How to Keep Students Engaged in Your Online Instructional Courses

Courses online are extremely flexible and can be a powerful tool for a variety of businesses. The blogger can sell classes on cooking, organizing, crafting, or interior design. Accounting firms could offer educational programs about budgeting or taxation. Online music stores might offer virtual guitar lessons along with their materials and sheet music.

No matter what kind of class you provide, student engagement is critical. Interested, invested learners complete the courses, register for more courses, leave favorable reviews, and then recommend your business to their friends.

Let's review some practical ways you can make your courses more engaging.

1. Break your courses into digestible pieces

Attention spans for us aren't that lengthy. Research has reported varying amounts of attention spans, however the majority agree that the adult attention span runs somewhere around 20 minutes.

It's possible that you have high-quality engaging content that you can create an entire curriculumwhich is great! However, your students might not be able be engaged for as long one period of.

A great method to deal with this is to divide your courses into digestible pieces using categories and sub-categories. As an example, if you're selling a class on beginning solids for infants It could be divided into categories like:

• Introduction to Solids
• When to start solid food
• Signs of readiness
• Equipment and gear that is required
• First feeding schedule
• First-rate food items to try
• How do you cut and cut
• Example recipes
• Introducing allergens
• Common food allergens
• Signs to be aware of
• Strategies for serving food that is a source of allergens

Each grouping might contain sections of text, pictures video, or other sources. Students may complete the assignments in their own time -regardless of whether they wish to tackle one at a time , or simply sit down and go through all of them at one time.

Sensei LMS refers to these categories as Courses, Modules and Lessons. It is possible to divide each Course into Modules Then divide each Module into several lessons.

It makes navigation extremely simple for students and allows them to quickly be aware of what's going to happen throughout the course.

2. Design attractive graphic designs

Graphics can be a effective way of engaging your students. Approximately 65% of the general population are visual learners, so not only do images add interest to your courses, they can also help convey concepts more effectively.

There are many ways to include images in your classes. If you're listing data in numerical form, add a chart or graph that reflects that information. If you're looking to compare the differences between two ingredients, include an image of them in a side-by-side comparison. If you're discussing a specific kind of houseplant, include images.

In creating graphics, or selecting images, remember a few basic tips:

• Make sure you choose high-quality photos. While you don't necessarily need to employ an experienced photographer, you should make sure the photos you purchase or shoot look professional. The subject of the photo should always be clear -No blurry photos! -- and the lighting must make the photo easily digestible.
• Take into consideration the white space. White space refers to the blank space around the content of the image. If you've got an inscription or pie chart, you'll want to leave enough area around it to allow the graphic to breath. This helps people better digest the information contained in your graph and comprehend its significance.
• Add photos of people as needed. Human beings are equipped to react to faces, and we naturally turn our attention towards faces. The addition of photos that feature an attractive face will make people feel more connected to the subject and you.
• Avoid getting too complex. Don't add a ton of graphics that compete against one another as well as the content that is educational in your lessons. Keep in mind that your graphics will be used to attract attention, make things more engaging, and aid in learning. Sometimes, simplicity is the most effective strategy.

3. Attract a range of styles of learning

Each person learns differently. There are a variety of methods of learning which is why if you wish to get as involved with your students as possible, you'll appeal to all of them when you can. These are the top four common, and ways you can meet the needs for each kind of learner:

• Read/write Students learn most effectively through words. Provide written directions and other information for them, either in the course's pages or in PDF files that can be downloaded.
• Visual Images, graphics as well as videos work for this type of student. In fact, in an experiment, people remember 95% of a message while watching a film as opposed to only 10% while reading the information. Video can be a powerful way of educating on the internet.
• Auditory The types of students prefer to learn information by listening and speaking. This is why you may provide videos of yourself explaining ideas that your students could watch. You could also provide access to a podcast in your classes, have a weekly Zoom meeting that allows an individual discussion, or integrate songs into your classes.
• Kinesthetic: These students learn through hands-on experiences that benefit from physically exploring things on their own. While this might seem tricky for online education, be creative! Offer sewing patterns for students to try out, give them a list of photos they have to capture for the entire week, or challenge learners with creating a logo themselves.

