Personas Can Drive Engagement, Improve eLearning Experience

After going through the effort of creating eLearningcourses, designers want learners to actually engage with the content and usethe information provided. Yet too often, they don’t. Why is that?

Years of testing and tracking have led marketers to aninsight that improves content consumption, engagement, and retention, and candrive behavior change: Use personas.

In creating personas, the biggest mistake people make is toconfuse personas with demographics. Personas do account for keydemographic points, such as gender, age range, income bracket, and location,which may be the source of the confusion. But, among employees, details such asdivision, title, years with the company, etc. should be considered demographicinformation, not persona information.

The distinction matters because, while the demographicdetails provide some helpful context, these are not the points of connectionthat will resonate with a learner. What drives engagement and behavior changeis an interaction that resonates on an emotional level—and emotion is whatpersonas help eLearning designers tap into at scale.

A single persona is rarely sufficient for marketing oreLearning purposes; most organizations will have between three and fivepersonas. These will cross employees’ proximity to the corner office, yearswith the company, business unit, etc. A few key characteristics will helpdefine internal personas for eLearning:

• Learners’ pain points
• Learners’ and managers’ goals
• Where learners go for information

While one can go deeper, to maximize using personas foreLearning content development, keeping to these key points will make theprocess more manageable.

Tips for creating and using personas

Start by interviewing a cross section of employees—ideallyin person, but using phone or video chat if necessary, and an email survey as alast resort. Use questions designed to tease out the key information identifiedabove. Ask why for each response.

Personas dig into the reasons people do things—and this isthe key to motivating learners and changing behavior. Once designers understandthe reasons for learners’ behavior around learning, they can consider how tosegment courses or curricula and address the pain points, goals, andmotivations for each persona.

For example, if there is a persona who mainly goes to YouTubefor information, then make sure to provide videoversions of content offerings. If a large number of learners prefer textingwith peers, then text, microlearning,just-in-time, easy-to-search, and perhaps chatbot-drivendelivery would work better.

Pay attention to the mood and intensity of responses as wellas learners’ body language when conducting interviews. Are the learner’s shouldersslumped in defeat? Or is the learner waving her arms in excitement? Theseconvey very different motivations and expectations. If someone’s expectations arenot met, both your and their time have been wasted, no matter the actualquality of the content.

However, if you provide variations that would meet bothattitudes described, then everyone wins. To accomplish this, have language thatacknowledges and helps the person who is feeling defeated—and a version thattaps into the excitement of the other person and reinforces what’s possible.The core content remains the same, but the presentation, phrasing, title,imagery, etc. shifts.

Track which version people consume. Deliver the eLearninginto (tracked) branches or offer content geared to different personas asentirely different courses, which learners choose between. Depending on howyour LMS is configured, one approach might work better, especially for managersassigning learning to employees.

Personas can help eLearning designers connect learners with eLearningcontent and drive improved results.

Learn how personas improve user experience

Lynne McNamee will present PassionateAbout Personas: Increasing Engagement and Streamlining Developmentin The eLearning Guild’s August 1 Spotlight, ExploringUser Experience Design. The other event presenters are ScottMcCormick, Melissa Milloway, and Becca Wilson.

This live online event will discuss practical ways to useapproaches from the UXfield in your own work, review techniques and strategies that will help youbetter understand your audience, and look at ways to design and test solutionsbased on that information. Registernow!