9 Ways to Make Your Training More Interesting

• Quizzes. For long, complicated training, stop periodically to administer brief quizzes on information presented to that point. You can also begin sessions with a prequiz and let participants know there will also be a follow-up quiz. Trainees will stay engaged in order to improve their prequiz scores on the final quiz. Further motivate participants by offering awards to the highest scorers or the most improved scores.
• Small group discussions. Break the participants down into small groups and give them case studies or work situations to discuss or solve. This is a good way for knowledgeable veteran employees to pass on their experience to newer employees.
• Case studies. Adults tend to bring a problem-oriented way of thinking to workplace training. Case studies are an excellent way to capitalize on this type of adult learning. By analyzing real job-related situations, employees can learn how to handle similar situations. They can also see how various elements of a job work together to create problems as well as solutions.
• Active summaries. Create small groups and have them choose a leader. Ask them to summarize the lecture’s major points and have each team leader present the summaries to the class. Read aloud a prewritten summary and compare this with participants’ impressions.
• Q & A sessions. Informal question-and-answer sessions are most effective with small groups and for updating skills rather than for teaching new skills. For example, some changes in departmental procedure might easily be handled by a short explanation by the supervisor, followed by a question-and-answer period and a discussion period.
• Question cards. During the lecture, ask participants to write questions on the subject matter. Collect them and conduct a quiz/review session.
• Role-playing. By assuming roles and acting out situations that might occur in the workplace, employees learn how to handle various situations before they face them on the job. Role-playing is an excellent training technique for many interpersonal skills, such as customer service, interviewing, and supervising.
• Participant control. Create a subject menu of what will be covered. Ask participants to review it and pick items they want to know more about. Call on a participant to identify his or her choice. Cover that topic, and move on to the next participant.
• Demonstrations. Whenever possible, bring tools or equipment that are part of the training topic and demonstrate the steps being taught or the processes being adopted.

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Other Ideas

• Create a personal action plan.
• Raise arguments to issues in the lecture.
• Paraphrase important or complex points in the lecture.

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Benefits of Interactive Training

• Interactive sessions keep trainees engaged in the training, which makes them more receptive to the new information.
• They make training more fun and enjoyable.
• They provide ways for veteran employees to pass on knowledge and experience to newer employees.
• They can provide in-session feedback to trainers on how well trainees are learning.

Things to Keep in Mind

• Interactive sessions can take longer because activities, such as taking quizzes or breaking into small groups, are time-consuming.
• Some methods, such as participant control, can be less structured, and trainers will need to make sure that all necessary information is covered.