Estimated reading time: 13 minutes
Learners see a video, maybe answer a quiz or two. They click through a lesson and perhaps they join a webinar, download a resource or receive a certificate at the end. but behind this apparently simple experience, however, there can be a surprisingly sophisticated collection of technologies working together. My hope is to make you aware of these technologies to help provide ideas for your next online training course.
A good Learning Management System (LMS), video hosting, interactive content, quizzes, analytics, automation, webinar software, AI tools and integrations can all contribute to your learner’s experience. When they work well, the technology almost disappears. Which, in my view, is exactly what good technology should do. This was my view even back in my days as a video editor.
The learner should be thinking about the subject they are learning, rather than wondering why the video won’t load or where they are supposed to click next. For trainers and training managers creating online training courses, understanding what sits behind the learner experience can help you make much better decisions about the technology you use.
And with online learning technology developing rapidly, some of the options available today would have seemed rather ambitious only a few years ago.
The Learning Management System remains the central piece of technology for most online training courses and it doesn’t have to be overly complicated to help you deliver solid, effective online training courses. Your LMS handles the things learners and trainers need every day. Course access, user accounts, lesson organisation, progress tracking, assessments, certificates, reporting and, depending on the platform, payments and membership management.
That being said, an LMS is so much more than simply a digital filing cabinet for your courses.
Modern platforms can connect with other systems and services, allowing trainers to build a much broader learning experience around their course content. Standards such as Learning Tools Interoperability, or LTI, allow learning platforms to connect with external tools while supporting secure data exchange and user access.
This matters particularly for businesses.
A training manager might want an LMS connected to company HR systems, CRM software, webinar platforms, payment systems or internal reporting tools. Instead of maintaining several disjointed systems, the idea would be to create an online training environment where information can move between the systems that the organisation already uses.
In my opinion, this is one of those areas where investing in the right LMS architecture up front can save a bunch of headaches later – and that is where the practice of “making technology our friend” can pay off most.
Video has become one of the main ingredients in online training courses, and for good reason. A trainer can demonstrate a procedure, explain a complex concept, interview a subject matter expert or walk learners through a real-world scenario much more naturally on video than through several pages of text.
The technology behind video delivery has also improved considerably. Streaming platforms, adaptive video delivery, captions, transcripts and mobile-friendly playback make it much easier to deliver professional training to people using different devices and connection speeds.
But here’s my slightly unfashionable opinion:
A 45-minute talking-head video isn’t automatically a good online course simply because it has been professionally filmed (or even doctored by a professional video editor). In fact, sometimes it can be a 45-minute lecture wearing an e-learning hat unless we take advantage of the technology available to us.
The real opportunity comes when video becomes part of a wider learning experience. That is where interactive video becomes particularly interesting.
If you work in online training and haven’t looked seriously at H5P, I think you’re missing one of the more useful tools available to course creators. I’ll admit when I used it at first, I wasn’t a big fan but that was 7 years ago and H5P has improved dramatically since then and now I have to say that I am on board with the direction of this free tool.
H5P allows trainers to create interactive content including quizzes, presentations, branching scenarios, timelines, interactive video and other multimedia activities. It can also integrate with platforms including Moodle and WordPress.
Interactive Video is particularly useful. Instead of asking a learner to watch a video passively, you can place questions, text, images, links and other interactions directly into the video experience. H5P describes the format as a way of adding interactive elements over video while the learner watches.
Imagine a compliance course:
That’s a fundamentally different experience from watching the trainer talk for another ten minutes and then answering five questions at the end. H5P also supports a wide range of quiz formats. Question Sets can combine multiple-choice, drag-and-drop and fill-in-the-blank questions, while other H5P formats can provide immediate feedback to learners.
I’ve put a few of our H5P examples here so you can see how this might work in a real-life course: Interactive Videos
For trainers, this creates an interesting middle ground between conventional video and fully custom e-learning development. You can use video that you have already produced, then add meaningful interactions around it. That can make existing training content considerably more useful.
Just a few examples of areas where technology can have a meaningful impact on your learners’ experience:
Interactive Video:
Put questions, explanations and clickable content directly into training videos. Learners have to think about what they are watching rather than simply letting the video play.
Scenario-Based Learning:
Use branching scenarios to let learners make decisions and see different outcomes. H5P can create branching experiences where learner choices determine what content appears next.
Instant Feedback:
Give learners immediate feedback while they are learning. This makes mistakes useful because the learner can understand what went wrong before moving on.
There was a time when an online course consisted of several lessons followed by a quiz at the end. That approach still has its place, particularly where formal assessment is required, but modern online training courses can use assessment throughout the learning journey.
H5P’s range of content types makes this relatively accessible to trainers who don’t want to become programmers. Its Question Set content can combine different question types and provide customised feedback, including video feedback.
This has to be one of the biggest advantages of modern course technology. You don’t necessarily need a huge development team to introduce meaningful interaction. You need a good learning idea first, then the technology can help you deliver it.
Self-paced learning can be incredibly convenient, but there are those subjects where learners might benefit more from talking to an expert. That is where incorporating webinars into your online course building can really pay off.
