The online learning industry has witnessed massive growth in the last few years. The data also predicts that eLearning will continue to grow in popularity for the foreseeable future.
This doesn’t come as a surprise at all. I mean, people are constantly looking for a way to improve their skills. Online courses provide that opportunity while keeping the costs involved low.
However, as the course creator, you do have the responsibility of ensuring your program is engaging. Failure to do so results in a low completion rate which would dramatically affect the performance of your course.
So, how exactly can you make your online course more fun? Here are a few tips to get you on the right track:
- Understand Your Students
Your online course students are like the customers of a business. Now, a business cannot claim to solve a customer’s problem without understanding their customers, can they? The same logic applies in the online course industry.
Before you can create a fun and engaging course, you need to understand who your audience or students are. Identify their pain points and know what makes them tick. Once you have all this information, refine your course to make it suit their needs.
- Encourage Student Engagement
Good teachers encourage students to be part of the discussion. In fact, most students will master a subject much more easily when they are actively involved.
Therefore, do not isolate your students by doing all the teaching and forcing them to do the listening. Even instructors with the highest online course expertise know that involving students is important. So don’t ignore your audience.
There are various ways of engaging your students. For instance, after discussing a certain subject, you can leave behind a small quiz for your students. Ask them to complete the quiz before having a look at the answers in the next section. Not only does this test their understanding, but it also keeps them active during your course.
- Include Audiovisuals And Other Media In Your Course
A good online course takes advantage of different types of media to drive the point home while keeping the students engaged. For instance, if you feel a certain subject is best explained through a vivid chart, don’t waste too much time explaining it with your words alone. Create the chart and walk your students through it.
So, analyze your course and ask yourself whether every subject is presented in the best way possible. If not, find the necessary resources to make the course better. It could be a quiz, checklist, voice-over, guide, downloadable templates, or a mix of different media.
- Keep Your Modules Short
If you want your students to pay more attention during the course, then keep the modules short. But, here is the thing, humans have a very short attention span. In fact, our attention span is said to be shorter than that of goldfish. Therefore, if you create long modules that go on and on, chances are most of the students will switch off within the first few minutes.
To avoid this, you have to keep your modules short. This will keep your students engaged during the class. It will also help them draw more value from your course since shorter modules are easier to digest.
Something else you shouldn’t overlook is the overall structure of your course. A good online course has a cohesive structure. Each module builds up from the last and equips students with the knowledge they need to understand the next module. This structure makes the course easier to understand. Consequently, it reduces the risk of your students losing interest in the course.
- Gamify
Gamification is a great way to keep students hooked to the course. When executed correctly, it motivates the students to continue learning. Even better, it encourages students to master the subject in order to earn badges, points, or a spot on the leaderboard.
So search the internet for gamification ideas that can work for your specific course and students.
- Create A Separate Forum For Discussions
Lastly, create a forum where the learners can engage with you and fellow students. You can do this with a private Facebook group.
Use this forum to answer your student’s questions and for networking. You can even create a schedule to break down some of these modules in an interactive session with your students.
This is also a great platform to collect feedback from your students.
Those are some of the most effective techniques of making an online course more fun. It’s also advisable to test the course before launch. You can give it out to a few test students to go through the course and submit a review. This will help you make the course better before you finally make it available to the general public.