Make Online Courses more
Effective and Engaging for Students!

Regardless of their location, people may obtain top-notch education through online learning.
In ways that traditional classrooms traditional classrooms can't, eLearning allows students access to the knowledge they need, whether they are pursuing new credentials, mastering a skill, taking up a new hobby, or making a significant career change.

Online learning isn't always interesting even when typical classroom procedures are used. In fact, maintaining the status quo might make learning difficult for online students.

Therefore, it may not be a good idea to just copy and paste standard procedures from the classroom. In addition to providing unparalleled access to education, the eLearning sector is dedicated to altering how we learn.

Here's how to steer clear of typical errors while developing interesting and interactive online courses.
BUT first...

  • What doesn't engage people?
  • How can you make your students' online learning experience more interesting?
    • Increase the use of storytelling in your lessons
    • Build a Community of Learning
    • Live it up!
    • Switch the script
    • Asynchronous Education

What doesn't engage people?

Understanding what is not engaging is necessary in order to comprehend what engaging entails.
Talking to them, assigning them reading material, and then testing them.
For instance, it's all too typical for online corporate training to consist of a number of slides that students must read, followed by some drag-and-drop activities, and then a quiz that they may need to retake a dozen times before passing.
Online pupils don't like being lectured at. They want to learn together.

How can you make your students' online learning experience more interesting?

Online learning activities must have purpose in order to be effective. Therefore, it is necessary to retire both the whiteboard and the habit of lecturing in front of one. It won't produce an interesting online learning environment.
Here are five strategies to make your online course engaging for students and keep them engrossed in it:

  • Increase the use of storytelling in your lessons
  • Build a Community of Learning
  • Live it up!Switch the script
  • Live it up!
  • Asynchronous Education
1. Increase the use of storytelling in your lessons

Stories tap into our innate ability to empathize. Empathy creates personal significance, which is what motivates us to assimilate what we are learning. Additionally, it increases engagement, which improves pupils' ability to learn.
You may more effectively teach difficult skills like problem-solving, cooperation, and creativity by using tales and having students play out or debate scenarios. Students will retain what they learn and will be motivated to study more with the help of an interesting and effective teaching strategy.

2. Build a Community of Learning

We are social creatures. Social learning is added to the mix via an online learning community. Students are given a space where they may interact with one another, discuss course themes, and work together on tasks.
For online students, community fosters a feeling of accountability. They are no longer solitary figures staring at computer displays. They are a component of a greater whole. Consider creating a cohort-based course if you want to elevate your active involvement.
Cohort-based learning is built on community. Although it may need more time and effort from you, this course style fosters greater student involvement, improves knowledge retention, and better develops the difficult abilities described under number 1.

3. Switch the script

It is well known that teaching a topic is the greatest method to learn it. Why not then give your pupils the opportunity? Active learning is increased and retention is improved when students are asked to teach what they have learned. Both synchronous and asynchronous learning can help students learn:
Synchronous Education: This incorporates real-time communication and is beneficial for live classes. After class, have your learning group reassemble in a breakout room you've created on Zoom to discuss what they've learned, either with you or with other students. You can arrange this exercise however you see fit—formally or informally.
Asynchronous Education: Have students respond to a question you offer or to questions they raise for one another after class. Students will reinforce skills they've learned even by creating questions to ask their peers—playing the role of a teacher delivering a quiz.
Flipping the script in your online course positions you as the facilitator and places the students at the center of the course, regardless of whether you use the synchronous or asynchronous option.

4. Live it up!

You add a new social component to some of your classes by making them live.
Students may now interact in real time with you and their peers. Instant feedback is given to students, and their involvement immediately affects the course.
Q&A sessions become an effective teaching tool for both the virtual learner and the teacher with live classes. When one student asks a question, chances are that others will as well.

5. Conclusion

Success in online learning is directly correlated with student involvement. Your students will gain greater value from an online course that is more interesting and involved. Success is directly correlated with the value.
You become a better teacher and support your students in becoming better learners by combining narrative, creating community, and providing a variety of media types!