Tag: OH&S

Posted on by

WHS Online Training Continued: Enrolment Forms and Exams

EzyLearn can help your business train WHS staff or provide credentialing and inductions.
EzyLearn can help your business train WHS staff or provide credentialing and inductions.

In a previous post we provided you with some tips on how to create a video for your work health and safety (WHS) induction training, which can be delivered online using EzyLearn’s learning management system. In this post, we look at handling enrolments and the most important element of all: testing your staff on their WHS knowledge!

Now that you’ve created your training content and it’s ready to be uploaded onto our learning management system, you need to create a way for people to enrol in your training course, which is accessible from a website.

How to Enrol People in Your Training Course

The easiest way to enrol your staff is to create an online enrolment form that either links to our learning management system where the person is automatically enrolled, or a more basic enrolment form that requires someone to manually enter the person’s details into our learning management system. The option you choose is largely dependent on the size of your organisation.

There are plenty of web-based form builders available that you can use to create your enrolment form, each varying in features and flexibility. If you’re looking for something that’s free, the Google Apps marketplace offers some fairly basic form-building software; there’s also Wufoo, which counts micro-blogging site, Twitter as one of its clients (along with us at EzyLearn!); if you’re looking for optimum flexibility, however, try Formsite.

Once you’ve created an enrolment form, you can use that same form-building software to create the exam your staff will need to complete in order to pass their induction training. It’s best to use a multiple-choice format for your exam, and try to keep the questions as simple as possible — in a real-world scenario, a person will need to respond to a potential safety risk quickly, so you want them to be as prepared as possible.

Have People Had the Requisite Training? Why You Need a Credentialing System

If your organisation has a lot of contractors coming and going on a daily basis, it may be necessary to have a credentialing system on your site. A credentialing system requires visitors to sign in upon arrival at your site to verify whether they’ve had the necessary WHS training.

***

EzyLearn has recently partnered with EzyAccess to provide a suite of options in the area of WHS training. This means that we can provide businesses with the means to induct and train their own staff and also verify and credential visitors to their site.

For more information on how EzyLearn can help your business with your WHS needs, contact us.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

How to Engage Your People in WHS Training

An online video effectively engages your audience for training purposes.
An online video effectively engages your audience for training purposes.

We recently wrote about why it’s important for all small businesses to have their work health and safety (WHS) procedures up-to-date, particularly their induction training. Being that EzyLearn is in the learning business, and in particular, the online learning business, we’re able to facilitate your induction training via our learning management system.

If you employ staff, whether they are contractors or consultants, WHS training should be a major priority for your business. Providing your staff with online induction training is the easiest way to ensure your training materials are correct and up-to-date.

Create Training Videos

Because everyone’s learning style is different, we’ve found that the best way to guarantee engagement is to create a training video, which is then complemented with some form of written materials. Here are some of our tips for creating training videos:

Watch the clock: The key to a good training video is length. Try to keep your training videos short and sweet — ideally less than two minutes long — as people are sometimes turned off by the prospect of watching a 15-minute video. Shorter videos also load quicker, which is helpful for people with slow internet connections. For topics that are long, split them up into a combination of videos and written content.

Be engaging: Don’t just set up a camera tripod and film yourself writing on a white board — there is a reason so many people fall asleep during university lectures! It’s boring! Instead, put together a PowerPoint presentation and record audio over the top or try out some other presentation software, like Prezi.

Pace yourself: The average person can speak 150-160 words per minute (WPM), but for instructional videos you should try to reduce this to about 110 WPM to ensure people are able to grasp all of the information you’re providing. Don’t fall into the trap of speaking too slow, however. Slow-talkers — around the 90-100 WPM mark — project lethargy and can frustrate listeners. Given the choice, most people prefer a fast-talker — like President John F Kennedy, who was notorious for topping 200 WPM — than a slow-talker.

Don’t be afraid to go off script: Having a script is important, but scripts are rigid and boring. Run through your script a few times before you record your audio to iron out any clunky parts. It’s good to remember that people don’t speak the way they read, so you should avoid sentences that are too verbose, which stops the narration from flowing fluidly. As for those awkward pauses while you’re trying to find your place in your script: they’re annoying! Don’t be afraid to ad lib!

***

If you’re interested in finding out how EzyLearn can help you provide your WHS training material online, contact us.