Keep Them Engaged
With eLearning the number one problem that we come across is keeping end users engaged with the content. You know so the learner does something crazy and actually learns. Seems like a simple concept, but often times the training courses that are needed the most, are the most difficult to keep users interested.
Here are the some ways to keep learners engaged:
Traditional methods include:
- Interactivities – Using interactive elements, like click to reveals, drag & drops, and stop & thinks, throughout the module always help to increase engagement, because now the user is doing something with the content and not just seeing and hearing it.
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Good Content – This seems obvious – but you would be surprised how many people just want to take boring source content and paste it up online and call it an effective eLearning course. Always be sure the content is written with the delivery and the end user in mind, this will help ensure they stay engaged.
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Telling a Story – If you have a boring content, for example sometimes compliance courses can fall into this category, you can tell a story about an employee that broke the rules to illustrate consequences and all of the content that is needed to be learned.
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Media – Changing up media throughout a course can keep a user on their toes as they proceed. Sometimes just a simple video in the middle of text and audio can interest the learner enough to stay engaged, and it helps those with different learning styles as well.
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Knowledge Checks – A couple questions sprinkled throughout a learning module make it clear to the learner that they can’t just skim the content and they are going to be tested.
New ways to help with engagement and retention would be to include:
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Pushing the Envelope – This is really dependant on company culture, but recently I just completed a course where competition law is taught by an Elvis Impersonator. This takes the same content people have been getting in standard forms for years and repurposes it in a new and fresh way.
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Mobile/Micro – The smaller the module size and the more accessible it is, the better chance you have of getting someone to complete it.
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Game-Based Learning – Gamify the learning – this can disguise much of the content inside a game where the learner is playing.
Overall, it is best to always think of the user when putting content online. If you keep them in mind while developing, odds are you will come up with some creative ways to use these methods or some of your own to keep users engaged and ultimately increase retention.