Learning and development should be a crucial part of any great organization. Honing your employees’ current skills and helping them develop new ones is sure to provide a significant return on investment. But what tools and software are out there to help improve training sessions and upskilling?
No matter if you are onboarding new hires or figuring out ways to help your long-term employees upskill, there are countless tools online that can make the training process more streamlined and enjoyable.
Learning and development strategies help mold a modern company’s outlook, and training is a crucial piece of this puzzle. In fact, many may argue that is the most important thing to get right. Once you recognize knowledge and skills gaps within your organizations you must figure out a way to fill them.
The days of sitting down and reading the latest book on a topic have come and gone, and while there is still a place for this type of resource, more and more online resources. But sifting through online review sites can be daunting, so we decided to make it even easier and list some of the best here.
What different types of training software are there?
Now this is an interesting area of discussion because there are a wide variety of tools available. Some offer a great way to train your workforce in a one-hour session, while others provide a series of courses and job training programs online.
Others are designed with HR and management in mind and are designed to train and develop in-house talent. To accommodate this wide variety, our list below has taken the best of the best when it comes to what you can find online.
Features of Online Training Software
So what is it that these training platforms, tools, and software include? Well, as we have said, they are all different and provide a collection of features. In general, many of these will be interactive and include a variety of resources.
Learning Management Software
Learning Management Software, or LMS, is a type of software that focuses on every element of an education course, such as course management, administration, tracking, and reporting. It has developed from eLearning tools and strategies and, thus, takes a lot of inspiration from tools designed to improve learning outcomes.
Think of it this way, you would use PowerPoint (or Mentimeter if you’re really unique and skilled) to create a presentation. An LMS performs the same function but for training courses.
Corporate training software
So corporate training software is very similar to an LMS (in fact, one could argue that it is the same thing) but specifically designed for larger organizations.
A corporate learning management system is a comprehensive platform that streamlines all aspects of employee training, including storing, delivering, organizing, tracking, and measuring the effectiveness of training content.
Its purpose is to simplify the lives of L&D teams by helping them identify and evaluate both individual and organizational learning objectives, track progress toward meeting those objectives, and collect data to oversee and enhance the learning process.
Virtual training and online training videos
Training methods and resources have changed over the years and have grown from classrooms and printed books to online academies and videos. To accommodate our growing and developing needs, numerous video training platforms help users create all resources in video format.
Online Training Management System
A Training Management System is very similar to an LMS, with the key difference being that it focuses more on instructor-led and virtual instructor-led training operations and is built for the training back office.
Training management tools are designed to streamline the training management process for companies and specific departments. It allows leaders to design, organize, maintain, and grow their training programs while also tracking progress for maximum success.
This type of tool is an excellent way to manage logistics, resources, and scheduling of training sessions, as well as handle recurring training tasks. Implementing such software can save time,
Employee training tools
The goal of this niche of software is to improve the training sessions by focusing on creating an atmosphere and environment that is conducive to learning and retaining information. For example, rather than sit in an hour-long meeting about sales strategy, you could use a dedicated training tool that was designed to help employees better understand business goals, team function, and more.
Online training courses
One brief sweep of LinkedIn will indicate just how many online training courses there are and just how many providers are now offering their own academies. Many of these offer free trials and pilots for users so they can jump in a see whether or not it will meet their needs. What’s also great is that a lot of the courses listed are frequently reviewed and moderated.
What are the best training software & tools?
- Mentimeter & MentiAcademy
- eduMe
- TalentCards
- iSpring
- Learningbank
- Adobe Learning Manager
- Udemy & Udemy Business
- Thinkific
Mentimeter & MentiAcademy - For employee training
Now we mentioned above the benefits and features of employee training tools. Mentimeter is a great way to improve learning outcomes and keep employees engaged while you help them learn about your business, strategy, or initiatives before leaving the room with a better understanding of the topic at hand.
