📍 Less than one in three learners are finishing your course? Before discussing solutions, here's something to reassure you: completion rates for non-mandatory courses rarely exceed 25%. That said, it's no reason to give up. Here are our four tips to boost engagement!
⏱️ Offer a course duration suited to your learners' daily schedules
When creating a course, we often want it to be rich, detailed, and comprehensive! The problem is, the more content you include, the more time it will take your learners. And sometimes, that time doesn't align with your learners' practical realities.
For example: You're offering an accounting course for self-employed professionals. These learners are likely to engage with your course when a client cancels and they have a few spare minutes. Including 5-minute videos for every explanation or modules with more than five exercises is a bad idea—they won't have time to complete it!
➡️ In practice: Break it into bite-sized pieces
Limit to no more than five exercises per module.
If your course has five or more modules, create chapters.
If you have a cohort of learners, release modules gradually rather than all at once.
🎯 Focus on what matters to your learners
As you probably know, our attention spans and memory are limited. The same goes for our motivation: we're willing to undertake a task, but only for a certain duration. Once that limit is exceeded, fatigue sets in—especially if the content isn't meeting our needs.
For example: A few years ago, we created a "Learning How to Learn" course that lasted two hours. It was far too long for our learners because it's the kind of subject that doesn't have immediate or short-term impacts on their professional daily lives. So, we reduced it to 30 minutes... and paradoxically, learners spent more time on it than when it lasted two hours!
➡️ In practice: simplify
Review each error or expected change: If an error is too rare, remove the corresponding exercise from the course.
Revise each explanation: Are all the details essential? Aim for a maximum of two main ideas per explanation.
Streamline your course introduction screen (often overloaded): No more than two sections (in addition to the authors').
✨ Illustrate and enhance: make your course appealing
Imagine: your learners love your exercise—they fully relate to the situation and have pondered deeply to find the right answer. What could be worse than concluding this experience with a long block of encyclopaedic text? Yet, this is something we see very often.
➡️ In practice:
Simplify (we can't emphasise this enough 😜).
Organise content into visual blocks or dialogue bubbles.
Add micro-challenges: They are often highly appreciated by learners!
Record yourself explaining the key points (we use Loom for this).
🤝 Strengthen learners connections
One of the main sources of motivation is feeling part of a group. Without delving into complex logistics, sometimes a launch webinar and a WhatsApp group are enough to ignite enthusiasm.
➡️ In practice:
Organise a workshop around the micro-challenges: Which ones did they prefer? How has it changed their practice?
Create a WhatsApp group to centralise information about the course, allowing them to ask questions and receive bonuses.
Keywords: learner engagement, course completion, e-learning strategies, bite-sized learning, simplifying content, visual learning aids, micro-challenges, community building, online learning motivation
Still have questions? For any queries or assistance, our support team is at your disposal via chat/messenger. 💬