Adopt eLearning Interactivity To Keep Busy Learners Engaged In A Busy World
Here are some ways to include interaction and engagement into your eLearning content.
1. Immersive Scenarios And Delayed Consequences
Immersive scenarios put your learners right in the middle of the action. Here, they have the ability to test a variety of approaches without the fear of real-world damage. In branching scenarios, your learners are free to make decisions and travel down different paths based on the decision they take. If they make a mistake, they face the consequences and then try again. It is better to make mistakes in the virtual world instead of the real world.
Make sure you use settings and characters that your learners are able to identify with. If you can use real-life cases, then there is nothing better! The plot should help the learners relate to their job role. That way, they can recall and apply their learning if they face a similar situation at work. After all, training is all about enhancing performance.
2. 360 And/Or Interactive Videos
Videos are one of the best interactive tools of eLearning. They provide visual examples and help the learners explore the content at their own pace. It is predicted that by 2019, interactive videos will take over almost 80% of internet traffic. So, learning videos may be your best option to boost learner retention and information engagement.
With interactive videos, your learners need to engage multiple senses in order to understand and respond. As opposed to traditional videos, you can build in assessments within the interactive videos in order to check the understanding of your learners. These videos provide branching options too. Your learner can progress to different paths based on what decisions they have taken. Your employees can access these videos from any device – laptop, mobile, tablet, and so on.
3. Gamification And Mechanics
Studies indicate that gamification in eLearning will reach almost $319 billion by 2020. You may wonder what is so great about including game mechanics in eLearning. Well, it works wonders for learner engagement. Gamification makes learning fun for your employees. If they enjoy learning a skill, they will be invested in the course. Their recall and retention rate will be high. Learners receive instant feedback so they know where they went wrong. They will not repeat that behavior at work. The leaderboards and other rewards help boost their motivation levels and ensure that they remain hooked to the learning. Most importantly, gamification drives behavioral change in learners when it is combined with spaced repetition and repeated retrieval.
4. Storytelling And Branched Outcomes
Stories impact individuals even in this digital era. It is one of the most successful instructional strategies used in developing eLearning. A great way to keep your learners hooked to a topic is to teach it with the help of a story. When you explain a topic or a concept with the help of a story, the learners find it easier to remember and relate to it. Cleverly crafted plots bring along an emotional connect. It coaxes learners to engage in the training and perform the desired behaviors.
Make sure that your story is realistic and the message is conveyed clearly. The characters and the situations you use should be relevant to the job role of the learners. Or else, how will they relate to the content? Do not make it a long winding story with too many details. Focus on a protagonist, the challenges he faces, and how he overcomes it.
These are just a few tips that encourage learner engagement. There are several other ways to build engagement and interaction. I hope you found it helpful!
