How to make your online course sticky: Top ten tips

With online courses how do you make them 'sticky'? How do you help participants, after they have started your course, remain engaged and motivated?

Good questions, and ones I was asked a short while ago by some clients. So, I thought I would post some of the ideas I shared with them.

With all of the following ideas, I have either worked with clients to add them to their course design, or have experienced them in action in other courses.

The ideas are based on the assumption that your course is going to be for adults (or learners who are used to using what are considered adult learning strategies), and is totally online, with rolling sign ups (i.e. no participant groups, which means that approaches such as, for example, responding to online forums, are likely to be less effective):

1) Sharing is a big key to ongoing engagement and motivation. Two things you could consider in your course design are:

• Encouraging participants to find a 'buddy', who is not doing the course but who is interested in how the participant is doing. This buddy might be a trusted friend, or family member (or even a journal...and you could frame up as something like "share your progress with your journal"). As long as the buddy is genuinely interested, it can be hugely motivational for the participant to share the big challenges, as well as the big steps forward. So, you can invite your participants to share regularly, although being careful that you don't do it to the point of overload. For instance, you might want to include one invitation per learning segment. Also, at the beginning of the following learning segment (or if you have a video in the segments), you could ask something like "we invite you to reflect for a moment - Who did you share with? How did that go?"...or something similar :)
• You can also consider setting up a private group (maybe Facebook or similar) where people can share: their learnings, their experiences, and maybe resources that they have found useful. One aspect to be aware of if you do go down this track though, are providing 'guidelines for positive interactions / what's appropriate to post'. You might also want to consider if you, as facilitator(s) would also respond to postings, and how you would moderate the group to make sure things remain civil.

2) Participants are likely to find different approaches to learning resonate with them. Therefore, when you encourage your participants to think about various concepts, you could use language that encourages them to

• use their senses,
• or bring their prior knowledge to a situation, 
• or imagine (in words, sounds, and/or images).

3) When you suggest that participants consider themselves in a particular context, you could also ask them to think about their 'future story'. For example, if they are working toward skills that will help them start a, or transition to another, career, they could imagine themselves at a table, where they imagine the other characters who are there to support, advise and guide them. This approach, as well as being a powerful personalised 'tool', can help people visualise their own inner strengths, and resources on which they can draw. Imagining the 'conversation' between the characters can also help identify possible challenges, and ways continuing with your course might help address them.

4) Having a storyline running throughout your course can also be really powerful. Participants can 'get to know' characters, and get involved with the challenges they face, and how they work through them. In some cases this approach can help participants 'recognise' themselves, while also bringing complex concepts to life. 

5) A model I have seen work really well is, for an additional fee, people can choose to have a regular - or one off - virtual session(s) with the facilitator(s). This option enables people to share their learning in a much deeper way, and request things they would like to specifically focus on. To make these sessions effective though, you are likely to find that setting clear expectations is useful. For instance, clearly stating that these are additional formal learning sessions, but are fluid and based on a specific request from the participant, and it is up to the participant to identify their focus. These sessions can be recorded and shared back with the participant for their ongoing access.

6) If you are recording videos for your course you can include hooks such as "watch the next video for...", or "next time you will have the opportunity to learn / try / experience...". This 'in the next episode' approach', if done well, can help excite or intrigue participants enough to tune in next time.

7) Measurable progress can be important for some people, which is why journaling and sharing with a buddy can be so useful. However, other people like to measure themselves more concretely. So, you could consider having a short benchmark questionnaire at the beginning of the course, and then make the same questionnaire available at a key point further through the course. Participants can then compare the two, and see how their perceptions around their progress have shifted, if at all. The comparison would be a good point for participants to choose to have a virtual session with a facilitator, if they wanted to.

8) Regularly inviting your participants to make specific commitments to themselves about what they are going to do, how often, and how they will motivate themselves to do it (e.g. telling a friend that they are going to do something on such day or putting a reminder into their phone), can help some people remain engaged and active in your course.

9) You could also have a 'badge', or some sort of image...or whakatauki (proverb / saying), that a participant is (automatically) sent when they complete each part of the course - in other words, they receive positive reinforcement that recognises their progress.

