The level of learner engagement indicates whether someone has received enough motivation to completely commit to learning. True engagement is reflected in a learner’s participation and interaction with other learners and educators. There is more to learner engagement than the flashy bells and whistles you see on your LinkedIn feed. It involves utilizing human emotion. Maintaining learners’ motivation is important. It aims to support learning throughout the entire process, from beginning to end.

According to 45% of participants in an Aptara poll, establishing focus and intentionality is the area that is most frequently neglected when trying to engage learners.

For an engaging learning experience, the content must cater to the needs and tastes of your learners. Your learning program should be created, communicated, organized, and delivered in a way that appeals to learners in a range of positions and generations. Understanding your learners is the first step towards doing that.

Online learning programs frequently lack a natural social element of the human learning process without the in-person interactions between instructors and learners. This isolation frequently lowers learner engagement, which can result in a decrease in completion rates, a decline in effective learning, and an overall decline in content comprehension.

To increase online learner engagement, you can always explore a variety of strategies that are available in the market. Here are some strategies to start with:

1. Create high-quality videos:

Using video in your eLearning program is essential in today’s digital age.

Videos give an interesting learning experience that few other eLearning modalities provide, appealing to both the visual and audio senses. If you are producing videos, be sure that the target audience will find them to be well-written, exquisitely designed, and enjoyable. Instead of just passively watching a video, learners can engage with it by answering quiz questions, commenting, and providing feedback. This kind of interaction increases participation and promotes deeper learning.

2. Design compelling visuals:

Even though the content is usually the most important aspect of any learning program, the design is still quite important. Your audience will quickly lose interest if your eLearning program seems obsolete and stale. Try to provide visually appealing, up-to-date content in the form of films, pictures, clear charts, and graphics. Aim to use images/audio between 60% and 80% of the time, depending on your learning objectives and the size of the project. Use text merely as an additional tool to support the course material.

3. Record a crisp voice-over:

A strong voice-over recording is essential for boosting participation in your eLearning course. Podcasts and audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular. This is an important realization that learners value high-quality audio content.

4. Keep everything on brand:

It is crucial to check in with your customer so you may apply their brand guidelines, logos, and color schemes in your work. Consider your color selections carefully when creating any content, including photos, infographics, films, logos, headers, and more. Next, think about your font selections. These must also originate from your client directly. Use just a few straightforward, clear fonts if the client has no preferences.

5. Add meaningful interactions:

The best technique to ensure long-term comprehension is to evaluate learners using recalls. Additionally, it makes your online course much more enjoyable! Engaging activities like flip charts, quizzes, video embeds, and discussion questions are all quick and effortless ways to boost student engagement. Making game-based eLearning, also known as gamification, is an additional and effective choice.

6. Keep your lessons short:

In business contexts, taking an eLearning course is frequently not a personal decision made by the learner. Most frequently, a manager or member of the HR staff will assign it. This implies that many employees will be time- and interest-constrained. Make sure your lessons are brief to overcome these obstacles. Self-paced online learning courses should not last longer than 45 minutes. You achieve this, make sure to constantly edit your voiceover and text scripts. Modules should be divided into manageable, bite-sized pieces for learners. Aim to keep each film under five minutes, especially for videos.

7. Use relevant analogies and examples:

One of the most effective learning strategies is the use of analogies.

Learners are compelled to examine one item and apply that analysis to the other item by using a pertinent comparison of two objects.

8. Simplify your eLearning program:

Before going live, ask a friend or co-worker to user-test your eLearning course. To improve learner engagement, their comments will help make improvements and enhance clarity with simplicity.

All eLearning content managers face the challenge of making their learning programs engaging. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to this, there are many ways to boost learner engagement. What tips or tricks do you use to engage learners in an online setting?

The post How to Boost Learner Engagement in eLearning first appeared on Aptara Corp.

The post How to Boost Learner Engagement in eLearning appeared first on Aptara Corp.

