Today, we are being trained by technology to find and digest information at an incredibly fast pace. As a result, attention spans have shortened considerably. In the age of TikTok, Reels, and Shorts, it is getting more and more difficult for learning professionals to keep the attention of learners.
Several technologies have been developed to solve this problem and there is no doubt that learner engagement will help you sell training online.
Technology is leading the way. It can solve a learning business’s many woes, with benefits across the entirety of your organization.
How do you improve learner engagement? Fortunately, this guide has the answers.
Content:
H5PMicrolearning
Blended learning
Gamification
Certification
Badges
Set Learning Goals
To increase learner engagement, one must set goals. This includes reviewing both organizational and stakeholder goals regularly and measuring your engagement metrics. Engagement can be measured in an assortment of metrics.
Understanding the learner's journey can help in setting realistic learning goals. Here is a blog talking in detail about journey mapping.
Have a look at engagement rates across your entire ecosystem:
- ILT engagement
- Community and forum engagement
- Course material and resources
- Social engagement
Your analytics will provide you with many answers, including how much time your learners are engaging with the various segments of your environment.
While you need analytics to measure your learner improvement, you will need to make learning convenient by using the latest learning technologies. This will ensure that you win the attention of your learners and keep them as lifelong learners.
Make Learning Convenient
If you do not put the effort into producing a well-designed learning experience, your learner is not likely to put in the effort either. There are a wide variety of ways that you can make learning more convenient for the learner.
To keep the attention of your learner, you must follow the practices and protocols that they (we) have been conditioned to. When learners go online, they scan information, and as such, you are better to use the formatting that has already proved useful to the millions of websites online.
A quick formatting checklist will prove to be helpful:
- Use headings and subheadings
- Use the ideal font sizes
- Use infographics
- Use paragraph width and height for easy reading
- Use a contemporary font that is easy to read like Calibri or Ariel
- Use rich graphics that contrast your words to make them pop
Develop Innovative Interactive & Creative Content
With the technologies available today, there is no reason why a learner should fail. The following are the most contemporary strategies currently being used by the best online training companies.
H5P
H5P is an open-source tool that you use to create interactive learning content. Instead of using lengthy course content, break it up. Develop parts of the training where they access interactive multimedia.
H5P places the power of engagement in the palm of your hand. These strategies will enrich the learner experience and allow your learners a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the course material. Remaining with the old way of watching a video, accompanied by a pdf file can have the opposite effect and impede the learner’s motivation to continue.
H5P allows you to produce several dozen types of interactive content and multimedia, including:
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Audio
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Quizzes
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Videos
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Flashcards
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Memory games
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Drag and drop tasks
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Branching scenarios
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Interactive modules
Learn What is H5P and Why You Need it.
Microlearning
Learners require stimulus every few seconds to remain engaged. Smaller bite-sized learning topics do not require as much time to learn and digest as, say, a lengthy presentation or video. You can break down the course material into smaller segments that you can even do on a coffee break. Many learners will use their mobile devices for these, so ensure your course is mobile-friendly.
Learn everything there is to know about Microlearning
Blended Learning
Blended learning combines the best features of online and in-person learning. Studies have shown that blended learning increases engagement among learners and provides better comprehension.
By creating a program from the best of both worlds and combining that with the tools mentioned in this guide, you can create a ‘blended’ learning program that reinforces overall course content. This creates a unique, fun, and engaging experience.
Interested in exploring more about blended learning? Check out this blog talking about the benefits of blended learning.
Rewards and Gamification
You have a choice between delivering a static course where the learner is left on their own, or using dynamic content to keep the learner engaged and motivated.
Gamifying and rewarding your students are just a few of the ways you can keep learners motivated and on track to complete their course. Here are some of the best tactics that you can use to accomplish your engagement goals.
Gamification
Gamification in learning is an educational approach that is designed to motivate and encourage students to participate and engage in their course material. It uses elements of video game design on your learning platform to keep learners engaged and to reach a deeper comprehension of the course material. It is an exciting and fun way to learn.
Benefits of Gamification:
- Increases learner engagement
- Improves comprehension and retention
- Enhances the overall experience by making education fun
- Provides the learner with practical situations with which to demonstrate their comprehension
Learn more about how gamification can motivate learners to succeed.
Certification
Everyone loves being rewarded and a certificate that one can proudly post on social media or publish to their LinkedIn profile reminds students why they enrolled. It works by keeping them motivated to see the course through to completion. They view the certificate as a way to improve their life. Many LMS platforms will allow you to customize certificates with your company branding in just a matter of minutes.
Benefits of certification:
- Provides proof of competency
- Improves motivation to stay to a course to completion
- Can often lead to increased workplace and job market value for the learner?
Want to know how to design the custom certificate and what impact it can bring to your training business? Watch this webinar to find answers to all your questions.
Badges
If you are a runner, chances are you have a badge. If you have young children, chances are they love going online to earn badges. Badges are a way to reward your learner for exceptional effort and work to reinforce their commitment to learning.
Include badges such as Power Learner, where your student stayed active on the platform for more than 8 hours. If that learner repeats that process over a weekend, you can offer them a “Power Learning Weekend” badge. There is no limit to how inventive you wish to be with your rewards.
Benefits of using badges:
- Helps learners achieve learning milestones
- Keeps them motivated to learn more
- For self-paced programs, it keeps them motivated
- Paired will course milestones, it keeps them on track to completion
Discussion and Communication
Your LMS should provide ample opportunities for your learners to interact and communicate with instructors and other learners. Today’s LMSs are also social communication tools that allow learners to communicate effortlessly with instructors and their peers.
Analytics will allow you to set up notices and alerts that communicate vital information to the necessary people in your organization. For example, you can set up analytical alerts if your students have not accessed course resources by certain deadlines or if you find that they are not spending the necessary time on the platform.
Today’s learning models like Flipped Classroom and Blended Learning give the learners a voice to better communicate with the instructor and their peers. By embracing an online training platform that provides social learning and social tools, you give your learners the tools to communicate more efficiently.
A reliable LMS will also offer ‘language localization’ features that allow learners in other countries to communicate with their peers in their native language.
Increase Accessibility Through Mobile Learning
Mobile devices help make our lives more convenient. The same is true for the learner. Learners can now access course materials via a mobile device (also referred to as Mlearning). This enables much better communication from learn-to-instructor and learner to learner. Furthermore, by 2025 it is predicted that more than 75% of the world will access the internet by a mobile device.
Final Thoughts
Looking to improve your engagement starts with understanding your engagement goals. What areas of engagement do you wish to improve? As long as you know your desired outcomes, then you can use any one of the many solutions provided in this guide.
The most important takeaway is to find the learning platform that already has the features you are looking for. If you currently do not use such strategies as microlearning, blended learning, interactive content, mobile learning, or use rewards and gamification, perhaps it is time to consider a learning platform that does.
Lambda Suite is a single integrated innovation platform of LMS, Commerce, Analytics, and powerful integrations, to improve performance, engagement, and profitability in the learning ecosystem. Book your free no obligations consultation today.
