It can be hard to know how to get the most out of your online training courses. Here are some best practices for maximizing the value of your enrollments:
Keep courses short. Respect your learners’ time. According to our four-year study of over 45,000 courses, courses that are under 15 minutes have a 15% higher completion rate than those that are 15 minutes or longer.
Combine modules. When creating a course, keep modules—videos, assessments, reference documents—to four or less. Ensure all content is relevant and condense resources as needed. For example, five diagrams could be attached as a single document rather than five separate images.
Create effective assessments. Emphasize key points and topics, focusing on need-to-know rather than nice-to-know information. We recommend using 7-10 questions, both to see how much the learner has retained, and to re-establish important concepts.
Curate Training Tracks™. Give learners a step-by-step learning path that takes out the guesswork. A long list of available courses can be intimidating and make learners less likely to choose—one study at a supermarket showed that shoppers presented with 6 options were 10 times more likely to make a purchase than those shown 24. Give your learners direction, and they’ll be more likely to watch a course.
Add incentives. Courses that offer $BlueBucks™, a BlueVolt reward that can be redeemed for gift cards, have a 19% higher completion rate. Incentives also don’t have to be monetary—badges, certificates, or promotional eligibility are all examples of non-monetary rewards.
Find a release cadence. If too many courses are released at once, learners are more likely to become overwhelmed by choice, and less likely to come back. By releasing at a regular cadence, learners are motivated to see what’s new, and your training is kept top-of-mind.
By following these practices, learners are more likely to complete your training, retain the information, and return to learn more.
To learn more about how you can maximize your enrollments and get the most out of your University, contact us today.
Source: When Choice is Demotivating (Columbia & Stanford)
