How to Create Successful Interactive Training Courses

Imagine a workplace where every training session leaves employees energized and eager to apply their new skills. That’s the power of interactive training courses.

Research has consistently shown that students who actively engage in the learning process retain information better than passive learners. But many companies still rely on outdated, one-way training methods that leave employees bored and disengaged.

Using interactive elements like gamification, simulations and group discussions can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your training programs.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create interactive training courses and activities that ultimately lead to better performance. We’ll also cover ways to incorporate interactive training in different areas of your business, such as developing leadership skills, revamping your onboarding process or improving compliance.

If you're short on time here are five interactive ideas for your next training and development course.

Table of Contents

• What Is Interactive Training?
• Benefits of Interactive Training
• How to Create Interactive Training Courses & Activities
• How to Incorporate Interactive Training In the Workplace
• Interactive Training FAQs

What is Interactive Training?

Interactive training is a hands-on learning approach that actively involves participants in the learning process. Instead of passively receiving information, learners engage directly with the course material through activities, discussions and real-world scenarios.

For example, in a customer service training session, participants might watch a video of a challenging customer interaction and roleplay different scenarios to practice decision-making. These activities are an excellent way to make learning more memorable, engaging and effective.

Interactive training can also take a hybrid learning approach. It’s all about learning by doing rather than just listening or watching. It enables employees to immediately apply new knowledge and skills, which prepares them for actual situations they’ll face on the job.

Benefits of Interactive Training

Apart from making learning more fun, interactive training can help your business in dozens of ways. Here’s why interactive training courses win over traditional training methods:

• Boost information retention: When employees actively participate in training and engage multiple senses, they're more likely to recall and apply what they've learned weeks or even months later.
• Increase employee engagement: Interactive training helps employees take a greater interest in courses and activities. Higher engagement also leads to a stronger commitment to applying new skills on the job.
• Improve job performance: By practicing skills in a safe, simulated environment, employees gain more confidence in their abilities and perform better when facing similar situations in their daily work.
• Adapt to different learning styles: Interactive training uses various methods that cater to diverse learning preferences. This means all employees, regardless of their learning style, can effectively absorb and retain the training material.

How to Create Interactive Training Courses & Activities

There’s no one way to develop an interactive training program. You have dozens of options when it comes to planning interactive courses and activities.

You can use a single approach or mix several of them to create a well-rounded interactive learning program that caters to different learning styles and helps your organization achieve its training goals.

Here’s how to create interactive content and training modules that engage employees:

Interactive Training Courses

Interactive training courses are designed to provide in-depth knowledge of a subject or facilitate skill development using a mix of theoretical and interactive elements.

Here are some ways to incorporate interactivity into your training courses:

Infographics

Using interactive infographics as part of your training course is an excellent way to present complex information and make it easier to digest.

Infographics are engaging, data-driven and particularly effective for visual learners. They’re also great for breaking down how-tos and step-by-step processes.

For example, here’s an infographic on conflict resolution that you could use as part of your training courses:

Here are some best practices for using infographics in corporate training:

• Use interactive charts and data widgets instead of plain numbers to present statistics. This can make the core idea behind the data more memorable and impactful.
• Add clickable buttons, links, animated graphics, hover effects, hotspots and rich media to make your infographics interactive. You can easily do so using Visme’s infographic maker.
• Struggling with writing short and snappy copy for your infographics? Use Visme’s AI Writer to turn your ideas into concise bullets or generate original text.

Presentations

Presentations shine in interactive courses because they offer a structured yet flexible approach to delivering training content.

They put trainers in the driving seat by enabling them to guide the learning journey. At the same time, you can incorporate real-time interaction through Q&A sessions, polls, discussions and multimedia content.

Employees can also access training presentations asynchronously through interactive slide decks shared via the company’s Learning Management System (LMS.)

