Cartoons or animated videos have gained acceptance of viewers across age groups. Rich visuals and the ease to convey messages have made animated movies a popular genre. It made its entry to other domains like advertisement, marketing and awareness building as well for the same reasons. Use of animated videos has made its big entry into corporate training too.
It is high time that POSH Training, which is mandatory for Indian organizations, makes use of the immense potential of animated videos. Screen-cast production, which is used for POSH training, is slowly giving way to animated videos as they are more effective and require lesser resources. Continue reading for a few more reasons to adopt animated videos into your corporate training on sexual harassment.
Animation is a Tone Setter
If you have not noticed already, animations are effective tone setters in a course. Use of the right elements helps to connect with learners’ emotions. Semi-realistic characters with a simple background music and everyday conversations can appeal the adult audience. Motion graphics and whiteboard animation too are engaging. Be careful not to overwhelm the learners with more-than-necessary animation and a screen filled with text. Avoid flamboyant infographics and poorly recorded audio as they can distract the learners.
Lighten the situation
Animations sometimes lighten the situation. Situations that are graphic, especially for a topic like POSH, when shown with live action actors can make people uneasy. It is easy to portray characters in negative light or show sensitive topics using animated videos as the users know that it is fictional. Animations are visually engaging ensuring that the learners stay focused.
The Power of Scenarios
Character animations combined with conversations help in creating impactful scenarios which are likely to occur in workplace. Semi-realistic animated characters can be used to differentiate between what is sexual harassment and what is not, explain various subtle ways employees are harassed in the organizations, explain the complaint and investigation procedures and assess the understanding of the user. Use of relevant backgrounds and conversations that happen in everyday interactions help the learners relate with the content making them actively participate in learning.
Ease the Complexity
Animated videos are known for their ability to break down complex information into simpler understandable materials. POSH training is a complex topic because of the various legal definitions and terms involved in it. It also requires high accuracy as it a compliance training. Use of animated videos makes it easier to explain terms like primary and extended workplace or difference between hostile work environment and quid pro quo. Click here if you are looking for an engaging and legally curated POSH training.
Better Knowledge Retention
While the primary objective of POSH training is to tell employees about the acceptable behaviour in the workplace, it cannot be achieved unless the content is engaging. Animation can do both: keep learners engaged and impart knowledge. This is because animation can use several attention-grabbing elements like visuals and audio effects along with simulations and activities. While it is certain that an animated training will not bore the learner down, use of impactful visuals makes the course content easy to remember. This should be read along with the fact that majority of us are visual learners.
Power of Storytelling
Use of animated characters opens door to what human brains likes to listen: stories. Storytelling ensures that the course is more than just transmitting information. It will hook the learners into the course by establishing a connection with their emotions. Use of visual graphics and minimal text with the animated characters allow users to visualize the story. The result is willingness from the users towards the course and improved retention. The scenarios used in the training can be presented in the form of stories making it easy to empathize with the characters.
Click here to watch our Animated Videos on POSH awareness.
Flexibility of Animated Videos
An advantage of animated videos is their flexibility to be used as standalone videos or blend them with other learning strategies. These animated videos can be used as standalone micro learning nuggets that do not exceed more than five minutes. For example, in our POSH training, there can be small videos that show various instances of sexual harassment or respectful behaviors, which are pushed to the learners regularly using the LMS. They can also be added as scenario in a full-fledged eLearning course, with questions that follow. In addition, if the organization prefers a classroom training, animated videos can be used to explain difficult or complex concepts.
If “a picture is worth a thousand words” imagine what a course full of animated videos can give its learners. eLearning courses have started to evolve as the star player in corporate training in the recent times. Animated video is the cherry on top.