7 Tips to Make Online Compliance Training Exciting and Entertaining

Nov 21, 2014 | Articles

This article features 7 top tips to make online compliance training exciting, entertaining, and engaging, so your employees can stay up-to-date with company’s regulations and policies without being bored to tears!

How To Make Online Compliance Training Exciting and Entertaining

Let’s face it, “fun” and “exciting” aren’t usually the first words that come to mind when you think about online compliance training. In fact, for many employees, the mere thought of compliance training may bring back memories of endless hours spent clicking through boring modules or watching countless videos featuring dry scripts. The good news is that, believe it or not, compliance training can actually be entertaining.

1. Learn as much as possible about your audience beforehand.

Before you begin creating your online compliance training development strategy, you’ll probably want to get a clear sense of exactly who your audience is. What is their educational and professional background? Do they have a great deal of knowledge and experience in the industry, or are they newcomers? What do they consider to be fun or entertaining? You can get the answers to all of these questions through surveys, interviews, or simply by observing them on the job. You can also ask the company to provide you with a profile of a “common” employee, so that you can determine which eLearning design elements and multimedia tools would be ideal additions to your online compliance training courses.

Another important part of your compliance training research should be to determine the core compliance policies and procedures. Find out how much of the subject matter has already been covered in previous training modules and which pieces of information are entirely new. This can help to differentiate between the content that simply needs to be refreshed within the employees’ minds and that which needs to be newly acquired and absorbed.

2. Up the fun factor with games and simulations.

Who wouldn’t like to play games instead of just sitting for another training course? The great news is that you can give your employees the best of both worlds by integrating gamification in your LMS and including simulations that are still informative and relative. Create a game where employees can only advance to the next level once they’ve answered a series of questions about compliance issues. Alternatively, you can have them participate in an interactive simulation wherein they have to carry out a task or process based upon company’s rules and regulations, which offers the real world experience minus the risk.

3. Integrate videos that feature an entertaining storyline and characters.

Why not integrate a video that brings the subject matter to life and makes it fun and engaging? You can create an entertaining story line and characters that employees can actually relate to. By doing this, you create a wholly immersive experience, in which the subject matter is delivered in such a way that the employees may not even know that they are absorbing new knowledge or concepts. These videos can feature live actors, cartoons, or even just slides that consist of still images and an audio narrator.

4. Incorporate real world scenarios that are exciting and still educational.

Interactive scenarios give employees the opportunity to make choices that lead to rewards or consequences. Hence, they are ideal tools for making online compliance training fun, given that employees will automatically develop an emotional connection with the situation or problem being discussed. Though they are aware of the fact that their decisions within the scenario will not have a direct impact upon their lives outside of the virtual environment, they can also see the real value in the online compliance training process thanks to the fact that it ties into real world applications. This can make the online training experience exciting and challenging, which makes it more meaningful and productive for everyone involved.

5. Don’t be afraid to give them a good dose of humor.

One of the most effective ways to make online compliance training fun is to add in a touch of humor. That’s not to say that you should go overboard and overshadow the compliance subject matter with jokes and funny stories. However, you can offer your employees a small dose of humor by integrating the occasional lighthearted character banter, a witty comment, or even a real world example that features humorous elements. Remember that the humor should be positive, motivational, and always in-line with what is culturally appropriate.

6. Break the online compliance training down into digestible modules.

The most challenging aspect of online compliance training for most employees is the sheer abundance of content that they must absorb. Lengthy modules, large blocks of text, and seemingly endless assessments will only bore them and will make the online training experience less pleasant. On the other hand, if you break the content up into more digestible modules and bullet point key pieces of information, you will avoid cognitive overload and you will make the online compliance training more enjoyable and fun. Design bite sized modules that can be consumed in less than half an hour, so that employees can complete them on the go, or wherever and whenever it’s convenient for them.

7. Use a character to serve as a relatable guide.

Incorporating a character into the online compliance training courses offers you the chance to not only make the compliance training course more interactive, but also to boost knowledge retention and comprehension. This guide can serve as a narrator, a facilitator, or even as someone who offers helpful compliance tips along the way. Take the time to really develop the character, if you decide to go this route, and ensure that your target audience can relate to it and that it can in fact add value to the online compliance training, instead of providing an unnecessary distraction.

With these online compliance training tips, you can transform even the most boring subject matter into a truly exciting and educational experience for your corporate audience. By making mandatory compliance training fun and engaging, you give the employees the opportunity to forget that they’re actually learning, which is when the real knowledge acquisition and retention takes place.