Most of you have been through courses which failed to actively involve you during the learning process. At some point, maybe you kept yawning, or you were busy thinking about your job tasks, deadlines, personal issues etc.
This brings up a question: Is ‘learner engagement’ an elephant in the room?
Active learning plays an important role because it motivates your learners and gives them opportunities to participate in the learning process.
You might have been a student who was pretty weak at Math. Perhaps the numbers and formulas went all above your head and you were completely lost during the class. But still, your teacher involved you by making you solve a problem on the blackboard.
When it comes to a classroom setup, things are a little different because there is live interaction between the instructor and learners. However, this is not the case in eLearning.
So how do we make sure learners are actively engaged in an eLearning environment?
Induce a Desire for Engagement – Make the Learning Valued
There’s no point in using different engagement techniques if your learners aren’t willing to participate. You need to persuade your learners to get them involved in the learning process. To give you an example, think of those interesting movie trailers/promos which actually persuaded you to book a ticket and watch the movie. Similarly, we need to pique the interest of our learners.
Tell them how the new information adds value to their job and how it will help them in the near future. This way you induce a desire for engagement, and they engage a lot more.
Make the Learning Accessible – Use the Goldilocks Rule
Anything that’s too hard or too easy, disengages your learners. You need to give them something that’s just right. They should be able to comprehend the new information. If English is not their native language, make sure the course is available in a language that’s convenient for them to understand. Also, keep this rule in mind when creating quizzes, assessments, and other challenging elements of your course. If the challenge is too easy or too difficult, learners will lose interest.
Personalize – Use Names to Make Their Presence Felt
We feel happy and valued when someone greets us. When we’re in a classroom, the teacher greets us. We are also greeted when we log on to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and many other apps. So why not in our eLearning courses? Greeting your learners makes them feel acknowledged. It’s just a matter of adding a text-variable and you’re done with it. Simple, isn’t it?
Ask the learners to input their names, and then make these names available on the welcome screen, feedback screens, games, results etc. just to make their presence felt. This way you will personalize the course for your learners and increase chances of them being engaged.
Build Stories From Experiences – Scenarios and Case Studies
Speak directly to your learners, observe them on the job, or ask your client to share good and bad experiences of their employees. Getting this information will help you build stories, scenarios, or case studies that connect better with your learners.
Your stories should help them reflect on their experiences and make them wonder, “OMG, this is exactly what I experience every day!”. Scenarios and case studies give learners the power to choose from the various options available to them. This gives us an idea of how well they understand the situation and make decisions.
Hands-on Experience – Simulations
Simulations provide hands-on experience for learners and help them build the new skill. For instance, if you’re training a bunch of engineers on how to use a service portal, you can simply make them perform the job in a simulated environment.
Use Games and Real-time Rewards
Games have the tremendous power to enhance our learning experiences. Be it elearning gamification or game-based learning, they engage learners and push them to master a specific skill or subject. Aspects such as scores, points, and badges are highly motivating and make learners desire for more.
You may use a ‘play and learn’ combo where you provide opportunities to play and score points. However, the catch is they can claim their points only after they learn something and answer a question related to the same.
You may also lure your learners by giving them real-time rewards such as certification, discounts on movie tickets, books etc. For instance, if your course is on health and fitness, the real-time rewards can be in the form of discounted gym membership or a free workshop on Yoga/Zumba. Sounds interesting? So, what are you waiting for? Try this and get ready to watch people binge learn the courses in your library.
Escape Rooms
Well, there are times when your learners can’t really control their boredom. If they are dozing off or checking their mobile phones, it means the learning isn’t happening. So how about giving room for some entertainment?
Escape rooms are a fun way to entertain your learners and improve collaborative skills. This is a timed game in which learners solve a puzzle or hunt for clues to escape the room. Since this is a new experience for them, they find it attractive and memorable.
Promote Open Communication Channels
You learn more when you’re prompted to answer questions from your learners. Give them a chance to communicate, ask questions, or share their opinions and feedback. Encourage the use of group discussions, social learning, chatbots etc., and make sure their queries and feedbacks are heard and valued.
Power of Voice
Many of us don’t seem to be impressed by mechanical voiceovers. They put you off mainly because they sound very robotic and lack emotions. A lively and energetic voiceover can help to capture the attention of your learners. You may have stunning visuals on the screen, however, if the voiceover puts off your learners, they are likely to get disengaged.
Now that we’ve just discussed about the power of voice, let’s not forget how podcasts have kept us entertained. There’s a saying, ‘steal like an artist’. Technology has evolved over time. So why not steal some part of it to make learning engaging? I may be an audio-visual learner, but I may still prefer to learn or gain some knowledge while taking a stroll. All I have to do is plug in my earphones and listen to an eLearning podcast. Of course, everything can’t be given as a podcast, however, you can identify some parts which can be converted to a podcast. This way your learners can experience a variety in your courses.
Create Immersive Learning Experiences
Use technologies like AR and VR to help learners explore by themselves. For instance, you can make a hardware engineer repair an equipment or train a Barista to make flavored coffee by creating immersive learning experiences.
Learner engagement is the most overlooked element in online courses. Many of us think that engagement is all about click and reveal kind of an approach. However, there’s a lot more beyond click and learn. Encourage critical thinking and provide opportunities to help learners explore.
So, go ahead and make use of the above engagement strategies to enhance retention and make learning experiences more memorable.
