How do you keep students engaged with Online Instructional Courses

Online courses are incredibly versatile and could be an effective instrument for many businesses. The blogger can sell classes on cooking, organizing, crafting, or interior design. An accounting firm could offer education programs on budgeting or taxes. Online music stores might offer virtual guitar lessons along with their sheets of music and other instruments.

But no matter the type of program you are offering the importance of student participation is paramount. Interested, invested learners complete the courses, register to take more, write favorable reviews, and then recommend your company to their peers.

We'll review some practical ways you can make your courses more interesting.

1. Break your courses into digestible pieces

Attention spans for us aren't that large. Studies report varying lengths of attention spans, however the majority are in agreement that our attention span falls somewhere around 20 minutes.

It's possible that you have high-quality and interesting material to make many hours of contentThat's fantastic! However, your students may not be able to take part for that length of time at a period of.

Another way to tackle this issue is to break the courses down into smaller chunks using sub-categories and categories. As an example, if you're selling a course on starting solids for babies It could be divided into categories like:

• Introduction to Solids
• What is the best time to introduce solid food?
• Signals of the readiness
• Gear and equipment that you need
• First feeding schedule
• Best first foods
• How to cut and prepare
• Recipes for example
• Introducing allergens
• Common food allergens
• Watch out for warning signs
• Tips for serving allergens

Every grouping could contain texts, images, videos, and printable sources. Students are able to complete them according to their own schedulesregardless of whether they wish to work on one piece at a time , or simply take a seat and read through them all at once.

Sensei LMS calls these categories modules, courses, and Lessons. The Courses can be divided into Modules of any size, then split each Module into a number of lessons.

It makes navigation easy for students and lets them quickly be aware of what's going to happen in the course.

2. Make powerful graphic designs

Graphics are 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 a variety of methods to integrate images into your teaching. If you're presenting numerical data and you want to include charts or a graph that represents that information. If you're looking to compare the differences between two different ingredients, you should include a photo of them side by side. If you're talking about a particular species of houseplant, you should include pictures.

If you are creating graphics or selecting photos, keep in mind a few basic tips:

• Choose high-quality pictures. Even though you don't have to employ a professional photographer, be certain that the pictures you buy or shoot appear professional. The subject of the photo should be crystal clear- no blurry images! And the lighting must make the photo simple to digest.
• Think of empty white spaces. White space is the empty area around the contents of the graphic. Therefore, if you're using an inscription or pie chart, you'll need to create enough empty space around it for it to air. This helps people better digest the content of your graphic and get the meaning behind it.
• Add photos of people, when appropriate. Human beings are equipped to react to people's faces and naturally, our focus shifts to people. The addition of photos that feature an attractive face will help people connect with them and the topic of your choice.
• Avoid getting too complex. Don't add a ton of pictures that clash with one another and with the content that is educational in your courses. Keep in mind that your graphics will be used to attract the attention of your viewers, to make it more enjoyable, and help in learning. Sometimes, simple is the best strategy.

3. Affect a wide range of learning styles

Each person learns differently. There are many different learning styles that you can choose from, and if want to engage as many students as possible, you'll attract them all when you can. Here are the four most common, and ways you can meet the needs of every type of student:

• Read/write Students benefit from learning with words. Provide written directions and other details for them in the course's pages or as PDFs that are downloadable.
• Visual: Graphics, images as well as videos work for this kind of learner. Indeed, according to the study of one, students remember 95 percent of the message when watching a video in comparison to only 10% when reading the text. Videos can be an incredibly effective method of teaching on the internet.
• Auditory The types of learners are more likely to absorb information by listening and speaking. Therefore, you could include videos of you explaining ideas that your students could listen to. Also, you can provide the option of a podcast in your classes, have a weekly Zoom meeting that allows one-on-one discussion, or even incorporate songs into your teachings.
• Kinesthetic Students who learn through hands-on experiences who benefit from physical exploring things on their own. Even though this can be challenging to incorporate into online learning, get creative! Provide sewing patterns students can practice themselves, assign an agenda of photographs they have to capture for the week, or task learners with creating an identity for themselves.