If you are selling online cooking classes. If you were to appeal to the four different learning styles in one course You could have multiple paragraphs on the underlying principles for making bread rise. You could include an infographic detailing the science behind it, include a video of you demonstrating how to explain the basic principles as well as assigning students to the task of making their own bread loaf.

4. Use a compelling narration

When you're filming video for your classes, an effective narrator can create a significant impact. If you're fond of audiobooks, you probably already know the concept. An uninteresting, boring voiceover could send listeners to sleep. On the other hand, a voiceover with a personality that's interesting and engaging can have the opposite effect.

Your narration must be clear and conveys the mood of your course. Does your subject sound fun and quirky? Serious and sensitive? Relevant and helpful? Your videos should reflect that.

Be sure to set your narration's pace correct and also. It's easy to speak too fast in the voiceovers you use, and this can create a challenge for students to keep up. Listen back to your recordings, and if you're not speaking in a timely manner take a break and start again.

Do not try to sound like your favourite voiceover artists. You're not going to sound anything like Morgan Freeman no matter how you attempt, and that's not what students are looking for. Simply be you!

If you think that's not your forte, that's okay. There are great professional voiceover talents available to hire that don't cost more than a few dollars.

5. Include quizzes and polls

Questions and polls can be an effective way to see how much your students absorb and learning about, and engage them at the highest degree. They also allow you to break down your material with things that are fun and interesting.

The best way to start every lesson with a questionnaire. You can ask questions to help instruct students or invite them to talk about something enjoyable about their own lives. What can they expect to gain from your class? What's their biggest accounting pain problem? What is their top song? How many cakes have they baked?

And then, you can mix and match tests throughout your lesson. Through Sensei LMS, quizzes are tied to the lessons. So you can create questions in response to the lessons that a student just completed. Combining different types of questions -- multiple choice, false/true, fill in the blank, short answer, and so on. -- can also keep the conversation interesting.

It is possible to set types of questions like multiple choice or true/false to be auto-graded, then manually grade open-ended and non-sequential questions by you. This allows you to find areas of improvement to your course, and contact any students who might need a little additional assistance.

6. Form a community

One of the major difference between the physical and online educational environments is the communities involved. Online students do not have the privilege of sitting next to other people taking the same class talking about topics, and asking questions out in front of them.

Create a similar atmosphere by creating the help of an online community through a social media site like Facebook or using an WordPress plugin, such as bbPress. It is possible to divide subjects up by module or lesson, or base them off of student characteristics (like age of the children, location, or instrument they're learning). These communities give students the chance to debate topics with one another to brainstorm ideas, pose for clarification, or build friendships that encourage them to keep learning.

7. Incorporate gamification

Gamification applies principles from gaming -- for example, point scoring and competition -and other forms of communication including online learning. It is an excellent place to get creative! Here are a few ideas:

• Incorporate quizzes, challenges and other activities into your lessons
• Awards points for activities such as completing assignments and scoring high on tests and so on. The award will include a prize for the student who scores the most
• Reward students who frequently engage in your forums by awarding them badges
• Include a timer to your courses for students to be motivated to complete an entire course
• Students should post their results on social media

The incorporation of gamification into learning makes it more engaging and stimulates healthy competition, making your classes more enjoyable for students.

8. Know what your target audience is seeking.

The best method to make your classes interesting for students is to provide what they're looking for. If you can answer their questions and aid them in reaching the goals they set, they'll be more likely to be able to finish your class, give it an outstanding review, and even recommend it to acquaintances and relatives.

After that, you can adjust the program's contents and structure as necessary to meet their expectations.

It's all about your students

When it comes down to the matter, your learners online will be at the center of all you do. And if you keep their requirements in mind while creating your content for courses and structuring your class, you'll be able to keep them interested, engaged, and buying more.

Need more ideas? Read this article by Sensei LMS on making online courses that are effective..