To make your training presentation interactive, add elements like:

• External links to resources and websites
• Internal links that help readers jump from one slide to another
• Videos and animations
• Music, sound effects and audio narration
• Hotspots that reveal additional information upon hover or click
• Interactive charts that display more info when a user interacts with it

You can create an interactive presentation incorporating all the above elements using Visme. Here’s an example you can check out for yourself:

Short Videos

Video is a powerful interactive training tool. You can weave short explainer videos into existing training content like presentations or documents, or share them on their own.

Videos follow a more “show, don’t tell” approach, making them great for visual and auditory learners. They’re handy for demonstrating processes or explaining technical ideas in a more personal, human way.

For example, look at this safety training video from Turkish Airlines:

The animated characters and audio narration make the information easier to consume, understand and retain than a printed card distributed among passengers.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind when creating interactive training videos:

• Start with an attention-grabbing hook that gets viewers excited and tells them what they can expect from the rest of the video.
• Keep videos short to avoid boring watchers with a long-winded lecture. We recommend hitting the sweet spot of under 5 minutes. The Turkish Airlines video above, for example, is just over 3 minutes long.
• Add subtitles or captions to make your video more accessible. Some employees might have hearing problems or prefer to watch in silence, and if you’re a global organization, some might even speak a different language.
• Consider ending your video with a brief recap, a summary of key takeaways and/or a follow-up question to reinforce learning. You could even prompt them to take action through a CTA, such as taking a quiz or assessment.

Visme’s online video maker can help you create interactive training videos that keep learners engaged. You can customize dozens of ready-made video templates, add 3D animated characters and illustrations, record voiceovers or add music. Also, you can create scene-by-scene sequences easily using a timeline editor.

Gamified Learning

Gamification taps into your employees’ natural love for competition and achievement, which does wonders for boosting their motivation. And it makes learning fun!

The idea is to incorporate gaming elements like points, leaderboards and awards in a non-game environment to transform training into an engaging, enjoyable experience. This method is especially effective for ongoing or long-term training programs.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

For example, let’s say you’re conducting sales training in your organization. A gamified learning approach could be to award sales reps with points for correctly answering daily quiz questions about product features. The top performers could receive recognition and small rewards at the end of the week or month.

Branching Scenarios

Branching scenarios present trainees with choices and consequences to help them practice making day-to-day decisions in their jobs in a risk-free environment.

For example, let’s say you're designing a customer service training program. In one of the interactive training modules, you present your team with a scenario: a frustrated customer calls about a delayed shipment.

Employees have three options:

• Offer an immediate refund
• Expedite the shipment at no cost
• Explain the reasons for the delay

As your team navigates through the scenario, they'll experience different customer reactions based on their choices. For example, explaining the delay might lead to further questions or frustration.

Branching scenarios are especially useful for training in areas where judgement and decision-making skills are crucial, such as client-facing, HR and management roles.

Here are some tips for implementing effective branching scenarios in your training programs:

• Help your employees ease into the decision-making process. Start with straightforward scenarios to build confidence, then gradually introduce more complex situations.
• Provide immediate feedback after each decision to reinforce learning, good or bad. Also, conclude each path with a key lesson to tie the scenario back to real-world applications.
• Use Visme's flowchart tools to map out different decision paths. This helps you spot logical issues and refine the scenario before building out the full content. For example, you can build interactive decision trees with Visme and add animations and hotspots to actively engage trainees.

Interactive Training Activities

Quizzes and Assessments

Tests and quizzes are among the most widely used interactive training activities. That’s because they’re highly effective and super easy to build. They not only test knowledge but also help businesses identify areas where employees need more focus.

For example, you might create a quiz on safety procedures for your warehouse team. Include questions about proper lifting techniques, identifying hazards and emergency protocols.

Follow these tips on designing training quizzes and assessments that actually work:

• Include a variety of question types to make your quiz more engaging and collect a range of data for detailed analysis. Have a good mix of multiple choice, true/false and open-ended questions, and keep things fun and interesting.
• Provide immediate feedback during the quiz. When paired with instant explanations for correct and incorrect answers, an interactive assessment can turn into a learning opportunity itself.

