Today’s learner has countless resources for seeking out information. From online classes to short lessons, e-learning is slowly becoming the new norm for students and professionals alike.
Apart from being widely available, it’s also proving to be highly effective, as corporate e-learning can take about 40-60% less time than traditional forms of learning.
In a world where e-learning is in such high demand, however, online learning platforms need to make their content engaging, or they risk losing their learners to competitors or simply losing their attention.
But with such high amounts of content to produce and potentially tight budgets, it can often be difficult to know what to focus on.
Whether you’re focusing on customers, employees, or partners, creating meaningful interactions during the learning process will likely enhance the learners’ experience and their understanding of the material.
Here are five proven ways to make your e-learning content more engaging and provide an attention-grabbing program for your audience.
Keep Your Courses Organized
Organizing your e-learning structure is crucial for creating an engaging learning experience. Not only will it help you avoid overwhelming or confusing your learners, but it will provide a clear learning path with which they can stay focused and engaged. Try to arrange your topics in a logical flow that is aligned with the learning objectives.
If you’ve just started building your online platform, you should spend some time researching the best software solution for your needs.
If you’ve done your research already, it might be useful to explore the Kajabi vs. Teachable comparison to see what the differences are between these two popular solutions and which one may be better suited for your platform.
Make the Learning Modules Short
Having long and dragged-out content is the fastest way to disengage an audience. No matter how dedicated they are to learning, no one has too much time or patience to spare, especially if they have busy lives.
Keeping the learning modules short will, first and foremost, show learners that you value their time but also help them engage better with the material.
People have an easier time connecting with smaller chunks of information than with long stories or videos. The best thing you can do is break your content into sections, provide exercises between modules, and avoid overloading the screen.
Create Visually-Appealing Content
To keep your audience engaged throughout the course, you need to make sure what they’re seeing is visually appealing.
Aesthetics will not only add to the perceived value of the lecture but will likely retain the viewers’ attention and pique their interest.
If you’re not sure where to start, the best thing to remember is that less is more. Keeping your text short and using white space balance will help you avoid overwhelming the audience with visual stimuli and make the text easier to read.
Always choose quality images, animations, and videos, and consider giving the design some thought, even when it comes to exercises or quizzes.
Provide a Meaningful Experience
People consume a lot of information daily, and it is highly unlikely they will retain all of it. To help your learners connect with your content easily and grasp the concepts, you should try to make the course meaningful.
That means using information that resonates with the learners’ personal experiences or evokes specific emotions.
Appealing to the audience’s emotions is one of the most effective ways to increase engagement, so be sure to choose images and stories that stimulate them.
Using real-life examples in your narrative will also help them grasp the concepts in a relatable framework and remember them more easily.
Know Your Learners
Appealing to your learners’ personal experiences and emotions is very important, but it will not be possible unless you spend some time considering their background.
The goal of any learning program is to address the audience’s needs and connect with them, but that’s difficult to accomplish if you don’t know them well enough.
Spend some time analyzing your audience, their habits, and behaviors – also when it comes to learning patterns – to determine what they expect from your course.
This will also inform your decision-making process when it comes to the length of your lessons, the kind of visual or auditory elements you add, and what is most likely to engage them.
Conclusion
The secret to transferring knowledge effectively is offering learning environments where the audience can engage with the content.
Rather than using the latest technology or most innovative practices, you can accomplish this by focusing on a few simple but effective techniques.
To make e-learning more engaging, you should keep your courses organized, make the learning modules short, create visually-appealing content, provide a meaningful experience, and know your learners well.
___________________________________________________
Some other articles you might find of interest:
Make your business rock with these business plan writing skills:
Startup’s Guide to Write a Business Plan
Would you like to know how investors value a startup?
How Do Investors Value a Startup?