Let's say you sell on-line cooking courses. If you wanted to speak to four types of learning within one class, you might have several paragraphs on the underlying principles for making bread rise. Include an infographic demonstrating the scientific process involved, and 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. Make sure you have a convincing Narrator

When you're filming video for your classes, an effective narrator can create a significant difference. If you're a fan of audiobooks, then you understand this concept. A boring, flat voiceover can send listeners right to sleep, while someone that is engaging and entertaining has the opposite effect.

It's important that your narration is in keeping with the overall tone of the course. Is your topic fun and enjoyable? Serious and sensitive? Helpful and relatable? The content you upload should reflect this.

Take the time to get your narration's pace perfect and also. It can be easy to speak too fast in the voiceovers you use, and this can create a challenge for students to follow along. Review your recorded recordings, and if your voice is too fast, start over.

Finally, don't try to impersonate your favourite voiceover artists. It's not possible to sound anything like Morgan Freeman no matter how you attempt, and that's not what people are studying for. Just be yourself!

If you think that's not your forte it's fine. Professional voiceover artists available for hire which don't cost you more than a few dollars.

5. Include quizzes and polls

Quizzes and polls can be a great way to see how much your students are absorbing the material, gain more knowledge about them as well as engage them on a a higher quality. They can also help break up your content with things that are fun and interesting.

The best way to start every module with a poll. It is possible to ask questions that will help you inform students, or just inspire them to be enjoyable about their own lives. What can they expect to learn from your course? What's their biggest accounting pain problem? Which song is their most listened to? What's the number of cakes they've made?

Then, mix in tests throughout your lesson. In the case of Sensei LMS it is possible to create quizzes associated with lessons. Therefore, you can make questions in response to the lessons that a student just completed. Making questions from different kinds -- multiple choice, false/true and fill-in the blank, short answer, etc. It can keep things fascinating.

It is possible to set types of questions like multiple choice or false/true for auto-grading and then grade open-ended questions your self. This gives you the opportunity to find areas of improvement for your courses, and help any student who may need extra help.

6. Create an community

One of the biggest differences between online and physical learning spaces is the amount of community that is involved. Online students aren't able to sit alongside other students taking the class in the same way, discussing topics with them, and asking questions out loud.

It is possible to create an identical environment with the help of an online community on a social media platform such as Facebook or with an WordPress plugin such as BbPress. The topics can be divided into modules or lessons and then base them on of student characteristics (like age of their children, where they live, or what instruments they're learning). These communities give students the opportunity to discuss issues with their peers, brainstorm ideas, ask for clarification, or create friendships that inspire students to continue learning.

7. Include gamification into your plans.

Gamification applies the principles of game playing -- like points scoring and competitionin other media such as online education. This is a fantastic place to get creative! Here are some suggestions:

• Include quizzes and challenges in your classes
• Award points based on activities like completing work and scoring high on tests and so on. There is a reward for the student who scores the highest number of points.
• Encourage students to participate in your forums with badges
• Add an progression bar for your course to motivate students to finish the course
• Let students share their grades on social media

Gamification can make learning fun and encourages healthy competition. This makes your lessons more interesting for students.

8. Learn what your customers are seeking.

The best way to make your courses engaging for your learners is to offer the information they're seeking. If you are able to answer their concerns and aid them in reaching their goals, they're more likely to finish the course, write an excellent review and even recommend it to relatives and friends.

Then, adjust your program's contents and structure as necessary to meet their expectations.

All it is about your students

If you're going to get down to it, your students online are at the heart of what you produce. When you keep their requirements in mind while designing your course material and formatting your classes will be able to keep them engaged, interested and committed to buying more.

Want more tips? Check out this article from Sensei LMS on designing effective online courses.