Thanks to Mentimeter’s interactive slides (Word Clouds, Polls, Quizzes, etc.), those taking part in the training will feel more engaged and thus retain more information. Sitting and reading information off of slides is not the optimal way to actually remember vital info, but asking questions, taking part, and having lively discussions with everyone is. Hence why Mentimeter can help anyone in a sales, marketing, product, or HR department and beyond improve their training sessions.
Here's an example of the type of training session you can create with Menti that you can download and use for free.
eduMe - For mobile learning and frontline training
More and more of our life is spent on mobile - it’s ever more likely that you consume apps, podcasts, and reading material all on your smartphone. So why would your employees not prefer (or at least like to have the option) to learn on the go? This is the big selling point of eduMe, and this versatility proves to be incredibly invaluable.
Combined with this is the focus on frontline workers. Something we find particularly beneficial is the strong use of different content formats. Videos, guides, and more mean that these resources are perfectly optimized for mobile but that they also help improve retention levels.
TalentCards - For AI assistance
Now I won’t get into a discussion about whether AI is the future of work, or the benefits and drawbacks of ChatGPT (and yes this was written by a human and not AI, I promise). That being said, AI can help to streamline things and TalentCards is pioneering this effort.
TalentCards help you create micro-courses without the difficulty that always comes with getting started. Less sitting and staring at a screen thinking of what to write means you have more time to review exercises, plan out learning and development strategies, and help employees grow and develop.
iSpring - For a corporate learning solution
We mentioned the importance of corporate learning solutions earlier, and iSpring is one of the best on the market. Their full suite of tools features slide courses, videos, quizzes, simulations, and more. The great benefit of this is that a variety of different teams can be trained in a never-ending array of skills and competencies.
One really useful feature is the PowerPoint integration that lets you transform old and existing PowerPoints into online courses. For companies that rely heavily on PP, they can save a lot of time and energy by repurposing content into a new format.
Learningbank - For onboarding
Learningbank is a particularly user-friendly LMS that is perfectly suited to improving the onboarding experience. This is one of the training sessions that every company needs to really nail and Learningbank does a great job making it easier to do right. Like other tools listed here, they focus on engagement but what is more, they integrate with other tools that are vital for the whole onboarding experience like Personio.
Adobe Learning Manager - For versatility
There’s probably a very good chance that you thought Adobe only offered users a Photoshop tool. Well, they do plenty more than that and ALM highlights just how versatile and useful a company they are. ALM focuses on engaging learners through a variety of means to ensure that your message and resources stick.
What is particularly interesting is how Adobe leverages both machine learning and artificial intelligence to tailor the learning experience so that personalized learning takes pride in place.
Udemy & Udemy Business - For an online academy
Udemy is one of the most popular online academies and boasts a plethora of courses that range from Python boot camps to video editing and free trial first aid classes. Their business offering focuses on teams and courses that will help those teams upskill at scale.
What we found particularly useful was that Udemy does a great job breaking down its use cases and helping you find what is right for your team and your organization. They have broken things down by organizational size and style - small teams, hybrid teams, etc) as well as by team and industry.
Thinkific - For those looking to build an academy
Course creation with Thinkific is quite user-friendly and several resources will help anyone build their academy and create supporting material for their students in minutes. You can fully customize course content and the Thinkific teams are always on hand to help troubleshoot any technical difficulties you may run into.
We at Menti are such big fans of Thinkific that we have used their service to design our own academy. Click here to see our Academy in action.
HubSpot Academy - For marketers and salespeople
For sales and marketing professionals it’s always a good idea to go straight to the experts for help. HubSpot has built a sterling reputation over the years as is evidenced from the countless amount of people who boast a course certificate on their LinkedIn profiles.
Training materials are always top notch and HubSpot has done an impeccable job catering to both newbies to their industries and market experts. What’s even better is that the courses are free and available for everyone with just a few clicks.
More focus on training means more focus on success
No matter whether you are searching for an online training tool, business training software, or something even more niche to fit your needs, there are plenty of options online to choose from.
If you are looking for an easy and quick way to boost the engagement level of any training session then we have the solution for you!