In 2023, only one-third of employees were engaged at work, whereas 16% were actively disengaged. Another concerning trend is the rise of "quiet quitting," where more than half of the U.S. workforce simply meets their job requirements without going the extra mile.
To counteract this, companies need to invest in training their employees, especially since 58% of workers say they would consider leaving their jobs if they didn’t have L&D opportunities. However, traditional, rather boring methods like classroom training are becoming less effective. Organizations are now looking for more innovative team training approaches with the help of new technologies.
One of these new technologies is interactive training software, a tool that allows learners to engage with course material and communicate with peers, making learning more effective. The question is how to choose the software that best suits your needs.
We've put together a list of 8 interactive training tools that enable you to increase employee participation and knowledge retention.
Best for: Creating fun and interactive online learning experiences, especially useful for group learning and team-building activities. The platform is designed to make learning feel like playing a game, encouraging active participation. It caters to professionals from different industries, including hybrid and remote teams, trainers, corporate workers, educators, and event organizers.
Why we recommend it: Slides With Friends stands out for its focus on active participation, which is exactly what modern employee training programs emphasize. Unlike traditional training sessions where employees listen passively, this tool uses slide decks to make lessons more engaging. You can create interactive lessons and courses by uploading PowerPoint presentations and encourage active participation with features like live Q&A, quizzes, polls, charts, graphs, and word clouds. It’s easy to use, with templates ready to go, and you don't need to know how to code. Plus, starting a session is simple – just scan a QR code, and everyone can join in.
Best for: Companies looking to enhance their training across all fields of the organization. Litmos benefits all industries, including retail, healthcare, technology, and nonprofits. It's designed for simplicity and caters to the needs of today's mobile and remote workforce, accessible on any device, at any time. Among its customers are top-performing companies like IBM, Pepsico, and YouTube.
Why we recommend it: This learning management system is designed for fast setup and its goal is to make employee training fun. It includes a vast library of professional video training materials covering different business topics. Litmos also offers custom branding for creating personalized content, along with security and analytics features. Additionally, it incorporates gamification elements to keep users engaged and motivated.
Best for: Looop by 360Learning is a learning management system designed for innovative L&D teams. Its powerful campaign features that enable users to automate training delivery through platforms like Teams, Slack, and SMS are especially useful for companies that need to provide ongoing training or deliver important information on time. Looop is accessible on the web, iOS, and Android and is trusted by companies such as Monzo, Sky, and ASOS.
Why we recommend it: Looop provides personalized learning pathways so users can create customized learning experiences that match their interests and objectives. This helps improve learning results and increases engagement. Additionally, Looop allows users to personalize the platform's appearance, including layout, branding, and language. Features like analytics dashboards and user insights help you track completion rates, identify learning gaps, and monitor overall performance.
Best for: Companies looking for a comprehensive LMS to support employee growth and development. It's ideal for HR and L&D teams who need a user-friendly platform for both learners and administrators. The software ensures employees get the latest training with SCORM compliance and certification. Bridge LMS is used in various industries including healthcare, construction, non-profit, and financial services.
Why we recommend it: Bridge LMS combines learning with career development, performance management, and engagement tracking in one platform. Its built-in editor simplifies content creation and management, allowing users to easily design engaging courses with text, audio, videos, and images. You can also customize course materials with different colors, backgrounds, and fonts. The interactive video feature enables the delivery of professional eLearning videos to improve engagement and knowledge retention. The application also supports peer-to-peer practice and live training sessions, scaling up as your business grows to accommodate your needs.
Best for: Big companies that want to create customized learning experiences. Businesses in industries like healthcare, banking, energy, retail, hospitality, and manufacturing can use EdCast to address important business issues through personalized learning powered by AI.
Why we recommend it: EdCast is an AI-powered platform that helps organizations improve employee training and increase learning engagement. It gives teams access to useful knowledge from various sources and peers. It has great tools like content aggregation, content creation, employee self-service, and AI-based targeting. Learners can access courses and live streams from any device, set goals, and monitor their progress. Employers can also see the team's expertise in real time and identify influential members. Using the detailed analytics reports, you can create customized learning pathways and upskilling courses for each learner. Additionally, employees can share knowledge through articles or video content to encourage social learning.
Best for: Businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies aiming to replicate the traditional classroom experience online. It’s especially useful for businesses wanting to use Adobe's wide range of creative tools.
Why we recommend it: Adobe Connect is a cloud-based conferencing tool that allows you to create customizable experiences thanks to features like branding, remote access, document-sharing, reporting, and analytics. Instructors can create interactive sessions with quizzes, polls, games, simulations, and chat pods. They can also create, edit, and distribute recordings of sessions, and automate indexing for easy searching. Adobe Connect integrates with various applications such as Moodle LMS, Captivate Prime, and Blackboard LMS.
Best for: Teams aiming to improve productivity and efficiency in a user-friendly way. It works well for companies of any size, from startups to large enterprises and non-profits, but especially caters to those that combine project management with ongoing learning and development.
Why we recommend it: ClickUp is a versatile productivity platform that simplifies employee training. It serves as a central hub for teams to plan, organize, and collaborate through features like Tasks, Docs, Goals, Whiteboards, and Chat. ClickUp also offers various features to help teams work smarter, including templates, task management, collaboration tools, time tracking, and more. With its user-centric design, customizable features, and scalable architecture, the software is accessible to users of all technical levels.
Best for: Anyone seeking an online training platform. The software is highly scalable, which means that it can be used by both small teams as well as companies with thousands of employees. SkyPrep is cloud-based and mobile-friendly, supporting various training formats such as self-paced learning, webinars, and in-person classes, even allowing course downloads for offline completion. This is particularly beneficial for businesses with remote workforces facing unreliable internet connections.
Why we recommend it: SkyPrep is an online training tool that enables you to easily create interactive training courses – all you need to do is upload your existing content like Word documents, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, or training videos. Then, use the testing feature to create tests and quizzes with various question styles. The tool also offers workflow automation, multi-tenant LMS, user management, and security. You can also personalize your training platform with options like custom themes, logos, and domain names to match your website. Plus, with real-time performance summaries and analytics, you can keep track of all activity on your platform.
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