9 Benefits of Characters in Elearning Course
Growing your business through eLearning course development can be an effective way to boost the productivity of your workforce and deliver valuable training that your employees need in order to grow with the organization.
Using characters in eLearning course development will make it easier for learners to identify with what they’re learning, get their point across more effectively, and help them internalize the subject matter better.
These are the top 9 benefits of characters in eLearning course development, along with strategies on how to implement them effectively into your content.
1) Characters in Elearning Helps You Connect with Users
eLearning characters, whether they are a person or an animal, help to connect users with your brand. When creating eLearning courses for your company, it is important to use characters and illustrations that have been created specifically for you and your audience.
With character development, companies can express their personality through their new content, reach a wider audience and increase engagement with users by making them more eager to learn from your team members.
Now that's something we can all get excited about! An attractive, engaging character will make even boring information seem like fun.
2. Elearning Characters Helps You Create an Emotional Connection
Knowing what it takes to create strong emotions within learners is one of those things most experienced designers know how to do without really thinking about it—they just have the know-how. It’s pretty basic stuff: lighten up dark subjects; amp up bright ones; present logically reasoned arguments as dramatic scenes; be relaxed and upbeat where appropriate; then deliver bad news as gently as possible (meaning: don’t hide negatives entirely). If a design lesson feels real — if it plays out like some kind of drama — its meaning becomes connected to emotion, not just rationality or fact.
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3) Elearning Characters Work Without a Strict Narrative
One thing to keep in mind when developing an eLearning course is that you don’t always need a clear, linear narrative. In fact, some courses have no set beginning or end; they simply exist. This allows characters to be included.
A character doesn’t need a backstory because they already live inside your eLearning course—it gives them (and your learners) purpose and direction without needing lengthy introductions or unnecessary backstories.
4) Elearning Characters Show Different Perspectives
Another benefit of using characters in Elearning is that it helps to see different perspectives on a subject, not just yours. People like to relate and empathize with others in a similar situation or with a shared problem. They may be able to better relate to characters as opposed to reading your experiences.
Whether it’s fictional or based on someone’s real-life journey, adding characters can enhance an eLearning course by providing new perspectives for learners. If you have multiple people contributing content to your courses, characters can also help tie all their information together.
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5) Characters Add Personality To Your Elearning Course
To ensure an engaging learning experience, characters can be used to add personality and fun to any eLearning course. For example, if a training session is supposed to teach users how to troubleshoot a specific problem, a character can be used to play on their emotions: This customer is extremely upset! What will you do? Not only does adding characters add emotion and engagement to your eLearning content, but they also improve performance. That’s because research shows that humanizing computer interfaces helps people learn more effectively. Simply put: We're just more apt to pay attention when we see a face.
6) Elearning Character Strive for Realism
It’s important to create characters that are as realistic as possible, otherwise, learners may be too distracted by their own imaginations or preconceived notions about what it would be like to live with a chihuahua (or a double-headed snake) for companionship. This could lead to confusion, or even worse—a lack of focus. It’s also important to keep an eye on how your character speaks and interacts with other characters in your eLearning course. A nurturing mother should probably sound different than a gruff drill sergeant—even if they are both fictional characters. Character voice can make or break an otherwise engaging elearning experience.
7. Elearning Character Reduce Boredom
When we’re bored, our minds wander—often to negative places. If you don’t want your learners to be bored, there are a few things you can do. One is to make sure that all activity is actually contributing to learning goals.
Another is by making sure that your content isn’t just text-based (which, let’s face it, can be boring). Having characters drive home information can increase learner engagement and foster recall, allowing for better retention and completion rates. In fact, research has shown that eLearning with characters makes learners 38% more engaged than traditional courseware, 62% more likely to achieve performance targets, and 60% more likely to recommend an eLearning course.
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8) Elearning Characters Simplify Complex Concepts
Study after study has shown that both adults and children learn better when concepts are presented with characters or through a narrative. An eLearning platform like TheLearning LAB that allows you to develop courses with character-driven content can make your life much easier, as it offers a simplified process for developing eLearning content—giving you more time to focus on storytelling.
Incorporating animations or videos is also a great way to engage learners and make complicated concepts feel less intimidating. If you want to build an effective course, keep in mind that education doesn’t need to be dry or boring. Keep things interesting by bringing some fun into your curriculum!
9) Elearning Characters Improve Engagement
Human-centered design can help make characters more relatable and help users better engage with your eLearning course. In fact, one study found that learners retained almost 40% more information from a computer-based training (CBT) program when
human characters were used instead of faceless text.
And, research shows that learning is improved for both high and low performers when an actor provides feedback on performance to improve self-confidence and personalize learning.
The bottom line? Make your eLearning character real by crafting them as real people. This will not only increase engagement but also help foster a deeper transfer of learning—even if it's just for a few minutes!
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Top 9 Benefits of Characters in Elearning Course Development in 2022
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By embedding characters into your eLearning course, you can engage learners by giving them a persona to connect with. In fact, studies have shown that users feel significantly more connected to a character than they do to any other non-character element.
This allows users to relate more personally and even empathize with your character, resulting in increased engagement and motivation throughout eLearning course development.