Breakout Sessions

Breakout sessions are when you split your team into smaller groups during training. It's a great way to get everyone talking and sharing ideas.

Why does this matter? Because it builds collaborative skills and sheds light on diverse perspectives. Plus, it gives the quieter folks a chance to speak up in a less intimidating setting.

• Before you start, tell everyone exactly what you want them to do. Give them a clear outline or template to follow—it keeps the conversation on track and makes sure you get the results you need.
• Smaller groups mean more chances for everyone to speak up. Aim for 3-5 people per group—it's enough for a good mix of ideas, but not so many that people can hide in the background.
• Assign people specific roles within the group. For example, one person could lead the discussion, while another could take notes. This keeps everyone involved and makes sure the important stuff gets captured.

Collaborative Brainstorming

Group discussions and brainstorming sessions are amazing activities for encouraging teamwork and generating innovative ideas. They’re also useful for building problem-solving skills, as the open exchange of thoughts often leads to insights beyond an individual's capability.

For example, in a leadership training program, you might split your team into small groups and give them a tricky work problem to solve together, like how to improve team morale during a company restructure.

Let them use a digital whiteboard to jot down ideas and encourage everyone to build on each other's thoughts. At the end, each group shares their best idea, which helps spark a great chat about different ways to lead during challenging times.

Remember, this method works best when everyone feels free to contribute without judgment. The real magic happens when ideas start bouncing off each other.

Here are some tips and best practices for productive group discussions:

• Establish some ground rules upfront to keep things positive. Encourage wild ideas, ban criticism during the brainstorming session, and make sure everyone gets a chance to speak. It creates a safe space for creativity to flourish.
• Use color-coding to categorize ideas. It helps you sort through the brainstorm results quickly and spot patterns or themes at a glance.
• Use Visme's mind maps, whiteboards and collaboration tools for brainstorming, especially with remote teams. Let everyone contribute in real-time, and keep ideas organized and visible to all.

Game-Based Learning

This is different from gamified learning, which adds game elements to your regular training content. Game-based learning is when you use actual games for training purposes.

In this interactive training activity, the entire learning experience is structured as a game, with learning objectives baked into the gameplay. This can make even challenging or dry topics more approachable and fun.

For instance, you might create an interactive training game where employees run a virtual store and make decisions that teach them about inventory management and customer service. Of course, you'll need a an extremely agile interactive training software to make this task effortless.

Roleplaying Scenarios

Roleplaying is kind of like trying on different hats at work. Employees can experiment with different approaches to interpersonal situations without real-world consequences.

It’s great for building empathy and improving people skills, like dealing with upset customers or having tough chats with team members.

Here are some tips to excel at this interactive training activity:

• Provide character backgrounds and objectives for each role. Use Visme’s persona templates to build out detailed profiles. You can even create custom 3D characters and animate them for extra interactivity and a personal touch.
• Follow each roleplay with group discussion and feedback. Ask the participants how they felt, what they learned and get input from observers. This helps cement the lessons learned and gives everyone a chance to share insights about the activity.

Roleplaying works because it's active and emotionally engaging. It lets people practice responses in a safe environment before facing similar situations on the job.

How to Incorporate Interactive Training in the Workplace

Want to implement interactive training but not sure where to start? The good news is you can enhance all types of business training with a splash of interactivity.

In this section, we’ll look at several interactive training examples and ways to incorporate it in different areas of your organization.

• Employee Onboarding: Get new hires up to speed quickly with interactive training materials like onboarding presentations, infographics that break down processes and day-to-day tasks, welcome and explainer videos, and short, follow-up quizzes to assess whether they’re ready to get started.

