Having content that’s engaging, insightful, and easy to digest is the goal of any eLearning professional. Unfortunately, developing engaging eLearning content is much easier said than done. It’s especially difficult for subjects that are particularly technical or those that require the dissemination of high-level information into bite-sized chunks.

Your Way To Develop Extremely Effective eLearning

No matter what type of eLearning content you’re developing, though, chances are, it could be a little more engaging, user-friendly, and let’s face it — fun. Use the following strategies to enhance your eLearning content for increased engagement levels.

Understand your audience

This should come as a no-brainer, but it’s absolutely essential to understand precisely who your learners are. For example, imagine that you develop eLearning courses for students (in the form of online homework help). It would be best if you are analyzing your audience’s preferred learning methods, questioning what they want to get out of your eLearning courses/material, etc. Do they understand technology? Are videos preferable to slideshows? These are the questions you should ask yourself when developing eLearning material.

Make it interactive

One of the best ways to keep your learners actually interested in your content is by focusing on making webinars interactive. Not only will the learners be more interested, but they will also need to focus more naturally. Engagement levels will have no choice but to increase if you introduce some interactivity into your eLearning material.

Wondering how exactly to make your content interactive? It largely depends on what type of eLearning content you’re producing, but some basic examples include drag-and-drop interfaces, interactive courses, or interactive quizzes/tests. Keep in mind that to develop effective interactive content, you’ll need to have a deep understanding of your audience.

Clearly define learning goals for your audience

Your learners must know what the outcome of your content will be. Why would they devote their time to your course if they don’t know what they’re going to get out of it? If you clearly describe what the learner will gain from the content, you will set them up for success (and contribute to a more effective learning environment).

Clearly defined goals not only make it easier for your learners to grasp your material but also allow you to organize your content more effectively. A well-structured content benefits both you and your audience. Once you establish clear objectives for your material, outlining the rest of your eLearning strategy becomes much more straightforward.

Make your sections short

Nobody likes to read extended, drawn-out pieces of content. That’s the exact opposite of why eLearning is so popular, to begin with. People want short, digestible pieces of content (otherwise, they would just learn from a textbook). Your learners are busy and don’t have time to sift through walls of text. If you truly want to increase your engagement, you need to divide your eLearning materials into short, easy to follow sections.

Don’t neglect design

One of the more overlooked aspects of eLearning content development is design. How do you expect to have engaging content if it isn’t even attractive? Having an attractive design will directly lead to increased engagement from your learning audience.

Wondering how to start designing more engaging eLearning content? One of the best tips to keep in mind is to avoid having clutter in your design. Don’t clump text and images together. White space is important, and your content should be able to breathe (but don’t go overboard). If you focus on having an aesthetic design, your learners will thank you for it (which will naturally lead to increased engagement from them).

Give it some meaning

You should strive to make your eLearning content meaningful for your audience. If you can make your audience connect with your course, it will be that much easier for them to learn from it. One of the best ways to create meaningful content is by infusing it with some emotion. Having your learners have personal reactions to your content will make your eLearning course/material engaging on an entirely different level.

Unlock your navigation

Your learners should be able to explore the course materials freely. Nothing is more restrictive (in a learning environment) than being forced to consume content. Once your learners have the freedom to move around at their own pace, they’ll start creating their own paths to success. Giving your learners the ability to explore your eLearning content will undoubtedly lead to higher levels of engagement.