Increase Completion Rates with Communication

By: Justin Ferriman • December 19, 2017
Filed Under:

Online courses have a notoriously terrible completion rate. Here is one method for helping to improve it.

Whether you are selling online courses or they are for free then you have a vested interest in learners completing the content. Completion rates are certainly compelling if you are selling courses because it means you have an opportunity to cross-promote similar offerings.

There are a variety of strategies that you can employ to help move your learners along in a course. One of the easiest methods is sending out timely, well-constructed emails.

As the video above outlines, there are three emails that you can configure today in LearnDash that will  have a positive impact for your learning program.

Email #1: Establishing Buy-In

When someone starts to take a course you want to get them into your learning culture as soon as possible. The email template below does this by letting them know about your leaderboard and even giving them an opportunity to earn more points.

The secret here is that in the first email you also tell the learner that they have already earned half of the points needed for the first bonus!

SUBJECT:  You’re on the board!

EMAIL TEXT:

…the leaderboard that is! 🙂

Congrats [ld_notifications field=”user” show=”first_name”] on completing your first lesson and earning 10 points!

Want to earn some more (easy) points?

Introduce yourself to the community and earn an extra 5 points while you’re at it.

http://mysite.com/community-forums

Remember, once you hit 30 points you unlock our bonus material … you’re half way there!

Email #2: Helping Out

One downside to online learning is that people feel like they are “alone” in their journey. If they fail a quiz then they may give-up on the material. This is your chance to lend a helping hand. By showing personal interest you can help motivate your students to understand (and complete) the content.

SUBJECT: Hey, let’s chat.

EMAIL TEXT:

Hi [ld_notifications field=”user” show=”first_name”],

I noticed that you didn’t do so well on the recent checkpoint quiz and I wanted to reach out to see how things were going.

Do you want to book 10min to chat? Just pick a time that works for you below:

http://justin.youcanbook.me

Talk to you soon!

Email #3: Back on Track

Despite our best intentions sometimes we stray away from courses we commit to taking. This email is designed to get people back into your course and completing lessons. This is the same template used by the popular language learning service Duolingo.

SUBJECT: Got 5 minutes? Time for a tiny lesson.

EMAIL TEXT:

Hi [ld_notifications field=”user” show=”display_name”],

Keep the momentum going! Learning this new skill requires practice every day.

Jump back in and complete the next mini-lesson. You’ll feel good about it, we promise! 🙂

http://mysite.com/courses/course-title

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