How learning portals help boost engagement for successful external training initiatives
Posted on the October 1st, 2024
Successful external training initiatives require more than just delivering content—they demand active engagement. Learning portals have become a powerful tool to foster that engagement, offering a centralised, user-friendly platform where users can access, track, and personalise their learning journey.
From interactive features to on-demand content, learning portals not only streamline training processes but also provide a more dynamic and immersive experience.
In this blog, we’ll explore how leveraging a learning portal can boost engagement, ensuring the success of your external training programs.
What are external training initiatives?
An external training initiative is typically a programme designed to inform individuals or partners outside an organisation to improve their skills, knowledge, and understanding of a specific topic.
In the public sector, they are often targeted at tackling some of the biggest challenges in our society and can encompass a wide range of critical areas, such as public health and well-being campaigns, suicide prevention training, sustainability training and skills development for key sectors of the economy.
In the private or commercial sector, external initiatives can be about reaching out beyond the employee bubble. This can be in areas such as pre-induction courses for new hires, training and support for distribution partners and using marketing as learning to engage with customers (in areas such as mental health and wellbeing) to advance your organisation’s purpose.
The common thread of external training initiatives?
A need to deliver purposefully constructed, accessible and engaging learning experiences to diverse and dispersed audiences.
The role of learning portals in external training
A learning portal is a custom learning platform type that collates and curates learning content, resources and interactive features to achieve one or more learning goals.
Think of learning portals as a learning website, where you have free rein to structure and present your learning content in the way you think is best for your audience and your goal. The freedom and purpose of a learning portal is something that sets it apart, particularly for those key initiatives that need those characteristics.
Traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS), are often designed for internal training or employee development, and work well for this specific purpose/use case. Aurion Learning offers great LMS options for organisations working in those areas.
However, while some learning management options provide some ability to engage and tailor for external initiatives, in general, LMS platforms are geared and configured around support for numerous competing priorities. Learning portals, on the other hand, are themed and structured around the specific needs of what is often a single topic/audience or a group of topics on a single theme. They provide a structured and engaging environment that enhances learning outcomes by focusing on what the learner needs to progress, along that specific learning journey.
Learning portals have emerged as a powerful solution, offering a flexible, scalable approach to the delivery of external learning or training, offering a one-stop-shop for users to access a wealth of resources to up-skill and improve their knowledge.
Key features of learning portals
Learning portals come equipped with a host of features that make them uniquely suited to help drive engagement and improve knowledge retention in external training initiatives:
Highly tailored, user-friendly interface (UI)
A well-designed user interface is crucial for keeping learners engaged. The UI of a learning portal is built around the needs of your initiative audience.
What is most important? What should be front and centre? What else does your audience need to see/do/explore? An intuitive layout designed around learner needs simplifies navigation, making it easy for users to find relevant content and easily progress their learning without frustration.
Personalised, adaptive learning
One of the standout features of learning portals is the ability to offer personalised learning paths. Adaptive technologies and profiling within the portal can adjust content delivery based on the learner’s progress, ensuring that each individual receives training that is personalised to their needs, their role and at a pace they are comfortable with.
Interactive content
To keep learners engaged, interactive elements such as quizzes, simulations and gamification can be integrated into the learning experience. These tools not only make learning more enjoyable but also help to reinforce knowledge by encouraging participation in all aspects of the training initiative.
At Aurion Learning, we utilise our innovative design framework, Aurion High5 to embed modules in our learning portals, giving a seamless web-style experience for engaged, initiative-based learning.
Progress tracking and feedback
Effective learning can be empowered by regular feedback for both the learner and the organisation delivering the learning. Learning portals include tracking and reporting tools that allow learners to monitor their progress and receive instant feedback on their performance. This helps learners stay on track and improves overall knowledge retention. At the same time, organisations get a live reporting mechanism on portal engagement and overall completion stats, helping to prove effectiveness and overall ROI – great for making refinements and for demonstrating success.
Customisation beyond LMS capabilities
Unlike traditional LMS platforms, learning portals offer unmatched customisation. Learning portals can be fully branded and configured to align with your training initiative's specific goals and messaging. This flexibility is essential for projects that require a focused approach, such as time-sensitive public health campaigns or targeted corporate training programmes.
Learning Portals in practice
Let's explore how a learning portal has helped the Food Safety Authority of Ireland scale the reach of its training initiatives and improve engagement and knowledge retention.
Before implementing a learning portal, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) had already established a solid foundation for delivering training to their stakeholders across Ireland, with learning content scattered across multiple platforms.
While the existing system served its purpose, FSAI sought to further improve how they delivered food safety training and worked alongside Aurion Learning to help make it happen. FSAI wanted to create a more consistent learning experience for their stakeholders, while also improving overall learner engagement and increasing flexibility to scale more effectively as demand increased.
With the introduction of a custom-built learning portal from Aurion Learning, FSAI was able to centralise its training resources into a single, one-stop-shop solution. The new portal provides a personalised and device-neutral learning experience, ensuring that all users, whether businesses or food inspectors, now have consistent access to relevant courses and resources. Importantly, the new portal was designed and delivered to complement the existing food safety training from FSAI. This shift not only streamlined the training process but also significantly enhanced engagement and knowledge retention among learners.
The portal recorded a substantial increase in learner engagement, with over 51,000 food businesses and inspectors across Ireland now having access to a web-style learning experience, available anytime and across any device.
Let's start a conversation
If you’re planning your next learning initiative and are not sure where to begin, get in touch with Aurion Learning today.
Our content-led learning portals enable you to showcase your learning as you need, designing them around your vision, your content needs and our expert recommendations – whether you have one key initiative or many. With a customisable, scalable and cost-effective solution, learning portals enable organisations to deliver targeted and impactful training to diverse audiences.