Rapid authoring tools come in 3 different varieties.

1. Power Point add-ins
2. Installable authoring programs
3. Cloud based authoring tools

Power Point add-ins

These are additions to Microsoft PowerPoint called plug-ins. When this is added, a ribbon tab containing the functions offered by the add-in appears.

The fact that these authoring tools are so simple to use is their main advantage. Anyone who is familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint may use them, therefore there is a very short learning curve. When compared to the installed authoring tools, these tools are less expensive. The PowerPoint add-ins Articulate Studio and Adobe Presenter are two examples.

These writing tools’ disadvantage is that they do not offer feature modification. With a few simple interactivities and exams, you may create a straightforward e-learning course. On the other hand, these tools might not be the best option if you need to create a highly interactive course.

Installable authoring programs

Installation-based writing tools, as opposed to PowerPoint add-ins, are independent, stand-alone programs. To use these authoring tools, they are to be installed on the computer. They include several built-in elements that may be modified to create extremely dynamic courses.

Contrary to PowerPoint add-ins and cloud-based authoring tools, these technologies are more expensive and need a longer learning curve. A few installed authoring tools are Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, and Lectora Inspire

Cloud based authoring tools

These authoring tools are typically sold as Software as a Service (SaaS) and are subscriber-basely licensed. They don’t need to be installed on your machine because they are hosted online. On any connected computer, you can work on them online. All you must do is go to the website of the tool’s creator and log in. These tools’ built-in capabilities make it simple to create interactive e-learning courses. The learning curve is longer than it is for PowerPoint add-ins, though. However, compared to installation-based authoring tools, they are simpler to use. One or two examples of cloud-based e-learning writing tools are Udutu, Claro, and Easy Generator.

As you do not have to pay the entire licensing charge all at once, they are more affordable than installed authoring tools. These websites offer the option for pay as you go. If the device is online, one can work from anywhere. This benefit of the tool, however, can be a drawback if you don’t have an Internet connection or have a limited capacity. Data security can be a concern because these solutions are cloud-based, and this technology is still developing.

Here are some guidelines for selecting the best authoring tool:

1. Take Your Tool Competency into Account

If you discover that the tool does, in fact, match your unique needs but are unsure of your designers’ proficiency with it, either engage a tool expert to assist you or contract out the course development to a vendor who is knowledgeable about utilizing that tool.

2. Analyze And Compare Features

You and your design team may compare the features and pick the best choice if you have a solid understanding of the benefits and downsides of various writing tools.

3. Make sure they accept responsive design

In custom eLearning, responsive design is the rule rather than the exception. Today’s eLearning courses must be accessible on a variety of devices so that students can access them whenever and wherever they choose. Most writing tools on the market now enable responsive design, however there are several that can match your needs and offer more responsive design alternatives.

4. Check Out the Media Libraries and Assets in These Tools

Before choosing a tool, consider the numerous assessment templates provided by various tools as well as the available alternatives for customized comments.

5. Check for Translation Ease

Choose an authoring tool that will facilitate course translation with the least amount of time and effort.

Now, listed out below are the best authoring tools in the market.

1. Producer

You can easily, reliably, and at scale develop professional interactive eLearning courses with Producer. It assists you and your team throughout the whole learning design process, from analyzing learning needs to creating effective digital and blended learning. Additionally, it promotes teamwork using project management and commenting/review tools.

Pros:

• Easy to learn
• Internal logic for adaptive learning
• Truly responsive to mobile
• Dynamic project management
• Scoping instruments and group design
• You may create your own Themes using thousands of templates and resources, including pre-built learning, to keep learning visually consistent and on brand.
• The WYSIWYG editor

Cons:

• Limited layout customization options
• No capabilities for software simulation
• No built-in video capturing or editing capabilities

2. Articulate Storyline 360

The company’s primary authoring tool, Storyline 360, is a component of Articulate 360. Articulate has a PowerPoint-like user interface and a comprehensive feature set that thrills seasoned eLearning developers but could be too much for inexperienced ones. Compared to some competitors, it allows for more customization, albeit this could slow down development.

