If you have already launched your online course but the completion rates are dropping, that’s not a sign you should ignore. This article guides you on how to increase completion rates on your online course. Rather than guessing the reason, it’s better to take a few measures yourself that would retain students’ engagement.
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How to increase completion rates for your online course
There can be multiple reasons for your learners to leave your course in between. If there are very few learners who have failed to complete your course, it might not alarm you. However, if the drop rate is increasing, you might need to take a rain check and make some solid changes.
Among a few strategies mentioned below, you can draw some inspiration and mix and match it suitable to you.
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1. Offer a supportive online community
A community thrives on people with the same interest or goals. You must provide a platform for your learners to openly discuss their doubts, question, and insecurities regarding the course to each other and to you. You can create an online community on social media platforms like Facebook or Whatsapp group or telegram group.
Alternatively, you can encourage your students to make full use of the community forums within your course platform. Graphy, for example, has an in-built public forum and student discussion forum where your learners can openly interact with each other.
Staying connected with someone remotely is a driving factor in staying committed to a course.
- Create weekly thread dropping a question or a topic of discussion.
- Keep an eye on it and interrupt whenever necessary.
- Congratulate the ones who succeed in answering the question.
- Give them a plan of action to look forward to.
An online community provides a sense of camaraderie and collaboration. Regularly give and receive feedback as well as engage with your learners.
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2. Incentivize finishing your online course
Motivation is a key driving factor when someone is trying to complete an online course virtually. The feeling of a reward upon completion gives your learners an extra reason to complete the course.
You don’t have to do anything huge or extravagant, but here are a few things you can do via the Graphy course platform.
The kind of rewards Graphy provides with are as follows:
- Promotional Codes/Discount Codes: You can issue discount codes to the learners which they can either use on their upcoming purchase or forward to their friends.
- Certificate of completion: A customised e-certificate of completion can be awarded to the learners when they complete the whole or part of a course.
- Wallet amount: You can directly credit some wallet e-cash on your learners’ account upon completion of your course.
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3. Encourage them to learn on the go
If learners have to log into the web through their PC for long hours to complete the course, it would wear them off. What follows next is avoidance and dropped course completion rate.
The better way to deal with it is to give them something they can carry comfortably. You can launch your branded mobile apps. Through an LMS like Graphy, it’s just a matter of a few days. Make sure they can learn on the go with their phone, without getting tied up with their desks.
Encourage your students to study from your app. The interface is great and the learning is fun. Most importantly, it’s accessible from anywhere.
They can learn from your multimedia course content anytime. The blog is accessible via the app too.
The App built through Graphy allows students to :
- View course content as well as securely stream videos lectures.
- Read the blogs published on your course website.
- Participate in discussion forums,
- View the course store page.
- Purchase a course.
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4. Host live online classes to host Q&As
If you are keen on helping your students in line, consider doing a live Q&A session weekly covering a different topic or clearing off your learners’ doubts.
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Graphy has integrated virtual live classes on the course platform. You can conduct it without using any third-party software/tools. Your learners would be able to engage with you and pick your brain in a real-time setting. That being said, this incentive shall have a long road ahead in keeping your learners invested in your online course.
Plan on asking leading questions, their feedback, discuss the hot topics while keeping your energy intact.
Conducting live online classes frequently gives you an edge over other educators too, who are operating in your domain.
Graphy Online Live Class Features:
- Live Class Recording
- Digital Whiteboard
- Private call
- Public Chat
- Conduct Poll
Live Class feature is an effective way to increase completion rates on your online course.
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5. Keep an eye on analytics and your dashboard
If you have plans to relaunch your courses in the future, it’s essential that you learn from your existing learners.
Keep an eye on your dashboard, its analytics, and the graphical representation of your data. This would give you a pretty good idea to determine where exactly your students are mostly abandoning your course.
If none of the strategies work, look for a few more things like:
- The user interface is complex.
- The course content isn’t easy to understand or doesn’t provide the expected value.
- The instructions are vaguely stated.
- You take a lifetime to respond to learners queries.
If you somehow find something that you can tweak a little here and there, your next batch of students might do better at course completion.
