Online learning is exciting, but if you are still questioning the benefits - or if you have someone close to you you want to convince - here you will find five points about why you should also jump on the bandwagon.

When online learning has teacher-led elements, it is called hybrid education, i.e. there are both synchronous and asynchronous parts. This article focuses on what we call web-based training, e-learning or online training, that is, training or sections that are primarily designed to be self-paced and that are available completely independent of time and place.

Flexible

Online training is independent of time and space, which makes it very flexible for those taking the course. In a company, it can be employees who are given the opportunity to catch up after an absence, or offer introductions to newly hired people at irregular intervals.

Available

With a learning management system and associated web-based training that is available around the clock, you have a knowledge bank that offers knowledge when someone needs it and which also provides opportunities for repetition.

Level-adjusted

In online training, the course participants can control the pace themselves and adapt it to their level of knowledge. Those who do a training for the first time may need more time to absorb the content than those who already have prior knowledge and in both cases this level adjustment is a great advantage.

Consistent

In many training contexts, it is a great advantage to be able to give the same message to everyone. An employee who starts six months after the last employee should receive the same introduction as his or her predecessors, regardless of what resources are available at the time. Through online training, you can make it consistent for all course participants.

Quality assured

An online training can be reviewed by different people during production, which gives the advantage that the quality is assured before the course participants sees the material. Another important aspect of the quality assurance is the ability to adapt accessibility and make it possible for course participants with different needs to absorb the content.

Yes, there you have it! The next time someone asks or wants to talk about the benefits of digital learning, you know that when online training is at its best, it is flexible, available, level-adjusted, consistent and quality assured.

How do you get started offering online training? Many have realized the benefits of offering self-paced training that can be reused and shared with course participants without special adaptation, that is, what is called e-learning, web-based training, or online training. This article describes how to do this in three steps.

Plan the content of the training

The first step consists of making a script of what should be included based on learning goals or business goals. What content is needed for the course participants to succeed the training? Make a simple table of contents or why not formulate the exam questions. In online training, it is extra important to have a common thread and a clear structure, as the course participant will go through the material on their own without anyone explaining and clarifying. Divide the material into short sections and be consistent in always having an introduction and an end. Remember to make delimitations - everything you can think of about the subject should probably not be included in the training.

The planning can be done in any way - by hand, in Word or in PowerPoint. Choose the way and the tool that you feel most comfortable with.

Produce section by section

The second step is the most technical. Now you will take the step to make your training digital and possible to distribute via the learning platform Sparkfore. Here are three formats and methods that work on the web:

• If you have documents that are to be included in the training, you should save them as pdf files before uploading them. Some advantages of pdf files are that they can be displayed directly in the browser (unlike Word or PowerPoint files that the course participant needs to download and then open on their computer) and that they are more difficult to change than Word and PowerPoint files. Keep in mind that the course participant can save the pdf file - great if it is a checklist or a similar tool that you want to share - but perhaps worse if it contains information that you should update from time to time because the course participant probably keeps their original file and misses the update.
• Video is a great way to show, tell and convey information. In its simplest form, you can record with your mobile phone or make a screen recording on your computer. If you use Microsoft Teams, you can hold a meeting with yourself where you share a screen and record the meeting. With the different presenter mode settings, you can choose to be seen in the image while going through a presentation. There is also a screen recording tool in PowerPoint. The videos can then be uploaded directly to the learning platform or embedded.
• But what would training be without offering the course participants to be activated? Documents and video are examples of information transfer where the recipient will be passive. But we also want to give the course participants the opportunity to get active. If you are going to do interactive exercises, where course participants can answer questions, drag and drop or click to read more, we recommend the powerful H5P program that is built into Sparkfore. With H5P, you can create slide shows that work on the web (unlike, for example, pptx files). Contact us for more advice on how to produce content in H5P.

Publish the online course

The third and final step is to invite course participants to test. Start by going to the course messages and activating the welcome mailing. You can decide whether to send it as an e-mail or SMS and, if needed, change the text of the default message. Then add users and let them go through the course. Gather feedback and fix any issues, but do not let the test pilots' wish list become an obstacle to getting started for real. Regard this online training as a first version and remember that you can always improve further later. The important thing is to get started and get the material out there.

Good luck!

Training needs to be adapted to different requirements and situations. As an educator, you have probably more than once experienced how one and the same course can have different outcomes from one opportunity to another, based on which students you have met, based on requests from the person who ordered the course or perhaps based on your own daily form.

Today, many expect a digital alternative to classroom training. The benefits of digital learning are many, not least the flexibility for the students who are in constant motion. Most educators have already begun their digitalisation journey by holding distance education and offering digital exercises. A natural further step is to gather your educations, regardless of format, in a digital learning platform to simplify and streamline your work.

Sparkfore is a software for producing and distributing digital learning. The software is based on the world’s most used learning platform, Moodle, but is tailored to meet the needs of small and medium-sized educational organizations.

Power with cloud solution

Sparkfore is a scalable software that is delivered as a cloud solution. Thanks to this, the platform can go up and down in performance and speed, adapted to the traffic flow, as well as provide increased capacity as the data grows, that is, when you add more courses and users. This means that all course participants can have a good user experience.

Effiency through automation

Sparkfore has automatic functions e.g. sends welcome messages to those who have been added to a course, send reminders to those who have not completed a course and issues certificates when the course is complete in order for you to save time on administrative tasks. The learning platform also allows you to add content by copying a course or creating from a template.

Step by step

Scalability also means that you have the opportunity to start small and grow into the new way of working. Choose the learning offer that has the greatest potential and start there. Well-chosen and small steps at a time can put things in motion, which leads to a positive effect. Demand can increase, you can resell the same courses several times over and work more cost-effectively.

Also, be sure to use the power of data and analysis by making time to go through the statistics that the learning management system records. Make sure to systematize the follow-up and build on what customers like, which will increase your competitiveness.

Do you want to know more? Contact us for a demo.

As an educator, you are used to meeting course participants or learners with a varied level of knowledge and adapting your training to the needs of the target group. Taking the step to digitize your learning offer is not about replacing the valuable work you already do, but to enable digital complements that make your everyday work more efficient.

Sparkfore is a software for producing and distributing digital learning. The software is based on the world’s most used learning platform, Moodle, but is tailored to meet the needs of small and medium-sized organizations. Here are three steps that will help you as an educator to make your learning offer more effective.

Add your courses to a learning platform

With Sparkfore, you can offer trainings in a flexible and modern way online. Your courses can consist of teacher-led trainings, and / or online trainings for self-study. A wide and varied offer gives an attractive impression to your customers.

The benefits of a digital learning offer are many. For the learners, it is mainly about the flexibility of being able to choose when and where you engage in the training, but also the opportunity to adapt the training to your level of knowledge and to be able to repeat or access information when you need it. For you as an educator, it is, for example, about being able to reuse materials and ensure uniformity, i.e. providing the same message to all students.

Give learners access

Sparkfore gives you the opportunity to train an unlimited number of people, while you can be sure that only those you have added will have access to the material. Each learner gets their own user profile that can access one or more courses based on their need.

Follow up on results

Sparkfore registers the learner’s progression and keeps track of which persons have access to which courses. The learning platform has automatic functions such as welcome messages to those who have been added to a course, reminders to those who have not completed a course and issues certificates when the course is approved in order for you to save time on administrative elements.

Do you want to know more? Contact us for a demo.