Let's face it: learning can often be a tedious experience, but it's essential for all kinds of situations.

If you're in an environment where you're teaching or training someone, and you can tell they're completely uninterested, it can be a bit of a blow to your pride. To avoid this issue, you must learn how to create more interesting, engaging learning experiences. Once you know how to do that, you'll be able to keep all eyes on you when you're instructing anyone.

In this guide, we'll discuss critical tips for keeping your learners interested as you train them. Let's dive in.

Connect Before Content

One of the most important things you need to do to provide impactful education and training is to connect with your learners. Although quality learning material is crucial, ensuring your learners take it in comes down largely to the connection you have with them.

You want to foster an environment that encourages connections, as this will also help your learners build relationships with one another. All of this will improve learning outcomes.

A straightforward way to do this is to start each session with a question rather than a lecture. You can pose a question and then encourage a discussion about it.

Ideally, you want different people to get involved in the conversation. It should be related to your class in some way, and you can even break the room down into smaller groups to discuss it.

Afterwards, you can have everyone come back and give some input on what they've been over. This will help ensure more people actively engage, and your students will be able to listen to different ideas and viewpoints.

Take Learning Seriously

Most of the time, children aren't too happy about being in a classroom environment, and they'll openly show it. However, things are different when it comes to adult education.

They understand the importance of being there and are more invested in learning. As such, it's crucial to show and prove to them that you're taking their learning seriously.

A serious trainer is committed to helping all of their learners understand whatever is being taught. Take the time to plan things out and provide all of the information your learners need.

Maintain open communication so that your learners can easily ask questions about any topic. Their input can help you determine what's working well and where you can improve your approach. It also shows that you care and are open to taking their thoughts on board.

Make Conversational Content

In some situations, trainers simply stand at the front of a room and talk to their class for the entire duration of the lesson. Whilst this is a reasonable way to provide a lot of information, there's a good chance that many learners won't take too much of this in.

Many believe that 18 minutes is the ideal time to talk when you want people to retain the information you're putting before them. Beyond this, many people struggle to pay attention, making the learning experience less efficient.

To overcome this issue, you can develop your learning programs so that they work in a conversational way. Discussing the content helps break things up, and the added engagement will help your learners absorb all the information. It also helps encourage stronger connections.

Additionally, this can reduce the chances of any confusion. If you're just talking to your learners and someone doesn't understand something, they may hesitate to ask you to explain further. By keeping things conversational, your learners will be more likely to speak up when they're confused, giving you the chance to explain things and ensure they fully understand what you're teaching them.

Acknowledge Contribution to the Learning Process

Encouraging your learners to engage more can be very beneficial, but you must ensure you acknowledge them whenever they do. Show them that you appreciate their involvement and affirm them when they share their viewpoints and ideas with others. This will encourage more of this behaviour, building an environment of collaboration and interaction.

Some people may feel like they don't belong in a particular environment, which can be quite common among adult learners. Therefore, you must show them you're happy about their participation in the overall learning experience. It will make them feel more welcome, and the happier they are to be there, the more they'll get out of your teachings.

Allow Learners to Be the Teachers

If things are going well, then your learners should have a good understanding of the material as you move towards the end of your training sessions. Just before you finish, it can be a good idea to split everyone into small groups and encourage them to share.

You could ask them various questions to get them thinking. For example, you might ask them to look forward to a year from now and share a specific idea, tool, or concept they've learned which they think they'll use. You can then ask them to explain their answer and why they think they'll use it, which can serve as both a learning and teaching exercise.

It's no secret that people learn things better when they teach them. This will help solidify ideas in their mind, resulting in a more experiential learning experience.

Promote Creativity by Inviting a Failure

Although success may be the goal, it's essential for people to understand that it's okay to fail sometimes. Teach them that failure is amongst the best ways to learn, and they shouldn't be afraid to try putting your teachings into action for fear of failure.

Taking risks is critical for growth. In many cases, people learn more from mistakes than anything else, so this can be a great way to help ensure your learners take what you've taught them forward.

Creating the Best Educational Experiences

The tips above will help you create educational experiences that can positively impact and benefit your students. Fortress Learning can help train you to become the excellent educator you strive to be.

We have 14 years of experience teaching online courses and a 95% student satisfaction rate. Take a look at the programs we have available now.

‍