongoing Organizational Change – Organizational change is no longer a discrete start-and-stop process. Instead, continual transformation is becoming the norm. Businesses must constantly adopt new technologies, train employees, and innovate.
• The Digital Workforce – Because transformation is the new standard, employees must also adapt. Perpetual learning, therefore, is becoming a requirement for the modern worker. To stay competitive, productive, and relevant, employees must constantly learn new tools, skills, and workflows.

To maintain a talented workforce, organizations must continually train workers. 

This means that the quality and type of product training have an important impact on employees’ skill levels, productivity, and performance.

Training that is fast and efficient, for instance, keeps employees productive in the ever-changing work environment.

Slow, ineffective training, however, will ultimately harm their performance and undermine the organization’s performance.

For that reason, many of today’s most innovative organizations are turning to interactive training solutions.

Why Interactive Learning Is the Future of Product Training

Interactive training is a type of training that – as the name suggests – allows users to interact with the training software.

Unlike documentation or other static material, interactive training establishes a dialogue with workers.

Interactivity can come in several forms:

• Search queries. Certain help tools, such as DAPs or in-app help functions, allow users to quickly search for a topic or keyword. Software then presents only the relevant information, which is more efficient than having users hunt through documentation.
• Chat bots. Chat bots operate like an upgraded version of search queries. They can analyze semantics, which allows them to understand questions, statements, and intention – taking convenience a step further than search functionality.
• Step-by-step walkthroughs. Walkthroughs and in-app instructions take users through a series of tasks, allowing users to perform the actions. This is like having a human guide over the shoulder … but without the added expense.

Of course, human-led training is interactive as well. Students can ask questions, hold a dialogue with the trainer, take tests, and so forth.

However, in the workplace, human-led training is hardly practical or affordable.

There are a few reasons why:

• Human training is too costly. Software can duplicate its effort countless times, at no additional cost. Paying people to train users, however, is simply too costly and inefficient.
• Technology moves too quickly. Technology keeps changing, which means that people must continually upgrade their skills in order to keep up. Even if human-led training were cost-effective, the continual advancement of technology would make it difficult to maintain a skilled corps of trainers.
• There simply isn’t enough manpower. Yet another problem is that there are always more users than trainers. A brand new digital tool may have a long line of new users but only a handful of experts.

Fortunately, technology has managed to innovate and meet the demands of the workplace.

While interactive learning technology may never replace humans, the right training solutions can deliver massive gains when it comes to workforce training.

How Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) Streamline Onboarding and Training

Studies have shown that hands-on learning is more effective than lectures and similar approaches.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that interactive learning software is on the rise.

Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) are a type of interactive learning tool that have exploded in popularity. 

These digital adoption solutions deliver staggering gains in several areas.

Making effective use of these platforms can, for instance:

• Accelerate training times
• Decrease user frustration
• Boost user engagement levels
• Increase performance and productivity
• Lower technical support costs

Because the automate many aspects of product training, they are ideal for training new users – whether those users are employees in the workplace or end users of an app.

These interactive learning tools offer several key features that deliver the benefits mentioned above:

• Step-by-step walkthroughs and tutorials
• Interactive help systems
• Software analytics
• Automation solutions

These training systems are specifically designed for the digital age.

They can be useful in a number of training scenarios, such as:

• Onboarding new customers
• Onboarding new employees
• Employee training
• Digital adoption 

For more information on how to use DAPs, visit our digital adoption blog.