6 Ways To Make Sure Your Employees Complete Their eLearning Courses
Employees not completing the eLearning courses assigned to them is a problem that has been troubling corporate organizations across the globe. Certain organizations report that employees do not complete their eLearning courses even though they know that it is going to reflect badly on their performance review. So, what to do in the face of such a challenge? Don’t worry, this article will discuss exactly what to do when you’re fed up with employees not completing their eLearning courses even in the face of penalization.
1. Help Them Understand Why It’s Important
Most employees don’t care about completing eLearning courses because they don’t understand their purpose. Tell them why it benefits them, both before introducing eLearning in your organization, as well as at the start of each eLearning module. eLearning modules should begin with learning objectives or outcomes, along with the fact that how do they connect to an employee’s job role or “What’s in it for me?” section. While this might not motivate all employees to start completing their courses, you’ll certainly see the rational ones start committing to the organization’s eLearning courses.
2. Reward Course Completion
Well, there are only two sorts of motivations, the carrot or the stick i.e. reward or punishment. When employees are ready to skip eLearning courses even though it affects their performance review, that means that the “stick” isn’t working. Reward course completion with badges or certificates (LinkedIn certificates work best), and you’ll see an increase in the number of employees that begin completing their courses. This is so because rewards like badges bestow a sense of accomplishment even though they have no tangible value, and certificates can be flaunted on LinkedIn to show career growth. Leaderboards can also be used to create a sense of competition and motivate employees. All of these features are part of gamification, which is a technique used in eLearning to engage learners by using game dynamics in an eLearning course.
3. Use Microlearning
Employees may not be completing your organization’s eLearning courses because they are too long or take up too much time. Employees are usually already busy with the workload and would like to skip anything that eats too much into their time. Microlearning means that no eLearning course should take longer than 5 minutes to complete and should impart learning in short, concentrated bursts. Microlearning modules use content that has been stripped of all irrelevancies and are quite straightforward. Just make sure you do not create bland courses devoid of interactivities that fail to engage learners at all.
4. Use Quizzes Generously In Your Courses
Research says people like to be quizzed, and particularly about things they’ve learned recently. This works in your favor as you can add short quizzes (feedback or refreshers) at regular intervals in your eLearning courses. This helps in fortifying learned ideas through repetition, and as they are easy, it gives that small accomplishment boost that all learners enjoy.
5. Market Your eLearning Courses Internally
We live in the age of social media, and as it is obvious, we are influenced by it a lot. So are your employees. Marketing your courses internally means turning your eLearning into something fun through teaser posts shared to all employees, as well as contests, rewards, and leaderboards (as mentioned before), as well as winner announcements. This will ensure that your eLearning courses become something which is eagerly awaited. Encourage employees to share their progress. Social media is a part of every employee’s daily lives, and when you take eLearning to that platform, it becomes a part of their daily lives, too.
6. Create Courses That “Wow” Learners
Perhaps, the most common problem employees face is that the eLearning courses are uninspired, glorified PowerPoint presentations with zero engagement that bore them out of their wits. This is why they don’t feel the need to complete them. Modern learners are used to seeing vivid graphics, fun interactivities, music, videos and other such aural and visual appeal every day. If you cannot provide that in your eLearning courses, you won’t be able to capture their attention. Get a good eLearning solutions provider to design your courses, choose a powerful LMS (Learning Management System) so that you can tweak content whenever desired, and give your employees courses of today, and not ones which became outdated a decade ago.
Originally published at cblpro.com.
