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How Remote Training Can Revolutionize Your Organization

If your organization is considering a transition to a remote training model – whether due to opportunity or necessity, you’re probably already aware of many of the benefits the approach can offer. Remote training eliminates the expenses of hiring instructors for in-person sessions and transportation costs, to say nothing of the productivity you lose when your employees need to spend three hours to attend a one-hour training session. Many remote training programs also allow learners to rewatch educational materials as often as they like, promoting knowledge retention. Robust training opportunities can contribute to employee retention so you don’t have to onboard fresh hires as well.

Unfortunately, remote employee training carries several potential downsides as well. Instructors cannot directly supervise learners the same way they can in person, so some learners may not engage with the material. Likewise, household distractions such as familial obligations can prevent even the most focused learners from concentrating. Many learners also feel socially isolated while training remotely.

We are Echo360, and we’ve designed a learning engagement platform called EchoPoll to address all of these issues. It’s predicated on our e³ philosophy of equity, evidence, and engagement to help all learners make the most of their training opportunities. Read on to discover how each of these three simple terms can help facilitate remote training best practices:

How Can I Address the Issues Associated with Remote Training?

Remote training can be challenging to pull off, but EchoPoll is packed with powerful features to help your team members get more out of it. Let’s take a closer look at five of the most important for expediting your organization’s training:

    1. Blended Learning

Most remote training programs can be described as synchronous, asynchronous, or a customized mixture of the two. EchoPoll is flexible enough to let you design the program that makes the most sense for your team’s needs. For example, you can offer a live class on closing deals to help your sales team generate more revenue while also creating personalized learning paths to help individual salespeople address any specific skill gaps that are preventing them from being more productive.

    1. Hybrid Learning

While blended learning means that individual learners are taking advantage of synchronous and asynchronous training, hybrid learning means that some learners are on a synchronous track while others are training asynchronously. EchoPoll ensures equity for both groups by automatically recording live training sessions, allowing those who didn’t attend live to receive the same information as those who did. Our platform also includes message boards to allow asynchronous learners to ask questions and forge social connections with their colleagues, a vital social element that many asynchronous solutions lack.

    1. Engagement Tools

Remote training can be boring if learners are just watching prerecorded lectures and completing mundane tasks. EchoPoll solves this problem by giving instructors access to great multimedia authoring tools. Video and audio files can be built directly into lessons to accommodate learners of all learning styles. Furthermore, gamification elements such as points and certificates can be used to foster friendly competition and promote engagement with the material. Learners can even choose when and where they would like to engage with your educational materials to give them more control over the process.

    1. Collaboration Tools

Social isolation is another huge obstacle for remote training to overcome, and EchoPoll can help you do it with aplomb. Tools such as whiteboards and live chat facilitate the same type of group discussions that you would have in person. If you want to break your learners into smaller groups, breakaway rooms allow them to work without interrupting each other.

    1. Built-In Assessment Tools

Evaluating learner performance is another important remote training challenge, and EchoPoll makes it easy. Instructors can use inline quizzes to make sure that learners grasp key concepts before allowing them to move to the next topic. Likewise, course-wide assessments can be graded automatically with the results sent to an intuitive instructor dashboard to give stakeholders the evidence they need to identify and address skill gaps. Learners can even provide real-time feedback to their instructors through polls and post-course questionnaires.

What Are Some Good Training Ideas for Remote Employees?

Remote training works best when it incorporates scenarios that your team will encounter on the job, so consider drawing from past experiences to create educational case studies. If you’ve already created such materials, EchoPoll integrates with LMS and LXP platforms so that you can keep using them. Mentorship is also a great way to help younger employees benefit from the experiences of their more experienced coworkers, so consider using EchoPoll’s communication tools to set up a remote mentorship program. Most importantly, make sure that all team members have the same access to training. EchoPoll meets or exceeds all WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards so you won’t have to worry about a thing.

In short, EchoPoll has all of the features you need to implement remote training best practices throughout your entire organization. What will your organization be able to achieve with such a powerful training tool at your disposal?