Increase in Drop-out Rate in eLearning Training Courses and How to Cut it Down?
Companies decided to use means of online training in the early 2000s to increase the skills-set of their new employees and today the eLearning industry is exploding more than it ever did before. The convenience and flexibility of being able to be educated anywhere anytime makes it easier for the employees to not just excel at workplace but also increase their competence. According to the online learning statistics published, Global eLearning Market Will Reach $325 Billion By 2025.
Although eLearning is taking over the traditional learning in corporate sectors for cost effective, flexibly scheduled and customized course, it is also reported that 40-80% of learners enrolled in online courses tend to drop-out either at the start of the course or after taking few classes. Whether you are a course-creator or an organizational development manager, lowered completion rate of training courses is an alarming situation for sure. The sooner you have tracked the problem, it is advisable to start digging to find the root cause of the drop-outs.
Reasons why Learners Drop-out of eLearning courses.
Willging a famous researcher, listed out a number of reasons why learners tend to leave the courses by explaining how each learner has a unique and different reason for dropping out of the course. Unfortunately, some of those are still responsible for learners abandoning online courses:
- Poorly designed course: No matter how much we try to relate the completion of courses with inner will of the learner, the course and its instructional design emulates in the success of the training program.
- Lack of Motivation: It is extremely challenging to be persistent with something unless you don’t have the motivation or interest required to do it.
- Complicated learning material: If the content is too complexed for the learner with no provided Instructor’s help, chances are they will either drop-out of the course or fail to complete the assignments.
No matter how much time and investment you put into your eLearning course development process, some reasons end up making the results disappointed and your drop-out rate higher than the completion rate. This calls for building an effective action plan which includes analyzing the course from learner’s point of view and making improvements accordingly.
We have gathered these simple yet effective workable ways that can help in contributing to your completion rate.
How to Cut Down the Drop-out Rate?
- Engaging and Relevant Course Content
One of the most common reason for student’s being uninterested in eLearning training is the lack of relevance and engagement in the content. The learning material is either big blocks of text that the learner would probably slide away or an instructor giving indigestible material for hours.
To make the courses more engaging and relevant, the eLearning developers can:
-Add videos for storytelling and minimize the time consumption.
-Include attractive but relevant graphics.
-Gamify the whole experience.
- Interactive eLearning activities
Though eLearning is considered to be far ahead than traditional learning, but the learners will never stop craving for real-time interactive activities. You can keep the learner’s jaws clenched by using interactive eLearning activities by:
Add scenario-based activities for helping the learners actually apply their learning.
Take regular assessments in the form of Interactive and engaging Quiz formats.
- Encourage Learners to Ask Questions
While course creation, we usually ignore the fact that there can be a possibility of some of your students to not grab the concept at first try or the content might be too complexed for them to understand. It’s always best to give learners the courage to ask questions and provide an environment where discussions can be held. This can be achieved by some simple steps including:
-Provide learners with different platforms including Groups on social media, email etc so they can communicate with you anytime without being bashed.
-Encourage the learners that there is no harm in having any confusion regarding the course.
Interaction, engagement and relevance ensures the success of an eLearning course but constant feedback of the learner and tracking their progress is also crucial. By applying the above suggestions, you can easily increase the completion rate of your course and make it possible for the learners to stick with it.
Reach us out at info@zillionelearning.com for more information about creation of your successful eLearning courses.
