Increase Employee Engagement by Avoiding These 3 eLearning Mistakes

There is a lot of information available about how to implement eLearning correctly and in a way that yields a good ROI for your training investment, but there’s a lack of information about mistakes to avoid using your eLearning LMS. Since it’s vital that companies steer clear of specific online learning mishaps, we’ve made a list of some of the biggest eLearning mistakes a company can make, and explain how to avoid them.

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3 eLearning Blunders Your Company Should Never Make

Here are some online learning slip-ups to avoid:

1. Fail to Understand the Needs of Your Target Audience

Before you invest in LMS solutions, it is helpful to research your target audience and determine what your learners’ needs are. This will help you choose the best eLearning system for your company. But even if you’ve already chosen an eLearning system without researching your target audience extensively, you can still avoid the mistake of creating course content before taking the time to really understand your learners.

"Not taking the time to research your target audience will lead to courses that lack that engagement factor," stated eLearningIndustry.com.¹ “Not to mention that the end-user simply won't be able to relate to the deliverable and won't be able so the value in the content being offered.” Even a moderate lack of engagement with online courses can prevent learners from consuming the training content you invested in. Before you or your L&D team create eLearning courses for your employees, do a little more target audience research than you think you need.

2. Make Your eLearning Course Segments too Long

Did you know that eLearning course segment length can be as important as eLearning content itself? When online learning course segments are too long, employees are more likely to lose interest in them or become overwhelmed with the amount of information being offered to them in one sitting. Both situations can cause learners to shut down and disengage from training, which is the last thing you want. Also, many learners will not retain information when course segments are too lengthy.

To promote engagement with training and better knowledge retention, create shorter eLearning course segments that are more digestible to learners. This doesn’t mean you have to shorten your online learning courses, but rather that you break the course down into more manageable sections. One way to determine how long to make eLearning segments is to pull your LMS reporting (if you use an LMS) and take a look at the past performance of users to get a better idea of when during a course most learners drop out. Use that information to streamline and optimize your Learning Experience Platform. If you don’t use an LMS, gather information directly from learners about their preferences for course segment length via survey.

3. Fail to Make eLearning Courses Interactive

Let’s face it: including interactive elements in an eLearning course can be time-consuming, but failing to make courses interactive is an eLearning mistake that can cause learners to disengage from online employee training.

Many learners thrive on interactivity. Give them what they want and need by ensuring eLearning courses include a sufficient number of interactive elements. You may need to work through a course yourself to decide how interactive it needs to be. If the eLearning course feels too overwhelming, you may need to reduce the number of interactive elements. If it feels boring, add more. Examples of interactive elements of an eLearning course include games, quizzes, scenarios, simulations, and role-playing activities.

Related Reading: What is a Learning Experience Platform?

When You See a Lack of Engagement with eLearning,

Search for Solutions

Did you notice that all of the eLearning mistakes mentioned earlier were associated with decreased engagement with training? When engagement declines, so does the ROI for your training investment. What’s more, disengagement causes employees to go without the skills they need to do their job.

To prevent and mitigate eLearning mistakes and help learners stay engaged with training, keep an eye out for a decline in learner engagement. When you find diminished engagement, seek possible solutions with your L&D team that will resolve the issue as quickly as possible. And remember, by studying your target audience and its needs before creating training materials, keeping eLearning course segments succinct and digestible, and adding interactive elements to online courses, you can sidestep some major eLearning mishaps.

Looking for other ways to increase employee engagement with eLearning? Explore our blog, “How to Use Mobile Learning to Drive Employee Engagement,” or contact TOPYX to request a personalized LMS demo today.