Research has it that the average completion rates for an eLearning course are less than 15%. That means that only a small percentage of learners complete online training.

For this reason, there’s a need to find effective ways of encouraging learners to complete courses online. To increase the completion rate for eLearning is not a hard thing to do.

However, you need to have the necessary tools and know the most effective ways to achieve it. Below are a few ways to improve your course completion rates.

1. Make your learners understand the purpose of the training

One of the causes of low course completion rates is the lack of clearly making your learners understand the purpose of your training. To increase the completion rate for eLearning, you need to clearly state your learning goal and make them understand its importance.

Nobody will want to dedicate their time and effort to something they have no idea about. So, telling them about the benefits of your course will make them see reasons to complete the course and acquire the learning objectives and goals.

2. Give recognition on completion by rewarding their efforts

Another factor that can help to increase the completion rate is recognizing learners and rewarding their efforts on every course completion. Making them have a sense of accomplishment will go a long way in improving the completion rate for eLearning.

You can do that by rewarding them with certificates which they can share on social platforms. You can also add progress level to the course and allow learners to share it on social media platforms.

By so doing, other learners can get motivated and make efforts to finish the course.

3. Make your course short and precise

What’s the point of presenting lengthy content, when you can make it short and engaging to deliver knowledge. Lengthy content like videos and text can be tiring and distracting for learners to acquire their learning goals.

So, ensure that you avoid it at all courses by making it short and knowledge focused. One way to tackle this is to use the microlearning approach. You can do that by splitting lengthy content into small modules for easy understanding.

For instance, your video presentation should be between 2-7 minutes and focused on delivering its objective.

4. Give continuous assessment using quizzes and surveys

Engaging your learners regularly with quizzes and surveys can help to improve the completion rate in eLearning. So, instead of waiting till the end of the course before assessing them, you can add quizzes every 2-3 lessons. 

Surveys, on the other hand, is a great way to get feedback from learners. It helps to give learners a sense of involvement by giving their thoughts about the course. Apart from being a great way of improving the completion rate, it also helps instructors to identify areas in their course that need improvement.

5. Use email reminders

It’s natural to see learners fall behind from a learning course. However, with well-scheduled and consistent email reminders, you can keep them back on track. Below are some strategies to compile your email messages;

• Firstly, before the commencement of the course: send an email like “you have enrolled for the X course, and you have Y days to reach completion. (And tell them what will happen, if they fail to finish on time)”.

• Secondly, when you noticed that learners are already losing interest: “We noticed that you haven’t logged into your account in Y days. Click here to resume your learning action”.

• Also, you can use the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) approach: “X% of your colleagues have completed the Y course and received a certificate. Click here to catch-up and be a part”.

While this is an effective way of persuading learners to finish your course, you might need to make it weekly. That’s to ensure politeness and avoid bombarding them with too much mail.

6. Put mobile-friendly design in place

While these might seem to be a less issue to some instructors, it’s a big deal. Most learners prefer accessing eLearning courses from their phones as they can get to study at their convenience.

So, you can increase the completion rate for eLearning by making your design-friendly for both PC and mobile devices.

In conclusion, following the tips above will help you increase the completion rate for eLearning.  Also, you should consider choosing the right LMS tool that enables you to apply all it’s features to deliver an engaging course.