A trainer can deliver a live session, demonstrate something on screen, answer questions and respond to issues as they arise. Learners can also interact with one another rather than working completely alone. Modern webinar platforms have moved well beyond basic video conferencing.
For example, Zoom Webinars supports polls, chat, Q&A, reactions and reporting. Its Q&A functionality allows attendees to submit questions that hosts and panelists can answer during the event, while reports can be generated afterwards. That makes webinars useful as part of a wider online training programme rather than as standalone events.
You could have a learner complete a self-paced module on Monday, attend a live webinar on Wednesday and complete an interactive case study afterwards. Suddenly you have a blended learning experience without asking everyone to sit in a classroom.
Goster can help you to develop online training courses which integrate webinars and interactive video into your training approach. Learn more about how we do this for our clients during your free discovery chat
Live Q&A:
Give learners the opportunity to ask questions about the subject while an expert is available. Those questions can also reveal where your course content needs clarification.
Polls and Quizzes:
Use live polls to test understanding, gather opinions or introduce a discussion. Learners get an active role in the session instead of simply watching a presentation.
Reusable Content.
Record a webinar and turn useful sections into future course resources, short videos or revision material. A single live session can therefore become part of your wider content library.
Text still matters. In fact, good online learning often depends on clear written explanations. But learners don’t have to consume everything through paragraphs and PDFs. Modern online training courses can combine video, audio, diagrams, animation, interactive graphics, presentations, downloadable resources, quizzes and scenario-based activities.
The trick is knowing why you’re using each format:
Technology definitely gives us more options but it doesn’t necessarily remove the need for instructional judgement. That is still our responsibility as course builders!
Like it or lump it, artificial intelligence is now appearing at almost every stage of online course development. Course authors can use AI to brainstorm lesson structures, generate draft questions, simplify complex explanations, create alternative versions of content and help identify gaps in a course.
Some authoring platforms are already building AI directly into their workflow. Articulate, for example, now positions AI features within Rise to help generate blocks, images and knowledge checks while keeping the course creator in control. Admittedly, Articulate is perhaps one of the most overpriced and overrated tools in online course development but I do think their “AI for the gaps” distinction matters.
AI can help you produce content faster, but I wouldn’t hand the entire course to AI and expect good training to magically emerge…it doesn’t. Just have a quick scroll of Linkedin and see for yourself!
That question alone can save more development time than any AI tool that I know of. If you’re serious about growing your online training business, we can help – sometimes just a quick chat to get pointed in the right direction can be helpful. Or you may find you need a bit more of a boost than that with your online training courses or LMS. Reach out to us today for a free, no obligation 15 minute introductory chat.
One of the biggest advantages businesses gain from online training courses is the data. Traditional classroom training can tell you who attended. A properly configured online learning platform can tell you considerably more.
You can potentially see who started a course, where learners stopped, which assessments caused problems, which resources were accessed and how learners performed across different modules.
This gives training managers something extremely useful. Evidence.
If 82% of learners complete a module but only 48% successfully pass the assessment, perhaps the assessment needs attention. Or, if almost everyone abandons a particular video after four minutes, perhaps the video needs restructuring. How about if learners repeatedly get the same scenario question wrong, perhaps the subject itself needs a better explanation?
This is where technology becomes useful for improving the course rather than simply delivering it.
The most interesting online training courses increasingly sit inside a wider digital ecosystem.
The LMS manages the course.
→ The video platform delivers the media.
→ H5P provides interaction.
→ The webinar platform handles live sessions.
→ Analytics show learner behaviour.
→ AI can assist with content creation and support.
These Integrations connect the learning platform with other business systems. Standards such as LTI are designed to make those connections easier and more secure. For larger organisations, that connectivity can become particularly important.
A new employee might be added to an HR system, automatically receive access to relevant online training courses, complete the training, generate a result and have that information passed back into the organisation’s reporting systems. For an independent trainer, the requirements might be much simpler.
Perhaps you need a professional website, an LMS, payment processing, automated enrolment and a library of interactive courses. The principle remains the same. The technology should support the training business rather than dominating your training business.
This is probably my biggest piece of advice for trainers and training managers. Technology can be seductive but she is harsh mistress! (I stole that line from an old episode of “The Tick”) There’s always another platform, another AI tool, another interactive widget and another feature promising to transform online learning. You don’t need all of them. Before adding technology to your online training courses, ask what you want the learner to do differently because the technology exists.
The technology behind online training courses has come a long way, but the principle remains fairly simple. Good technology should make it easier for people to learn, practise and apply what they have been taught. H5P interactive video, quizzes, webinars, multimedia, AI, analytics and modern LMS platforms all give trainers more ways to achieve that, but none of them can replace good training design. From what I’ve seen, the strongest online training courses are the ones where the technology feels almost invisible because it fits naturally into the learning experience.
For trainers and businesses, that creates an opportunity to take existing knowledge and turn it into training that is more flexible, measurable and engaging, while giving learners a much better experience than simply watching a series of videos and clicking through a quiz. The technology is there. The real skill is knowing how and when to use it. Reach out to us for a free 15 minute discovery call to explore your options for integrating useful technology into your online training courses.
Let us show you the many options available to you to create a manageable, affordable, scalable online course—no obligation.