Pros:

• Versatile and adaptable design
• PPT import is permitted
• A high level of features

Cons:

• Rapid learning curve
• Sophisticated, unique logic is necessary
• Not actually mobile-responsive
• Mac is not supported (unless using an emulator)
• Collaboration is difficult because they are desktop-based systems.

3. Adobe Captivate

Unlike Articulate Storyline, Captivate is a desktop authoring tool that was one of the first in the eLearning authoring space and is compatible with both Windows and Mac. Although Captivate is a great eLearning tool for seasoned authors, it is less appropriate for individuals who are just starting out in eLearning production.

Pros:

• Authors with the right skills can create engaging interactive learning
• PPT to eLearning conversion
• Create VR content There are several third-party template options available.

Cons:

• Incline learning curve
• Needs intricate custom logic
• Learning for mobile devices is only possible with certain templates or fluid boxes.
• Because it is desktop-based, collaboration is difficult.

4. Articulate Rise

In contrast to Storyline, which was introduced by Articulate as part of the 360 suite in 2016, Rise is aimed for beginners or people who want to put learning together quickly. It makes it simple to develop interactions of a high caliber by using prebuilt interactions and drag-and-drop content blocks to build out your learning.

Pros:

• Designed to make creating courses simple
• Articulate Content Library 360 accessibility
• Enables numerous authors to work together to improve learning

Cons

• Every course feels the same in the end.
• Inability to produce complicated relationships (however, you can import through Storyline 360)
• Responsive for mobile

5. Lectora Online

One of the first eLearning authoring tools, Lectora, now has a cloud-based version called Lectora Online. Like Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate, Lectora Online has a higher learning curve and requires an experienced eLearning designer in order to produce truly excellent eLearning.

Pros:

• Access to the eLearning Brothers Asset
• Library through the cloud
• Fully customizable

Cons:

• Incline learning curve
• Not truly responsive to mobile (you need to create new views for each device)
• Intricate user interface

6. Gomo

Gomo creates learning that is responsive to mobile devices first. You can get up and going quickly with the help of pre-built templates, the quick-start wizard, and a variety of interactive templates. A variety of themes are available from Gomo that may be customized to fit your project or business. Collaboration is facilitated by shared libraries and a team-based methodology.

Pros:

• Dynamic templates
• Simple to learn
• True mobile responsiveness

Cons:

• No WYSIWYG editor
• Less choices for customization than some rivals

7. Easy Generator

EasyGenerator, as its name suggests, focuses on producing learning quickly and easily. It is appropriate for individuals without prior eLearning authoring knowledge. In fact, the business supports user-generated content, which lets students produce their own content. You can drag and drop question, audio, and video content blocks.

Pros:

• Easily mastered
• Import PowerPoint capability

Cons:

• No built-in asset library
• Limited interaction types

8. Elucidat

The development of digital learning at scale is made simple by Elucidat. With role-based permissions, many authors, and a central asset library, it is cloud-based and heavily emphasizes collaboration. High-quality learning can be easily created thanks to the library of prebuilt templates, but more experienced users can also create their own pages using the ‘layout designer’.

Pros:

• Fantastic teamwork capabilities
• User interface that is simple
• True mobile responsiveness

Cons:

• Expensive unless you’re creating large-scale programs
• A lack of custom interactions

So, which authoring tool suits you the best?

The post Rapid authoring tools for more effective eLearning solutions first appeared on Aptara Corp.

The post Rapid authoring tools for more effective eLearning solutions appeared first on Aptara Corp.

Here is where Gamification comes into play. Let’s look at how this concept came to be used in the field of learning and how it has evolved over the years into an exceptionally brilliant tool in the eLearning field.

What is Gamification?

