Going forward, your learning strategy will greatly depend on digital learning - and that’s great
news! Digital learning gives us an opportunity to engage a large number of employees in less time.
However, it also means that one of your biggest challenges - how to keep your
learners engaged - has become even bigger. To put things in perspective: A recent 2019 study by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that the average dropout rate from online courses over
the past five years is a staggering 96%. How do you ensure engagement for your
e-learning programs, when everything is done online rather than in person?
How do you engage your learners when they have just finished their fifth Zoom call in a row?
Don’t worry: in this video, we will discuss the three steps that you can
take to maximize engagement in your e-learning programs.
Before we dive into the topic, remember to subscribe to our channel,
hit the notification bell, and like this video!
*MUSIC*
Hi, I’m Liz and welcome to another episode of Learning Bites.
Before we jump into the 3 steps to maximize your e-learning engagement,
check out our comprehensive guide on how you can measure the effectiveness
of your training program. You can find the link in the comment below.
Now let’s get started.
Even during the best of times, ensuring engagement has always been a challenge
for any training, let alone online ones.
They say Rome wasn’t built in a day. Well,
building and maintaining engagement also requires time, effort, and patience.
It comes down to three steps: content, experience, and engagement. Think of them as three concentric
circles, with content at the core, followed by experience, and finally engagement.
E-learning engagement is something that has to be built into the foundation
of the digital training itself, which is why we’ll start from the center and move outwards.
Step 1: Offer effective learning content
If you want engaged learners,
your content needs to be interesting and relevant to their learning objectives.
Now, personalized learning content is nothing new - but it has
often been done in an offline setting. This can be a major challenge,
as many such trainings don’t easily translate to an online setting.
In that case, you need new content, which means you have two options.
Build new online learning content (with expert help)
Use specialized third-party training
The first option is perfect if your organization already has a pool of
learning developers and trainers to rely on. This lets you customize the training
to your organization’s needs. The downside is that building such a team can take time,
and the content that you have might become outdated.
If building your content isn’t an option, always “borrow” from eLearning providers.
With the sharp rise in digital learning, you have plenty to choose from, such as “one-size-fits-all”
companies like Udemy, or more discipline-specific ones like AIHR or Growth Tribe. The great thing
about this option is that you don’t have to worry about relevance, upkeep, and innovation.
Step 2: Provide a good user experience:
You now have a pool of amazing content available in different places.
That’s great! But if you don’t curate the content well, your learners will
end up spending more time searching for content than actually learning.
And that will lose you engagement points.
Here are three tips to keep in mind: Less is more
Blend your learning Enable socialization
First tip: a minimalist approach can go a long way in ensuring a seamless learner experience.
Make sure to: Keep the number of buttons on your Learning
Management System (or LMS) homepage to a minimum Make your LMS accessible from different devices
And consider making your lessons available for offline viewing
Tip number two is blending your learning. Learners aren’t interested in a training program filled
with nothing but page after page of reading, so mix things up with different types of content.
Now, you also don’t want your learners to spend all their time clicking instead of
learning. Aim for practicality by using this general rule: every passive activity (reading
or watching a video) should be balanced by an engaging activity (quiz, poll, or game).
Lastly, make sure there is socialization. Design engagement opportunities into the platform,
like forum discussions, opinion sharing, and lesson discussions. The key is to keep
socialization at the top of your mind during your content development and curation process.
Step 3: Maintain e-learners’ engagement long-term
Now that you’ve successfully engaged your learners through unique experiences,
how do you keep them there?
In HR, your workforce is your customer, and your training program is the product that
you need to promote. Borrow from marketing to create a brand for your learning organization,
which can touch your learners on an emotional level.
One way to do this is to turn selected learners into internal brand ambassadors. For example,
engage with different subject matter experts in your organization
and have them become learning champions.
Showing recognition for your learners is also important.
Set up a leaderboard and post interviews of those in the top position.
This has the added benefit of encouraging others to aim for the top.
And remember, marketing is all about consistency, so make use of every opportunity. Taking some
well-deserved time off? You can still make sure learners know about your training program by
setting up a simple out-of-office reply with a QR code that takes people directly to your academy.
There you have it, the 3 steps to maximize e-learning engagement. With the right tools,
you can now make learning available anytime and anywhere. And with the right ingredients in place,
you’ll turn your learners into loyal fans!
And that’s it for this episode. Do you have other tips for improving e-learning engagement?
Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to our channel.
See you next time!