E-Learning: 9 Tips to actively engage your students

This article will give you 9 tips, resulting from years of experience in the industry, to actively engage students in your e-learning courses by increasing their level of learning and minimizing distractions and neglect.

Table of Contents

#1- Make the courses … Relevant

First, the topics covered in an e-learning course should be relevant to the course itself. Headings and subheadings should clearly describe what the student is expected to read, deduce and learn from that specific content.

#2- Make the courses … Updated

The knowledge, especially in some specific areas (for example in the technological), changes the speed of light. The news of yesterday are today’s old news. We live in a fast paced world, constantly changing, highly competitive, where you can catch up on the latest happenings / developments is essential for learning. Your content, therefore, should always be up-to-date, if you do not want your students will abandon (very) soon.

#3- Make the courses … Simple

When creating an e-learning course, using a clear and simple language and tries to not use (or use as little as possible) the technical jargon. While in some areas it is really critical (such as in the medical field or technological), in the other areas best avoided, since it is not particularly appreciated by users.

#4- Make the courses … Airy / bright

Absolutely avoids text walls (wall of text ) because they discourage reading by users. Enter only what is that relevant and necessary. No unnecessary sentences, keep “fresh and light” content. If you are using multimedia tools, in the same way, do not overdo filling (unnecessarily) the course of this content.

#5- Make the courses … Interesting

A course is not made of just textual content. The correct use of color (such as the background color and the use of a combination of appropriate color), font (type and size of the characters), and appropriate use of images and other multimedia tools, maintain a high level of interest of your learners.

#6- Make the courses … Cleaned

Keep the simple courses, instant screen. A clean screen and without distractions will maintain high levels of concentration for a longer period of time. But what is “a distraction”? Anything that draws the reader’s attention and move away from the study material and learning.

#7- Make the courses … Interactive

Learners tend to get bored if they are not invited to perform actions, so always Favor the interaction, for example by inviting them to click on a link to go to another page, in-depth, make a summary test / quiz, watch a video (or any other multimedia product), of course, all aimed at improving the learning process and always without exaggeration (too much user interaction generates distraction).

#8- Make the courses … Mix

The so-called Blended learning consists of a (proper) combination of the online and offline learning. And an absolutely recommended approach because it allows to offer students the best of both worlds and enables a holistic approach to learning.

#9- Be brief

The attention that a human being is able to have, unfortunately, is (very) low; it is therefore essential to keep your e-learning courses short. Avoid providing information that is ultimately not relevant for learners.