10) Polls, where other people's responses are aggregated and shown (after the participant has responded) can be a way of indicating that there are other people doing the course, along with an indication of of their opinions.

I hope that you find these ideas useful. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Also, please add any of the approaches you use, or have experienced, in the comments below - and say if they were effective or not ... and what you might do to improve on them.

Image

Glue-goo. CC ( BY ND ) licensed Flickr image by Sam-cat: https://flic.kr/p/64Z871

The person behind the label: Having those uncomfortable conversations

Diversity management is the deliberate, unwavering pursuit, when managing employees and working with clients, to ‘make visible’ “all of the significant differences between people, including perceptions of differences ... such as our thinking styles or beliefs and values (Australian Multicultural Foundation, 2010, p. 8).

At TEDx Auckland 2012, Philip Patston gave a presentation entitled: The Label Libel, A New Look at Diversity. In his presentation Patston explores notions of diversity. He initially describes his own experience of the labels he gave himself, and the labels (with underpinning assumptions) that other people gave him, which created feelings of confusion and frustration. He identifies that labels are sometimes useful because they can create awareness. However, if they are unquestioned, they frequently lead to judgements, inequality, and separation by creating ‘us and them’ situations.

By questioning and unpacking our use of labels, we can uncover the textures and appreciate the gradations of meaning that diversity offers. However, this can be uncomfortable, as it will require delving into our own values, beliefs, and biases - some of which we may not be aware of. However, “discomfort brings engagement and change …. [and] actions lead to success” (Godin, 2010, p, 204), which in the case of diversity management is enabling the people working with an organisation to take away labels and ‘see’ the person behind the label. In turn, this enables appreciation of each other as unique  individuals with hopes, dreams, strengths and skills.

Patston highlights that common language helps create communities. For example, as part of the New Zealand cultural/national identity there is a notion of  “#8 wire and innovativeness …  characterized as ‘being able to think outside the box’ and ‘make something out of nothing’” (Rinne, & Fairweather, 2011, p. vii). This shared language and the layers that lie beneath it have spawned everything from art to advertisements, and is a source of pride for many Kiwis. So, one key to diversity management in organisations is to provide support (coaching, training, and safe forums for discussion) that encourage people to deconstruct the common language of the organisation - to pull it apart in a way that allows for non-conformity, and embraces paradoxes.

As indicated by Patston, this is hard, difficult work, and may result in two steps forwards and one step backwards; but where an organisation has true diversity, this process is essential. Organisations with a well-developed coaching culture may find that their employees’ communication skills are honed, and they are more able to set aside their own views to explore other perspectives. These types of conversation can lead to positive yet challenging conversations that can, over time, foster true diversity.

Money is often seen as the measure of value. Patston sees this as stifling technology innovation, and causing 98% of social issues. Alongside this, a need for definitive ‘answers’ (again the dichotomy of what is correct and what isn’t), at which point, Patston posits, we stop asking questions about who, what, why, where and when - the questions that enable us to see both commonalities and differences in a wide range of contexts, and to notice that we are unique and always changing.

Diversity management can provide opportunities for other values to come to the fore, and to encourage curiosity and questions. Opportunities might include formal and informal activities that provide a chance for employees to get to know each other, perhaps around a common interest or shared activity, as well as a buddy system for new employees (HCS, n.d.). Employee networks can offer opportunities for mentoring, or to seek advice, as well as a chance for (facilitated) candid discussions. Workplaces can also be designed to recognise diversity by providing a choice of different types of spaces (HCS, n.d.).

Image

Philip Patson. TEDxAuckland. http://tedxauckland.com/videos/the-label-libel-a-new-look-at-divers...

References

• Australian Multicultural Foundation. (2010). Managing Cultural Diversity  Training Program Resource Manual. Retrieved from http://amf.net.au/library/uploads/files/MCD_Training_Program_Resour...
• Human Capital Singapore (HCS). (n.d). Creating Harmonious workplaces: Managing workplace diversity. Retrieved from http://www.mom.gov.sg/~/media/mom/documents/employment-practices/wd...
• Rinne, T, & Fairweather, J. (2011). An International Comparison of Models of Cultural and National Identity and their Implications for New Zealand Innovation. Retrieved from http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/PageFiles/24129/RR%20325w.pdf.