Over the weekend, I read this post from Trina Rimmer about how she had just purchased an electric sander and was so pleased with how it worked she wanted to use it everywhere. Her point was that sometimes we get so caught up in our favorite tools that we try to use them even when they’re not the right tool for the job. She went on to offer 10 alternatives to elearning.
One of my favorite alternatives to creating a training session or elearning module is the explainer video, and my favorite tool for developing short explainer videos is PowToon. If you’re looking for an alternative to entire training sessions or elearning modules and something that’s just a little different (and in my opinion more engaging) than a pdf handout or flier, you may want to check out PowToon.
Don’t just take my word for it; following are several examples of what you could create fairly quickly:
Example #1: Business Powtoon
An explainer video produced by PowToon. Yes, they’re trying to sell their product (which is something we’re all trying to do – whether trying to sell the value of an upcoming training or simply trying to sell the value of a concept that people need to know or use), but at the same time, it’s a great example of a short, to-the-point explanation of the PowToon concept and value.
Example #2: How to give great presentations. An alternative to PowerPoint, bullet points, boring presentations.
This is a bite-sized chunk of information about presentations and brain science. If you’re preparing an SME to give a presentation, this could be a helpful tool.
I could also see using something like this either just prior to a presentation skills workshop or maybe even a week after, reminding people about what they learned (in an email that also included an evaluation form of the training session and/or a questionnaire about what people have applied to their job since the training session).
Example #3: CleverCommuter
While this particular video is focused on public transit and the Clever Commuter program in the U.K., I could see similar videos being produced to briefly highlight key elements of a new policy or to pique a learner’s interest about a new IT system.
In fact, a year ago my team was asked to help put together a 60-minute session to introduce an audience to a new online record keeping system. When I dug more into the reason behind this session, we realized that a 5-minute video created in PowToon was all that we needed in order to introduce the new system to our audience. The 5-minute video got some of the highest post-event feedback scores of the day, much higher than I imagine any session would have received if we had held the audience captive for 60 minutes to walk through and demonstrate every feature of the new system.
https://youtu.be/NX3PNmjMP4M
Example 4: The Story of a Dreamer
This is an example of a brief PowToon that I put together. Want to share the history of your organization in a more engaging (and perhaps more fun) way? Or perhaps you have an interview coming up for a new L&D position and want to help your application stand out from the crowd.
If you have a couple of hours to play with PowToon, you may find a great alternative to an entire training session or elearning module.
How else could you see the idea of an explainer video being used in your training strategy?
