How To Increase Your eLearning Course Completion Rate
Do you know that 22% of University students won’t finish the course they started in a particular year? Even more shocking is the revelation, based on a study by the University of Scranton, that just a measly 8% of people will achieve their resolutions in a particular year. What does this mean for your eLearning system? It means a good portion of students won’t be completing your courses. While a 100% eLearning course completion rate is difficult to achieve, you can significantly increase the chances of people completing your courses. Here are 6 tips to do this.
1. Leverage Push Technology
A whopping 46% of smartphone users say that they can’t live without their smartphones, and a significantly higher percentage of people spend most of their day on their smartphones. We’re becoming increasingly mobile, and for most people most of their day is spent on smartphones and other mobile devices. How do you reach out to these people? Through push notifications.
Push notifications work both on desktop computers and mobile devices. They allow you to send a notification directly to people’s screens -without them having to open a website, an email client, or a mobile app- with a message of your choice. This allows you to constantly remind them, at the right time and with a guarantee that they will see your message, to encourage them to continue a course or complete an assignment.
2. Leverage Email Automation
If you simply rely on people having to come to your eLearning portal by themselves every day, you’ll eventually realize that a higher percentage of students won’t bother to check in for long periods of time.
We’re getting increasingly busy, with various challenges, and there are often various distractions that pop up. One of the most effective ways to guarantee a higher eLearning course completion rate is to leverage email automation - there are lots of email service providers that you can choose from. Ideally, you should go with a provider that can be easily integrated with your Learning Management System.
Depending on the nature of your courses, you can send follow up emails every day or a few times a week - including specific courses, resources, and assignments required of students. This email-based follow up system alone will significantly boost eLearning course completion rate.
3. Introduce A Human Touch
Sometimes, email and push notification just won’t work - some people are very busy, and they know that these means of follow up is automated so they are less likely to take it very seriously. In this case, the solution is to make things more personal and introduce a human touch.
Assign a “learning advisor” to every student using your eLearning platform; they should know that this advisor is a real person assigned specifically to them. The advisor should regularly reach out to them - it could be via email and/or phone call. The fact that they feel that there’s a real person at the other end who is constantly monitoring and following up with them will boost engagement and course completion.
4. Create An App For Your eLearning System
Research shows that a massive 88% of U.S. smartphone users now spend 88% of their time on a smartphone within an app. Just as people are becoming increasingly mobile, your strategy for getting them to use your eLearning system should be mobile. It’s surprising to find out that only a measly 18% of companies use mobile applications as a part of their eLearning system.
If you don’t have an app for your eLearning system, it is time to set one up; create an app that directly integrates with your eLearning system, and that allow people to partake in courses on the go -in your app- as if they were directly inside your eLearning platform.
5. Survey Your Users
If you keep noticing a consistently low course completion rate, then perhaps there is another issue you’re unaware of - maybe it’s how your courses are structured, difficulty in using, or a bug with, your eLearning platform or something else. Survey your users: Ask them why they aren’t completing their courses, and make necessary revisions to your system.
6. Introduce Groups And Interactivity
People are more likely to feel involved when they are part of a group. In fact, peer groups are so important that research shows that they help students perform better in tests and exams. Peer groups also increase people’s commitments and probability of following through.
Introduce a forum, community or some other kind of group environment that your eLearning students can be a part of. This will increase their chances of completing your courses.
