Here at ryco.io, we like to stay up to date with the latest developments within the eLearning space to ensure we are producing the most valuable content. We utilize some of the highest performing eLearning tools in our courses, including Articulate 360, CourseArc, and Adobe Captivate.
Still, understanding the programs is just the beginning of developing eLearning materials. In order for learning materials to be retained, they must capture the attention of their captive audience. That’s why in this article, we want to address one of the many eLearning solutions: how to create engaging eLearning Courses for Online Students.
Why Engaging Content is Vital to the eLearning Process
One of eLearning's most unique and distinct advantages is that it includes an audience that is captive. Students involved in eLearning come ready to learn, regardless of their obligation to be there. Think, for example, a required grade school curriculum.
Ultimately, eLearning presents an ideal opportunity to boost students' engagement through a relatable approach.
Taking a Relatable Approach
Providing relatable content is absolutely necessary to offer eLearning students a more humanized approach. For example, you can imagine warning a chemistry student to handle a specific chemical carefully because it is hazardous. When you explain this to a student, you provide them with the necessary information in a concise and straightforward manner.
However, rather than discussing this with students, you can take a more relatable approach by telling the true story about a student of yours who accidentally improperly handled that same chemical along with the repercussions. You immediately have the listeners’ emotional investment by telling a story because there are characters in a story who have faces and names.
Why a Relatable Approach Works
You might wonder why telling a story is more powerful than simply conveying factual information. The truth stems from the fact that as humans, throughout the day, or even hour, we are faced with constant thoughts we are forced to process. As you can imagine, with this sort of consistent data processing, our minds allow facts to leave just as quickly as they came.
The alternative is to be provided with a story, which we encounter much less frequently throughout the course of our ordinary days. The result is that these stories are more unique and, therefore, stick with us a bit longer.
How to Create Engaging eLearning Courses for Online Students
You need to use life experiences to create relatable and memorable eLearning courses to increase the engagement of eLearning students. Here are a few pointers from the experts in the field to help lead you in the right direction for your eLearning courses.
Understand the Value of Addressing Students by Name
Last but not least is the simple act of addressing students by name. Often, we tend to take for granted the amount of influence and power that comes from calling someone by their name.
After all, our names are the true center of our beings and our identity. Hearing our name ultimately validates us as humans. Those who validate us will produce more positive feelings out of us and towards them.
When it comes to eLearning, this effect can easily translate. One of the most effective ways to personalize your eLearning content is by accepting the student’s name by adding a text-based variable.
At the beginning of your course, prompt your students to input their names and use them throughout the eLearning course. Or, you can assign them a character with their name that can be animated to increase engagement.
Be Sensitive to the Fact that Students Come From Various Backgrounds
Students with different experiences and backgrounds are coming together and seeking common ground in eLearning. Everyone has their idea of what is funny, inspiring, offensive, and what is not in these environments.
Find out more about the backgrounds of learners for an idea of what they find engaging. Finding common ground will help them to connect. Some ways to learn more about your students could be through interviews or surveys. These techniques will help in determining what strategy will work in your course.
Remember that an eLearning Course Should Tell a Story
It’s powerful to tell stories because they share authentic human experiences. We have an abundance of experiences and stories that we’ve gathered. These stories also allow us to provide a more profound, rich, and influential eLearning experience.
Offer the ability to connect through educational and entertaining content instead of reciting long lists of concepts or facts. You allow students to develop a deep connection by relating to the subject when including personal anecdotes or examples from the real world.
Leverage Learning Through Emotion
We feel it and remember it when something sparks emotion. Ultimately, it leads to more significant knowledge retention and absorption. Because of how it made us feel, we are able to recall every detail.
For eLearning students, we can replicate this experience as a strategy to increase eLearning engagement. By invoking that feeling by sharing a thought-provoking, emotional simulation or story, we can help them remember the core ideas of the eLearning course more effectively.
Never Skimp on Customization
In eLearning, effective strategies to increase eLearning engagement involve the redirection of learners to online assessments, activities, and training modules based on what they are learning. To offer supplemental online training content for different levels of learning, variables can also be leveraged.
Customization makes courseware more relatable and relevant. This means, to achieve their individual goals, every eLearning student will receive unique online training content. Leveraging the importance of intimacy and individuality, their eLearning experience can be more narrowly tailored to them rather than providing students with a “one-size-fits-all” solution.
Final Thoughts
Keeping students engaged during eLearning courses can be challenging at times. Thoughtful strategies requiring emotional investment must be pursued to increase engagement and success rates within eLearning.
ryco.io can prioritize making our eLearning courses the most effective form of education out there for both students and educators by utilizing these helpful tips for creating engaging eLearning courses. Best of all, it’s just the beginning for us. There’s even more in store in the future of eLearning here at ryco.io!
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