How Interactive Presentation Software Helps Enhance the Learning Experience

If a company’s main objectives are profitability and growth, it follows that employees should grow along with the company. Profitability alone is fine, but considering today’s highly competitive markets, expanding your customer base and identifying new markets should also be part of the long-term plan. Training employees is the best way to prepare them for the journey ahead—and modern methods will serve their training needs most effectively. Our current generation of digital natives are more comfortable with ideas shared via an interactive presentation than they are with dated learning methods, such as having instructors read modules in front of a class.

Professional advancement lets an employee grow along with the company. As business scales, new opportunities open up as well. Aside from expansion programs, organizations look for the latest technology and modern practices to improve operational efficiency. Employees who show a willingness to take on these challenges will find themselves at the forefront of the company’s growth efforts. In return, the organization should readily invest in training programs and learning experiences to help them take the next step.

Traditional Learning vs. Interactive Learning

Workforce training comprises traditional learning methods as well as more modern systems. The traditional method is generally an in-person system where learners assemble in a classroom. They’re given learning modules and are asked to take their cue from an instructor. During training sessions, instructors might read training content aloud in front of a class, make notes on a whiteboard, present a slideshow, or play a video. Usually, the goal of traditional learning is for trainees to absorb the material. As a result, there’s less interaction among participants as the instructor generally dominates the session.

A major drawback of in-person learning is the rigidity of schedules. Moreover, trainees will need to be physically present. That requires sending employees over to headquarters for training sessions. In the process, they’ll be disrupting their daily routines, potentially sacrificing sales opportunities and reducing time spent on important projects. Plus, if these seminars run over several days, that adds up to a lot of commuting time.

Using an Interactive Presentation to Train Digital Natives

Conventional learning methods have largely become obsolete, thanks to a rising tide of digital natives. Millennials and Gen-Z workers now total 66.6 million, which is more than half of the 126.7 million workers in the United States. They’re called digital natives because they were born at a time when digital technology (including the Internet) was already widespread. They likely learned their ABCs on a tablet and watched their first videos via a smartphone. As such, they instinctively know how to operate digital devices—and, at the same time, struggle to engage with training sessions that use traditional whiteboards or VHS players.

It stands to reason that digital natives respond better to digital training tools. Their intuitive use of smartphones and tablets has conditioned them to expect instant feedback. Furthermore, their preferred method of input is to type directly on the screen. Given their partiality for digital tools, an interactive presentation makes more sense.

How an Interactive Presentation Enhances the Learning Experience

Whether conducted in person via an interactive touchscreen or downloaded to a trainee’s smart device, an interactive presentation encourages active learning and participation. Trainees can click on hotspots to display further information on the subject—or even answer interactive quizzes at the end of a presentation. Thanks to instant feedback, the answers are available immediately.

Better Engagement

With an interactive presentation, you’ll likely enjoy a superior learning experience compared with conventional lectures or slideshows. After all, they offers enough bells and whistles—like videos and animation—to capture an audience’s attention. In addition, adding elements that offer instant feedback (such as interactive quizzes) can further engage audiences.

Multimedia Integration

Traditional slideshow presentations often feature static images that are meant to provide visual support to learners. However, this might not be enough for training presentations. Learners frequently pick up more information by watching demonstration videos and listening to authority figures talk about the subject. An interactive presentation allows full multimedia integration, such as the ability to insert video clips or audio recordings into the presentation flow. Then, a simple click on the object or link will play the video file.

Dynamic Presentation Flow

Not all presentations require a single starting point, a midpoint and a defined ending. This is especially true for training modules where a trainee may only need one or two modules. An interactive presentation delivers a more freeform approach. Typical slideshow presentations force viewers to go to the next slide or return to the previous one. However, with an interactive presentation, users have the freedom to navigate in any direction. For instance, they can choose to focus on specific modules or go back to an important section and explore additional content.

Real-Time Collaboration

Training presentations are usually a collaborative effort by employees from various departments. Thanks to modern cloud technology, developing an interactive presentation is more efficient, as various users can work on a single document via remote access. This allows creators to share an online draft to the office for checking. Presentation team members can then provide inputs before making it available for training use.

Interactive Presentation Training Use Cases

There are plenty of use cases for interactive presentations within a training environment. Whether it’s internal communication or actual training applications, these will provide an enhanced learning experience—no matter what your industry is.

Meetings

Preparing training materials is an integral part of the process. With an interactive presentation, you can help provide program officers with the information needed to develop a training module. It’s an excellent format for discussing overall training program objectives— which then narrows down to specific training modules. The digital format and real-time collaboration features make sharing and presenting the program easier during project meetings.

Employee Onboarding

An interactive presentation is a great medium for onboarding new employees. Aside from sharing the corporate mission, vision and values statements, interactive elements—such as video messages from company leaders—can add a bird’s eye view of headquarters or even an interactive map that helps instructors explain company operations. On top of that, trainers have the option of adding an interactive quiz or survey at the end of the presentation to gather feedback from students.

Training

Actual training modules might be more formal and technical than other presentation formats. That said, by adding interactive elements, you’ll actually help learners absorb content better. To illustrate, students may be shown a problematic work situation and then asked to select one of two options to resolve the issue. Instant feedback will automatically indicate whether a trainee chose the correct course of action. Furthermore, trainers can include videos of actual work processes to give students a better idea of how the company handles specific tasks.

Case Studies

Similar to training modules, case study presentations provide in-depth information on specific scenarios that employees should be ready to deal with. Here, instructors could introduce actual work footage, making a detailed breakdown of the events that transpired. In addition, they’re able to feature a side-by-side comparison between a successfully resolved situation and a poorly managed one. Optionally, an interactive exercise at the end of the session will test students to see whether they’ve grasped the subject matter completely.

Video Demonstrations

For specific skills training sessions, video demonstrations are an effective way to show and not tell. Aside from video demonstrations, presentation could also include step-by-step instructions, checklists and process flowcharts to thoroughly instruct workers on the proper work process. During the video demonstrations, viewers can activate popup notes that provide added context or share helpful information.

Post-Training Reports

After the conclusion of a training program, instructors can use interactive presentation software to compile training reports. Aside from adding images or videos taken during the courses, creators can include interactive charts and graphs that show crucial training data. Analytics features of advanced presentation software can track and record how much time trainees spend on each slide. The more time spent, the more engaged viewers are with the content. This helps presenters identify which slides got the most attention and which ones need improvement.

Use Ingage for Your Interactive Presentation Needs

Creating the perfect training presentation requires input from multiple players. When it comes to collaborative interactive presentation software, Ingage has all the advantages. As a cloud-based application, Ingage lets team members access and edit a presentation file remotely. This convenient feature means entire teams can connect and collaborate on a single project—from just about any location.

Once completed, Ingage won’t burden your target recipients with time-consuming downloads or clog your hard drive with large files. Instead, your audience will receive a link leading them to an online copy of the presentation. Powerful analytics then monitor each viewer’s engagement with the presentation and generate a report on which slides made an impact and which ones didn’t.

Learn more about how Ingage presentations can help you craft great training experiences for your company. Simply sign up for a free demonstration and we’ll be happy to show you why more than 100,000 Ingage presentations are created every month.