Some days back, I posted some thoughts our ID team has about Engagement. While we were having this discussion, we came upon this interesting ebook – 68 Tips for eLearning Engagement and Interactivity available from the elearning Guild (registration required.)
Do download a copy, there are some very interesting and practical tips in there about how to enhance engagement in learning content.
Our team voted on these for the three top tips –
- In eLearning, we often associate engagement with interactivity, quizzing, and games, but to be truly engaging, we must appeal to the learners’ natural curiosity first. Give them something to be curious about. This is best achieved through an instructional narrative: a story that drives the learning. Without it, the interactiv¬ity, quizzing, and games become busywork. – Amy Jokinen
- If you do not have engaging content, there really is no need to have engaging media … it’s like putting a caramel coating on a rotten apple. No matter how enticing the outside is, or how it may attract, it’s still not going to be a good experience. Looks good, tastes bad, and no one comes back. – Sean Bengry
- Your brain processes new information by linking it to already existing information. Use easily digestible and recognizable words and images. Too much jargon or highly unusual images will disrupt the flow of learning because the user will focus more on the odd language and less on the meaning of the content. – Amy Leis
Tying back to my post that listed thoughts on engagement in elearning, these three ally quite closely. Amy makes a good point using narratives and stories to drive learning, without which little engagement is possible. Sean on the other hand, refers the actual engagement value of the content itself, again some content is engaging while some is not. He also points to the fact that just great multimedia can never mask un-engaging content. Lastly, Amy makes a closer connection to how our brain works, perhaps engagement comes from meaningful content that can be assimilated by the brain.
