Why L&D Teams Are Using Annotations

For many learning and development teams, digital annotations have made a huge impact on training initiatives and overall user collaboration.

For many people, annotations bring up memories of long and detailed research papers or scribbles in the margins of a Shakespearean play. Annotations are literally notes of explanation or commentary. They are used to clarify or expand upon a particular passage in a document.

Annotations, like many text-based features, have made the digital leap; for many learning and development teams, these digital annotating capabilities have made a huge impact on training initiatives and overall user collaboration.

It is a reciprocal process that works for both users and creators. Users have the opportunity to engage more actively in their learning process. From there, writers and training leaders can take the information garnered from these annotations and continually create stronger materials based on content times, high annotation levels, and overall user feedback.

Traditional learning methods of the past didn’t quite embody the values of true collaboration. Annotated learning is literally predicated on the power of a more collaborative learning process. According to Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Excellence, the benefits of a participatory educational experience are considerable. From development of higher-level thinking to an increased sense of responsibility, collaboration for trainees can promote a better understanding of materials.

While collaboration is a major perk to using annotations, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Let’s take a look.

Content Improvement: Annotations allow writers to see materials through a user’s eyes. This is a crucial function for the creation of training documents. When looking at wording or structure from the perspective of someone doing the learning, it becomes much clearer what is confusing and how it can be improved upon. Feedback is the backbone of improvement, and annotations are the backbone of feedback.

Engagement Statistics: The goal of any learning and development initiative is to engage the participants. But what if you could truly understand what content they spent the most time looking at? Which pages were used as reference? What sparked the most annotations? Together, these are pretty valuable tools. They allow you, as a training leader, to better cater your training to your audience.

Reporting: Another exceptional advantage of annotations in learning and development scenarios is the extensive reporting. Instead of only seeing annotations for one document, users have the ability to see markups from the entire organisation. This allows for a comprehensive view of patterns and trends throughout the materials.

Annotations are a useful tool for any professional learning and development team. They provide a channel for continual feedback from a variety of different perspectives. If the goal is consistent improvement, annotations are the ultimate tool for training initiatives. Here at Mimeo, our online reader allows for comprehensive annotations that are stored safely and automatically in the cloud. Additionally, we offer the option of group annotations which enable an entire group of users to share annotations across documents and designs. Check out the full capabilities of our online reader today!