8 tips on how to boost your e-learning course
So, you have an idea. You want to provide online learning to your staff, or a wider audience, and you know what you want to say. After all, you are the expert in your niche - clearly, you’re ready to create a bunch of great content for your Learners, and it’ll be a success. Right?
Well, no. It may not be quite that easy. Knowing your niche and knowing how to teach others through online training effectively are two very different things.
Our Geneva and Lausanne e-Learning teams here at TheLearning LAB have 8 quick tips for you on training and development standards which will boost your eLearning project. Our aim is to provide world-class learning, and for eLearning courses to be the best possible experience for all Learners. So if you need a little guidance, look no further!
Boosting eLearning courses: first steps and smart moves.
A great LMS and great courses are not enough to attract learners to your platform, and you will have to do a certain amount of promoting. Marketing aside, there are a few reasons why Learners may not stick around if they do make it to your course, and most of them centre around a simple concept: Learners do not come to an eLearning course to have to teach themselves.
Issues which can serve as an immediate dealbreaker to Learners include:
The courses are not up to date or seem irrelevant.
Insufficient time management options are provided to Learners.
Courses are too long-winded and wordy.
The Learner doesn’t understand the goal or the purpose of the course.
Even when producing in-house training courses, which require far less extensive marketing campaigns, you will need to do what it takes to get the Learners on board. No one learns well when they feel they’re trudging through mud to get to the completion of a lesson.
Need some help? Read these 8 tips from our specialists at our Geneva-based e-learning agency, and give your organisation a chance to improve your KPI attainment.
1. Accept and use the right support.
This one might seem a little obvious, but… make sure you select a creative agency to turn your courses into engaging content. Your goal is to make sure your Learners continue coming back to your content, and no one knows how to get this done better than the specialists. You’re the expert in your field, but there’s no shame in needing other experts to help you convey your expertise to a wider audience! Your Learners will thank you, trust us.
2. We’re a mobile species.
Go mobile and think mobile! Your Learners will come to your platform while they are in the car, on the train, or maybe even from their living room couch… so make sure all the content is suitable for mobile devices. Videos and podcasts are big winners in this sense!
3. Communication is key.
Never stop communicating about your course! Promote your courses every which way: newsletters, social media visibility, corporate website announcements, notifications, online campaigns… visibility is key, especially when you’re starting out.
4. See the value of what’s right in front of you.
Use your own staff to promote your courses, produce testimonials and have them genuinely provide you with feedback on usability and more. Create a feedback loop and look to fun tools such as gamification and friendly competition to challenge each other.
5. Add company heavyweights into the mix.
When introducing in-house eLearning for your staff, involve your top management in the process to explain the benefit and the importance to train. Get your leaders on board to motivate and challenge your communities. You could even place, e.g. a leaderboard on the homepage, giving exposure to the highest-achieving members of the learning community. Send an email to their manager when a Learner as completed a course with extraordinary success. Get the manager to communicate with their staff about their achievements. Reward performance and self-development.
6. Your brand dictates your course value.
Certification is a brand exercise; your learners must see the value of having been awarded a certificate of completion with your organisation’s name on it. So eLearning is also about brand value as a whole! Work with an agency who knows how to manage your image and convey your message, and ensure you become a respected name in your field.
7. Nobody wants swathes of information thrown at them.
Invest in micro-learning courses. It may be a bit more work to produce myriad short courses, but if you go for bite-sized learning opportunities your audience will be far more engaged.
8. Clear objectives and a clear purpose are the paths to success.
The learners must see the link between the courses and the overall company objectives. Why else would they take part? Questions to ask yourself, and to clarify to the Learners, include whether the course will reflect well on them when they apply for, e.g. a promotion, what it adds to their value within the organisation.
There you have it, our 8 quick tips to better eLearning for your organisation. Want to know more? Feel free to contact us for a consultation!
Here at TheLearning LAB in Geneva, Switzerland, we know what it takes to build an excellent e-Learning platform that is both user-friendly and easily updated and maintained. There is nothing more integral to e-Learning than communication and social connectedness, and we help organisations attain these goals in a meaningful and timely manner.