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Volume 3 Issue 9October 1999

Prodding Online Learners to Succeed

Reprinted from Online Learning News www.lakewoodpub.com

How do you encourage online learners to finish their modules? Two words: peer pressure, says Denise Sheridan, based near Lincoln, CA, as a human-resources development director with American Express Corp.

"One of the best hooks I've seen for getting online learners to finish what they start is the peer pressure that is created in a collaborative online learning environment," says Sheridan.

Lotus LearningSpace, which she uses, is one Web-based learning software that lets learners develop "a sense of community," says Sheridan. "They are engaged," she adds, "and feel accountable to each other for participating in asynchronous class discussions and collaborative assignments."

Another approach: Make your computer-based training (CBT) gripping, and schedule a specific time, suggests Jeroen Buring.

CBT should be like a book too good to put down, says Buring, a trainer with CoCreate Software GmbH, a Hewlett-Packard Co. unit in Germany. Buring offers this:

• Treat computer-based training like a book “that you can never put away, but always have to leave on a ‘bedside’ stand due to time limitations during the day.”
• Your ‘book’ requires an appealing story line with particularly interesting developments at the end of each module.
• Another tactic: Offer CBT within a given 30-minute timeframe each day. Learners must plan the time into their schedules. "It's like making a virtual appointment with someone," says Buring. The server starts sending at the appointed time. Microsoft and RealAudio have such technology, Buring says.

Providing Structure
Finally, make part of the program real-time, says Jennifer Hofmann. And, she says, it's the trainer's job to provide structure.

"We do not know instinctively how to learn without specific structure and human interaction," argues Hofmann, an instructional designer with InSync Training Synergy in Essex, Connecticut. Hofmann suggests:

• Provide a schedule, including completion objectives. For example, indicate that the learner should complete two modules a week for four weeks.
• Tell students up front that you may e-mail them every week to see if they have any problems. This in effect constitutes a schedule and deadlines, "in other words, motivation," says Hofmann.
• Supplement your self-paced program with synchronous modules, such as the telephone or chat. Tell students that they must log into this real-time classroom at a designated hour for 20 minutes a week for four weeks. Say you will quiz them on the materials scheduled for that week, and provide an opportunity to ask questions.

"This," concludes Hoffman, "adds some humanity, motivation, and structure to the learning environment."