A digital library is a special repository of digital objects consisting of text, visual material and audio files. It enables content developers to share relevant content with learners, continually find and filter the unnecessary material from the library. Keep upgrading the content as and when required. The material stored in a digital library is offered to the learners via an online tool, portal or platform.
When delivering an online training, having a digital library is a must have. Instructors upload the material to the digital library for easy access by the learners. Well here are the benefits of having a digital library-
Digital library adds value to your content because it allows learners to access content whenever they require. It makes learning convenient and self-paced.
The benefits of digital library are hereby stated below:
Aggregate meaningful content –
A digital library provides a one stop location to all your content based on the relevance of the context. This allows learners to access the content from a single place at any convenient time they may find suitable.
Empowers learning and development team –
A digital library enables the learning and development team to work in close proximity with the subject matter experts and the graphic designer to create contextually and visually interactive and engaging content for your learners.
Motivates learners –
A digital library that is more oriented towards the learners needs and aims to address the same is enough to motivate the learners to engage in online learning. When the content is user friendly in terms of understanding and accessibility at the same time, learners are self-motivated to learn. Therefore, have a digital library where your learners can find material of their relevance and need.
Self-Paced Learning –
Digital Library enables self-paced learning. Since this is asynchronous learning. Trainer facilitation is not required in this. Any team that is geographically dispersed, would benefit in this as the participants can see content on the Learning Management System (LMS)
Encourages learning as gamut –
A digital library is not just restricted to providing reading material, whereas, learners can take up assessments in the form of short assignments to test their learning. Furthermore, a digital library bridges the gap between the learners and the instructor of the content.
Digital library provides learning in the form of a variety of contextually and visually available material to suit the learning styles of different learners.
Personalized touch to the content –
Content stored in a digital library has the human element to it. The content is tailor made for the class of learners that the instructor is addressing. Adding a virtual help guide all the more adds to the appeal of the content which can be easily stored and updated depending on the learner needs.
So, these are a few benefits of having a digital library. To make content available to learners especially when in an online training, digital library is the thing that content designers and course instructors need to incorporate.