• Compliance Training: Help employees understand company policies and legal requirements with interactive training. Use branching scenarios and roleplaying to turn ethical dilemmas into engaging decision-making exercises. Another idea is to use interactive timelines to visualize and understand regulatory changes.
• Leadership and Management Training: Good leaders have excellent people skills and decision-making abilities. Build these skills with hands-on practice and collaboration, such as through team-building exercises, roleplaying and branching scenarios. You can also organize collaborative whiteboard sessions to encourage creative thinking and strategy development in a group setting.
• Technical Skills Training: Adopting new technologies can help your business stay competitive. Interactive training like video tutorials, step-by-step infographics, AR/VR training and interactive product demos can equip your employees with the specific skills they need to use all of this tech.
• Business Continuity Planning: This prepares your company for potential crises with “what-if” scenarios and practice drills. You can use interactive flowcharts to clearly illustrate emergency response procedures. Teams can also practice problem-solving with roleplaying, virtual simulations and collaborative brainstorming.

• Succession Planning: This involves identifying and developing employees with the potential to become future leaders of the company. Make this process interactive by using quizzes and assessments to analyze employee capabilities, setting up personalized learning paths based on career goals and competencies, and introducing mentorship programs.

• Ongoing Professional Development: Keep your employees’ skills fresh and relevant by organizing regular training sessions that use interactive courses, interactive worksheets, videos, training games, training manuals, workshops and team activities. Make this type of training flexible so people can learn at their own pace.

Once you're done, create a training matrix to track employee progress and evaluate the training to identify any skill gap analysis you may need to address for future trainees.

Interactive Training FAQs

Q.  Why use interactive learning?

Interactive learning boosts engagement and retention by turning passive listeners into active participants. It also helps learners apply new knowledge immediately, which improves their job performance and makes your business more productive in the long run.

Finally, interactive training can adapt to various learning styles, which means it’s more inclusive and effective to implement across large and global organizations.

Q. Why is interactive training better?

Interactive training is better than traditional training because it caters to various learning styles and promotes active participation. It also allows trainees to instantly apply new knowledge and skills, and creates a more engaging learning environment. This leads to higher retention and better on-the-job performance,

Q. What is an interactive teaching example?

An interactive teaching example is a roleplaying exercise where customer service reps practice handling difficult customer scenarios. Participants take turns playing customers and reps, followed by feedback from peers and instructors. This hands-on approach helps develop communication skills in a risk-free environment.

Q. What are interactive activities?

Interactive activities are hands-on exercises that encourage active participation in the learning process. These can include group discussions, simulations, quizzes, problem-solving tasks and digital games. Interactive activities are designed to engage learners, encourage critical thinking and provide practical application of knowledge.

Q. What does successful interactive training look like?

Successful interactive training is all about engaging employees and having them actively participate in the learning process. The training environment is dynamic, with a mix of interactive training tools, courses and activities catering to different learning styles. Participants leave feeling confident about applying their new knowledge and skills on the job.

Q. How do you engage students in interactive learning?

To engage students in interactive learning, use a variety of course materials and activities that appeal to different learning styles, such as videos, discussions, quizzes and group exercises. Additionally, create relevant, real-world scenarios for practice and incorporate interactive elements like gamification to boost motivation and learning.

Design, Share & Manage All Your Training with Visme

Unlike traditional lecture-based courses, interactive training courses can better engage employees and help them retain information for longer. For your business, this translates into a higher training ROI and improved performance over time.

Design interactive training courses and activities easily with Visme. Access editable interactive templates to slash your course creation time in half. Add interactive elements like animations, link and video embeds, hotspots, hover effects, flipbook effect and more.

Visme also offers custom branding and AI-powered tools to help you generate text and images, edit photos, and even editable designs tailored to your unique needs.

But Visme is not just an interactive training software. It’s an all-in-one visual content creation platform that your entire company can use to design stunning, branded content for both internal and external communication.

Schedule a demo now to learn more about how Visme can help training and development teams create high-quality training programs, create interactive content and drive business growth and performance.

Or, sign up for free to start creating interactive content that drives results

Written by Mahnoor Sheikh

Mahnoor is a freelance writer and content strategist for B2B SaaS brands (and a toddler mom). She loves to talk about marketing, sales, branding and visual design. When she’s not working, she’s chilling at home (or the beach), cooking gourmet dinners for her family or traveling the world. She’s currently based in Antalya. Connect with her on LinkedIn or check out her website.