Building a virtual training program is perhaps too deep a topic to cover in a single Quora answer. However, we’ll cover some key considerations that will set you in good stead.

1. Examine where the biggest gaps in people’s knowledge are 

This may sound a little obvious, but it’s all too easily neglected. Which are the knowledge areas that are the strongest, and which will require the most attention? Identifying these will not only help you define where training must be focused, but also the areas where you’d be teaching people things they already know, wasting their time, and boring them.

2. Keep aims in mind and try to avoid information overload 

While a blanket approach to training may ensure nothing is missed out, trying to cover too much in one go may lead to training fatigue. When that happens, vital information may not stick in people’s minds. Always try to be conscious of your subjects’ existing knowledge when choosing what they need to be trained in – and why they need to be.

3. Think about business value and priorities

You can learn where the strengths and weaknesses are by consulting employees but also by analyzing their performance in certain areas of work. This can be especially valuable if you look at these areas of work in terms of your business priorities. If low performance is occurring in relation to a high-value business function or task, then it’s likely that training should be prioritized there.

4. Provide opportunities for demonstrations and practice 

Sometimes simply being told something or having it described to you isn’t enough. Trainees will be more likely to understand and remember if they have the chance to apply their training in practice, or see it demonstrated. Fortunately, with a modern hands-on virtual training platform, it’s now much easier to provide these opportunities, even if your people need to be trained with very specific or complex technology.

5. Keep improving your training  

It’s important to have an up-to-date picture of all your people’s knowledge levels and training needs, so that these can be improved and maintained. But it’s also vital to look at your virtual training program itself in the same way: as something that should always be improved and updated wherever possible. Of course, you can always gain insights into your training program’s effectiveness via polling participants, but a highly sophisticated virtual training platform will also offer analytics capabilities that give you solid, actionable data. You can gain learnings into things such as where trainees most often need additional assistance, how their training journey progresses, and where training can be enhanced.

We hope this has helped you to start thinking about how best to begin your virtual training program.  If you’d like to take the next step, we’ve provided an article that goes into more depth and detail about how to create an effective employee virtual training program.