10 Ways to Keep ELearning Interesting

By: Justin Ferriman • July 20, 2014
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Anyone who has created elearning has at some point wondered if the training has the ability to capture, and then hold, the learner’s attention.

There is a lot of theory in this area, it is a topic that could result in thousands of words in explanations and various strategies. Instead of going into that level of detail, I will present 10 ways to grab a learner’s attention as depicted in an infographic created by Shift ELearning.

You may already be aware of a few of these, perhaps using them unknowingly because of previous experience. While all these will certainly yield results, I personally find that appealing to emotions is a better strategy for live training because you can control the tone of delivery (although be careful on how you go about using emotion to drive home a key learning point).

When it comes to attention grabbers, nothing works better than controversy. Even if it’s in the form of a fun story or claim, it’s a sure way to get the learner engaged. This doesn’t mean you need to be controversial, in fact you really shouldn’t (unless that’s the point of the elearning).

The one item that is not depicted in this infographic is “variety”. Specifically, you should use a variety of ways to grab attention and present information. People get bored easily, so try to keep things fresh by alternating between graphics, charts, text, stories, interactions, lists, and so on. The last thing you want is your training to become predictable.

 

 

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter