Continuing education classes often witness a decline in student participation over time due to various factors such as busy schedules, difficulty in attending classes, and lack of support leading to reduced motivation.
Online learning introduces additional challenges, requiring students to be self-motivated and disciplined in working independently. The absence of face-to-face interaction makes it easier for online students to disengage unnoticed, increasing the risk of giving up on their studies.
Student engagement in online learning is crucial for success. It refers to how much students participate in learning activities, interact with instructors, peers, and learning resources, and value their educational experiences.
Engaged students actively participate, remember what they learn, complete courses, and apply knowledge. Research indicates that 92% of educators consider student engagement the primary factor influencing student success, surpassing 13 other factors.
In this article, we will take a look at how to use software to boost your eLearning engagement training and what are the benefits of such software for organizations.
What Is Learner Engagement?
In a nutshell, learner engagement refers to a specific concept in eLearning that consists both of quantity and quality of the participation of one particular learner in the educational process. For boosting it, learning engagement platforms are being used. It is also related to the different ways a learner cooperates with teachers and co-learners. The three dimensions of learner engagement are the cognitive level, the emotional level, and the behavioral level.
Committing to Engagement
Of course, providing an efficient educational experience is not a simple undertaking, and it includes the knowledge of engaging learning models. If you want to achieve successful learner engagement in training programs, it requires intentional effort and support from stakeholders. Getting colleagues on board involves highlighting the benefits: engaged learners train more frequently, retain information better, and become autonomous in completing courses, reducing the need for constant follow-ups.
Shifting the focus from chasing learners to creating an environment that encourages participation improves training management and positively impacts learner performance and retention, addressing various business challenges.
Stakeholder commitment is essential but can be streamlined by emphasizing the importance of training to their teams. Encouraging learners to prioritize training reduces resistance. Effective communication within the organization is the next crucial step as communication is naturally integrated into education.
Communication
Once you have ‘buy-in’ from colleagues, the first task is to get training introduced into regular channels of communication. Consider the different ways your organization communicates. What was the last message sent to a large group of learners and how was it shared? Why was that communication channel used? Was it through Slack, Yammer, Email, Trello?
Explaining the Value of Training
There is always a clear need to explain the value of education even if it feels evident. You need to create the feeling that education is definitely worthy of the time invested.
Encouragement
To keep your training programs on track, it's important to promote them with effective communication and promotion. This means communicating with learners, supervisors, and managers about what you're doing – and why. One effective way of doing this is by highlighting positive performance.
For example, let's say that some of your employees have completed their annual health and safety training quickly or scored well on the test. You could mention those employees during a company-wide meeting as examples for others to follow. Highlighting positive performance promotes inclusion and also motivates learners to engage in training programs.
Course Design
As course design is a complex concept, let’s break it down into subcategories for better understanding. You need to avoid cognitive overload, include media that is relevant to the subject to make the educational process more diverse and easy to understand, and consider the amount of text you are including. Also, it is advisable to choose a webinar format and assess the knowledge of your employees to make sure your course’s results are as desired. Generally speaking, make sure your course has everything that makes it engaging and productive.
User Experience
To maintain learner engagement in eLearning, prioritize user experience (UX) – how learners feel when using the product, like an LMS with gamification. A frustration-free and positive experience is crucial. A learner's initial encounter with the LMS and courses shapes their future behavior. Difficulty or frustration reduces their likelihood of returning for further training. Therefore, focus on delivering course content effectively to foster high eLearning engagement.
(Communication + Content + Delivery + Motivation)* Constant Improvement = High eLearning Engagement.
Mobile Learning
Mobile learning is a format that makes education flexible as never before. eLearning can happen anywhere, so your learners can learn at any time. They may be on their daily commute, in a coffee shop, or waiting to meet a client. And this found time is perfect for fitting training into their busy schedule.
Make sure that eLearning courses are accessible from any device, at any time. Most LMSs have a responsive design to make this possible. Complement course content with multimedia elements that can be viewed on any device by making sure that the design and composition of your course content complements the devices being used.
Motivation
Motivation is not a toggle switch. It's not something you can set and forget. It's a little bit cultural, a little strategic, and involves some tactical use of your LMS features.
(Communication + Content + Delivery + Motivation)* Constant Improvement = High eLearning Engagement.
Gamification
Gamification is the use of game mechanics in activities such as eLearning to improve the user's experience and motivate them to execute certain behaviors. It can be used in a variety of ways, including augmenting course content with rewards for taking actions, providing feedback on performance and behavior, and increasing engagement with course topics.
Socialization
eLearning has transformed learning, boosting efficiency and cost-effectiveness. However, one drawback to be mindful of is learner isolation, which can hinder engagement. Learner isolation arises from the lack of interaction between two types of 'contacts':
To mitigate this issue, repurpose the earlier discussed points:
- Clearly communicate training programs and course content through more populated channels to reduce isolation. Utilize existing social channels frequently accessed by learners.
- Conduct group training sessions, either in classrooms or webinars, to introduce a blended learning model.
- Implement gamification features that focus on group participation to foster engagement.
Social Learning
Social learning enhances training understanding through peer-to-peer interaction. This is important as we, as human beings, need this kind of interaction to be productive. Also, by introducing forums where learners can share information, eLearning gains an extra layer of engagement.
The benefits of eLearning forums include the following:
- Peer Learning: Learners can learn from each other, while instructors can easily communicate with the entire audience.
- New Topics Introduction: Forums allow the introduction of new training topics to improve learner performance.
- Engagement Boost: Discussion forums effectively increase engagement in eLearning.
The forum's impact can be attributed to the following elements:
- Communication: A dedicated channel for communication explains and promotes the value of training.
- Cognitive Overload: Information that was removed to prevent cognitive overload can be provided to learners in the forum, catering to those seeking more detail and context.
- Motivation: The forum environment serves as a platform for traditional motivational tactics, like highlighting performance, and encourages learners to share their understanding and topics.
- Prevents Isolation: Adding this communication layer and facilitating collaboration reduces learner isolation.
Overall, an eLearning forum fosters dialogue between learners, trainers, and instructors, benefiting all participants by answering questions publicly. Learners become more immersed in the learning ecosystem and their feedback helps improve training processes and content.
Gathering Feedback
Asking learners for feedback is a great way to learn about their experience with your LMS and the training program. You can do this informally through communication channels, such as email or Slack, or formally through surveys.
Conclusion
To boost engagement with an online learning platform, learn more about learner engagement strategies, focus on intuitive design and user experience, incorporate interactive elements and personalized learning paths, foster a sense of community, integrate real-world applications, provide regular feedback, and embrace emerging technologies.
By doing so, learners will be motivated, connected, and empowered to achieve their learning goals effectively. Learn about eLearning organization tips, combine them with the use of software, and empower your eLearning activities for better results and more engaging formats.
At WEZOM, we have the necessary experience and skills to create solutions like high-quality LMS systems that can greatly contribute to boosting learner engagement. You get flexible software option and increase student engagement in your educational process. Consult to know more.
