In previous articles, we’ve discussed the importance of data and learning analytics when creating educational content, but that’s just the start. There are other tools out there, including a favorite here at ryco.io, Articulate 360, amongst countless others, to help you develop entertaining and compelling content.
This week, we’re going to do a deep dive, focusing more on the entertainment portion of eLearning. After all, eLearning training doesn’t have to be boring. Here are five tips for creating engaging eLearning courses.
Increasing eLearning Engagement
The fact that eLearning includes an audience that is captive is one of eLearning's most unique and distinct advantages. The students arrive prepared to learn. This isn’t impacted in any way just because some have an obligation to be there.
In addition to having a captive audience, you, more than likely, have an abundance of knowledge and insights to share with your learners. Combined, this creates an ideal opportunity to boost the engagement of eLearning students through a humanized and relatable approach.
The Humanized Approach
Taking a closer look at the humanized approach, we’ll provide an example that can make it more relatable.
Imagine warning a student to handle a chemical with care because it is dangerous. It’s concise, simple, and communicates the necessary information.
Instead of saying it this way, imagine telling the true story to the class about another student of yours who accidentally handled that same chemical improperly and the problems it caused. Suddenly, there are characters in a story who have faces, names, and the listeners’ emotional investment.
Why does this happen? It’s simple. We constantly process countless thoughts throughout a single day, an hour. Because of this, facts come quickly and go even faster through our brains. The more humanized approach of stories sticks with us.
Through the implementation of thoughtful strategies, these emotional investments can be achieved in eLearning. Although it takes more effort, the results return tenfold. That’s why it’s essential to create engaging eLearning courses.
5 Tips for Creating Engaging eLearning Courses
To increase eLearner engagement, you need to use life experiences to create relatable and memorable eLearning courses. Here are five tips to help you accomplish this.
1. Customize Your eLearning
In eLearning, effective strategies to increase eLearner engagement involve the redirection of learners to online training modules, activities, and assessments based on what they are learning. Variables can be leveraged to offer supplemental online training content for different levels of learning.
As every student receives the exact individualized online training content necessary to achieve their individual goals, customization makes eLearning courseware more relatable and relevant. Because rather than offering a ‘one-size-fits-all’ online course, their eLearning experience can be more narrowly tailored to them, again leveraging the importance of individuality and intimacy.
2. Use Emotion as Leverage
We feel it, and we remember it when something sparks emotion within us. Ultimately, feeling leads to greater knowledge retention and absorption. We immediately remember where we were, where we were, and more when we recall an event that elicited happiness or joy. We recall every detail because of how it made us feel.
As a strategy to increase eLearner engagement we can replicate this experience for our learners. Help them remember the core ideas of the eLearning course more effectively by invoking that feeling by sharing a thought-provoking, emotional simulation or story.
3. Tell a Story Through Your Course
A story is powerful because it shares human experiences that are authentic. Stories forge the paths to deep connection. We all have an abundance of experiences and stories that we’ve gathered on our own. These stories also help us in providing a more profound, rich, and effective eLearning experience.
Offer the ability to connect through educational and entertaining content, instead of reciting long lists of concepts or facts. You allow students the development of a deep connection by relating to the subject when including personal anecdotes or examples from the real world.
4. Understand the Backgrounds of Your Students
Students with different experiences and backgrounds are coming together and seeking common ground in eLearning. Everyone has their own 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 to find common ground and 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.
5. Address 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 at the core of our beings and our identity. Hearing our name ultimately validates our existence as humans. By nature, those that 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 adding a text-based variable that accepts the student’s name.
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 even more.
Final Thoughts
It can be challenging to keep learners engaged during eLearning courses. To increase eLearner engagement and success rates, thoughtful strategies requiring emotional investment must be pursued. Using these 5 tips for creating engaging eLearning courses, ryco.io can prioritize making our eLearning courses the most effective form of education out there for both students and educators.
Now that you have a better understanding that eLearning training doesn’t have to be boring, you can appreciate ryco.io’s efforts and accomplishments in this sector. 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!