Tips for Increasing Engagement in Online Learning

Often times, tips for engaginglearners in corporate online learning include external features and noveldelivery methods. These range from using animations, “real-life” scenarios, game-design, leaderboards, andbadges. But with learners actually spending more time learning and developingthemselves outside of the corporate learning infrastructure, knowing what isappealing for them could have us directing our efforts and attention in a morefocused approach that leads to greater engagement, activity and—moreimportantly—results.

Here are some tips based on learner preferences that could give you theresults that you are seeking.

Contextually relevant content

In a recent survey of over 4,000 business people,the preferred way of learning in the workplace was overwhelmingly “knowledgesharing amongst the team.” When you also consider that learners arepredominantly motivated to learn online so they can do their jobs better and faster, then contextually relevant content is ano-brainer. Linking learning to the work—and the organization—will helplearners to make the connections between content and application. However, inthe traditional world of eLearning this would be far too expensive andtime-consuming, and that is why rapid content-creation tools are becoming morepopular, so that the people who “know” and “do” can share what they know and dowith those who need it—quickly and easily.

Respect learners as adults

The external features and novel delivery methods I mentionedabove are fine, when used intelligently. However, if your online strategy is todesign games, leaderboards, and mostly animated content then you had betterhave one outstanding game-design team. Even Disney initially struggled to crackthe games market. This is because it is incredibly difficult and… Wait aminute, why am I talking about games when people just want to be better attheir jobs? If your online learning is off the mark, then adding game-designand animations won’t improve your results. And anyway, is that how you prefer to learn? Quite likely not.Instead, just get people who know and do to explain what they know and do andthe impact it has for them.

Make it real. Get real people involved—and see real results.

UX (User Experience)

People today have access to almost infinite resources onlinethat can help them to understand and learn what they need for theirprofessional development. The internet has provided quick and intuitive accessto information, expertise, and know-how. This “consumerization” of learningmeans that people have developed preferences for what they want and don’t want toengage with. In an interview in May, 2015 Josh Bersin pointed out that “people today are finding the learningexperience inside their company is not nearly as nice as the learningexperiences on YouTube or other external providers.” LMSs are often shunnedbecause they are clunky, not at all intuitive, and content within them(regardless of how useful it might be) is buried several clicks within theplatform. For greater engagement, learning professionals need to think outsidethe LMS if it’s not delivering results. And if you’re worried about another system making sense to learners,look at your smartphone and all the applications you have. I bet you ignore theones that don’t work for you and use the ones that do. We all do.

And on that topic…

Mobile

We often grab the information we need, when we think of it—ormore importantly, when and where we need it. Google goes so far as to say we’vebeen “trained to expect immediacy and relevance in our moments of intent.” We often go to our devices during downtime, when we’retravelling, waiting, or filling time in other ways and employees are learning far more from outside of the corporate infrastructure during these periods.

It’s no longer forward-thinkingto have a mobile L&D offering—it is the world we’ve been living in forquite some time. So, to not offer mobile learning now could be deemed asbackward.

Build trust

If 67 percent of millennials believe they can learn anything from YouTube (as the previous link to “Think with Google” says),the fact that they can or they can’t is irrelevant—they have enough experienceand trust to believe they can. You can’t build this level of trust overnight—especiallywith more than 70 percent of employees going to web-search as their firstport-of-call when they want to learn something for their job. The opportunityfor our online learning is to help people to grab what they want when they needit to perform.

Make content short, make it contextually relevant, use video,and make it real. Create the place employees know they can go when they want tobe better at their jobs.