Interactive Videos For Training: Reasons Why You Should Choose Using It
There are numerous reasons as to why people are opting for interactive videos for training. To begin with, it’s an incredibly diverse medium that can be applicable to any business. Whether that’s for company training, content generation, or starting a campaign. But besides the fact that it's good for every sector, what other benefits can Learning and Development professionals expect?
Long-Lasting Impressions
Interactive video will make your company identity stand out in an over-crowded tech marketplace. It's inviting and memorable to visitors and according to a Brightcove survey, even more, effective than webinars, case studies, in-person events, and more.
Enhancing User Experience Through Interactive Storytelling
If you can recall ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books, interactive video can work in a similar way. The audience’s choice is a priority and non-linear video gives a greater level of control.
Hotspots or Call to Actions (CTA's) within an interactive video allow the user to click and define their own journey. With divergent narratives and several different endings, we are no longer restricted to a single call to action or User Experience.
Make your learners care about the decisions they are making.
A study by Forrester Research shows that call to actions (CTA’s) inside video see a 5% -12% higher conversion rate over linear video, that only offers CTA’s around video. And as once said by the well-known Chinese philosopher Confucius:
"Tell me, I will forget. Show me, I will remember. Involve me, I will understand."
Research Can Become Data-Driven Practice
Training managers often acquire knowledge unexpectantly with regard to how individuals would respond to different types of interaction. With interactive video, they can add-in and test multiple interactions to improve learning objectives and raise awareness.
A well-structured testing space that supports interactive video will help prevent costly mistakes later on in the design and development process, as well as highlighting the most effective type of content.
Every choice can be tracked and logged back to an LMS. You can use this data to identify the areas which need improvement and those where learners are doing well.
Realistic Decision-Based Scenarios
Learners know what’s likely to happen in their workplace. It's important to implement relevant and realistic training in order to ensure their learning experience comes as close as possible.
Frontline Humanitarian Toolbox, designed by eLearning production company Digital Training Solutions, allowed NGO's and Journalists to train safely while being immersed in a realistic space - as it had been filmed with local actors on the Syria/Irbid border.
The learning content is hosted by an LMS called Near-Life which allows content creators and developers to upload, edit and publish learning modules with interactive video specifically in mind.
Another example is the Hostile Environment Training platform, Hostile World. The interactive online learning platform comprises multiple modules including stress management, pre-deployment, surviving captivity and crisis management. This was designed as a cost-effective alternative to traditional HEAT training which is typically inaccessible to those in hostile environments due to the remote management context.
As the user works their way through branching scenarios, they are presented with several realistic choices that they would be likely to face in the field. A call to action must be made in under 10-seconds.
Repeated Attempts And Microlearning
Sometimes the learner needs to have another go but it's not always ideal for companies to spend on another training day away from the office. Being able to repeat the interactive video builds on knowledge retention, boosts confidence, and reinforces the learning outcome.
The best part of it being stored online is that it doesn’t have to be repeated straight away.
"Compared to non-interactive video that suffers high viewing drop-off rates in the first few minutes, interactive video sees completion rates of 90 percent and above. And since viewers often like to explore all the branches in an interactive video, we see multiple views per unique visitor as well as repeat views for the same video." - Jan Bergen
Last Words
As a training and development professional, you endeavor to find better ways to drive learning—teaching large audiences in an effective manner with hopes they’ll absorb and remember information.
And with budgets being tightened, training needs constantly evolving and high staff turnover, therefore interactive videos for training are a strong tool to have in your arsenal.
