You are wondering how and where to add more fun and engagement to your online learning course?
Well, you’re not alone.
There are a lot of factors that contribute to the overall effectiveness of online learning support, such as courseware, instructional design, vector, etc. But one way that can certainly work is by optimizing the best learning course features.
There’s a lot to your online learning system.
It isn’t just lectures, homework, and tests.
The reality today is that people have been getting bored with the same old learning approach of blank slides and mind-numbing video clips.
Your system should take the boredom out of learning; it should engross learners and inspire them. Here are some strategies for increasing engagement in your course…
1. Make learning fun
The essential attribute of your e-learning course is the way you teach the subject and the pedagogies you use.
Are you a good teacher?
Do you arouse the curiosity of your students in the subject?
Make your video lectures fun by adding a narrative to your lecture, sharing real-life examples to relate to concepts, and incorporating humour to create a bond with your students.
Don’t read the pages of the textbook aloud flatly; include emotion in your speech, use visuals like pictures or animations, and ask questions in class to captivate learners.
These techniques will make your learners enjoy learning the subject and consequently make your course more engaging. This difference in teaching style will make your course stand out from others and cannot be overlooked.
Remember, the fundamental purpose of taking your online course is to teach a particular subject, so ensure that this purpose is solved.
2. Create an online learning community
Encourage your students to collaborate and communicate.
Being a part of a student forum or any online community will make learners feel involved.
A medium through which learners can help each other out, ask questions, and discuss ideas gives them a classroom vibe, increasing engagement.
The teacher can also use such communication platforms to solve the queries of students.
3. Encourage teamwork
Another aspect that is missing from most online courses is teamwork. Divide the learners into groups and assign tasks to each group, urging them to split the workload, improve their communication, and induce a sense of teamwork. You can even conduct regular contests among the learners in teams to further enhance your students’ engagement.
4. Gamify your course
What makes a video game so addictive and engaging?
Online classes don’t have to mean frustratingly slow progress or lonely effort.
Make the most out of technology by gamifying your online course so that your students have a real incentive to study hard.
You can start by introducing a points system that awards points to a student for completing homework assignments or answering a question correctly in class.
Then, you can create a leaderboard or ranking system where students are ranked based on their progress or by the points system proposed earlier.
Using this kind of reward scheme is a real motivator for students and has proven to encourage students to compete with each other constructively and increase engagement.
5. Provide adequate resources
When it comes to e-learning, students are essentially on their own, making it necessary to provide enough resources.
With the rapid advancements in technology, resources aren’t limited to recorded video lessons, lecture notes, and interactive quizzes anymore. Provide each student with a personal dashboard where all the lectures, assignments, and tests are uploaded.
Teachers can also use dashboards to track their students’ progress, integrated with tools like progress charts, graphs, databases, and schedules. Resources like animations, visuals, and drawing tools should be leveraged by teachers and made available to students.
Even online forums, leaderboards, and points systems discussed earlier are a part of learning resources. In any online environment providing sufficient resources can make a big difference in creating an engaging learning environment.
6. Set goals
Whether it be a certificate or a final project, your course should have an end target.
Remind the students of this outcome throughout the course, and enlighten them on what they will be capable of or qualified for on completing the course.
Having such a certification associated with your system makes it more attractive and works wonders in keeping learners motivated. In addition to having an ultimate goal, you can also have weekly goals and include a timetabling tool in each student’s dashboard to increase student engagement further.
7. Use multiple teaching formats
Most e-learning courses use a single format approach to their course’s instructional design, but research suggests that the most efficient process is to use multiple teaching formats.
The combination of self-paced learning, live sessions, and one on one interactions is a promising strategy to use for your online course. To implement this model, the first step is to “flip the classroom”.
Content and resources are made available to each student for learning at their own pace.
Live sessions then support this structure to cater to the needs of students, i.e. focus on the topics that the student finds difficult.
You can also adhere to the concept of blended learning, where some selected topics are taught live while other simpler ones are allocated to students for learning on their own.
Include one-on-one sessions to spotlight each student and provide the personal attention required for mastery of the subject. These sessions boost the students academically, but they also give the teachers a chance to provide regular feedback to the students; with the constant guidance of the teachers, the learners can make their learning process even more efficient.
One more invaluable advantage of these private sessions is that they make the learner feel valued.
In online learning, there is a tendency for isolation of the learners leading them to quit the course before completion. Still, with teachers’ constant attention and counselling, the learner feels a sense of worth which boosts their confidence.
The well-being of the learners is a vital component of a successful course.
Conclusion
The most crucial aspect of your online course is its instructional design; the user experience and satisfaction define the success of an online learning course.
Unless learning content is delivered in a way that suits individual learning styles, learners may experience boredom or find it difficult to comprehend certain concepts.
Thus, the most effective way to grow your online business is to find ways to make it more engaging, and by using the techniques mentioned above, you can breathe new life into your online learning course.
Originally published on edisonos.com.