Gamification is the application of game mechanics or elements of interactive game design in a non-game context to promote desired behavior and drive learning outcomes. It has become popular in the field of learning and education for obvious reasons. Gamification applies game principles like fun, play, transparency, design, and challenges in real-world objectives rather than for pure entertainment. It promotes perseverance, motivates learners, enables them to focus, and builds a sense of competition among co-learners in an attempt to ‘win’ i.e. prove to be the best learner.

Gamification utilizes concepts, such as leaderboards, badges, missions, levels, etc. to facilitate interactions and engage users. In many cases, Gamification can be integrated seamlessly in an environment and increase engagement to a level where users may not even realize they are being ‘gamified’!

Click here to see Aptara’s expertise in Gamification and how your learners/business can benefit from it.

How is it different from Game-based Learning?

Game-based learning is training that uses game elements to teach a specific skill or achieve a specific learning outcome. It takes your core content and objectives and makes it fun. Whereas Gamification is the application of those elements in a non-game context that promotes desired behavior and drives learning outcomes.

The main difference between the two learning concepts is the integration of game mechanics with learning matter. The former fully integrates the two, so the game is the training. On the other hand, the latter uses game elements as a reward for completing existing training modules. According to research by MarketsandMarkets, the global Gamification market is projected to grow from $9.1 billion in 2020 to $30.7 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.4%.

Instructional Design for Gamification

The main areas of focus for an Instructional Designer while integrating Gamification in learning content are the following:

Engaging learners – Striking a balance between learning and play to ensure a cohesive learning environment

Opportunities to practice – Creating courses with differential problems and scenarios to derive variable learning outcomes

Assessing progress – Embedding continuous and measurable assessment within the learning course using the learners cause-and-effect variables

Feedback – The game needs to ‘tell’ the learner how well they’ve performed

Gamification Elements

This next section sheds light on some of the commonly used Gamification elements in learning content.

Badges: A sense of achievement in receiving a badge helps learners learn and have fun at the same time. Badges used wisely and in a meaningful way help learners feel appreciated.

Leaderboards: Leaderboards provide a social status element and help learners track their progress. It drives healthy competition and helps them to focus better not only on winning but actually learning through the entire duration of the course material.

Power-ups / Bonuses: These elements when scheduled into the learning content provide motivation and recognition for time, effort, and skills attained.

Avatars: HTML5 and dynamic CSS make the personalization of learning content simple and attractive. Avatars not only enhance the look and feel of the course but also accommodate individual learner preferences.

Missions: Often made up from a series of linked challenges, missions give users a fixed goal to achieve, multiplying the feeling of achievement.

Levels: Levels and goals help gauge a learner’s progress through a system. It can be as important to see where you can go next as it is to see where you have been.

Story / Theme: A story or theme puts the learner into a captivating narrative setting where learner choices are embedded into the storyline. This allows the learner to focus as much as motivates him to conclude the story i.e. complete the course.

Time-bound interactivity: Reducing the time duration allotted to learners to complete tasks creates a sense of urgency and can help them focus on the problem.  It can also lead to different decisions.

 Minification

As a branch of Gamification, the concept of Minification uses small games or Mini-Games to assess the quantum of knowledge the learner has gained from the learning course(s).

These are usually assessment or evaluation modules used as a reward-based system for completing existing training modules.

Some fun Mini-Games are:

• Number Search
• Ski Slalom
• The Archery Game
• Dunk Tank

Gamification – A Learning Strategy

From the late 20^th century to modern-day Gamification simulations with AR and VR, gamification has proved to be an effective learning technique across various fields and industries. What happens when this learning ‘technique’ can be adopted by organizations as a learning ‘strategy’? Click here to view the recording of our webinar on Gamification Strategies to Upskill & Reskill your Hybrid Workforce to know more.

What are your views on Gamification? Tell us in the comments section below or write to us at moreinfo@aptaracorp.com.

The post How Gamification is Used for Optimum Learner Experience first appeared on Aptara Corp.

The post How Gamification is Used for Optimum Learner Experience appeared first on Aptara Corp.

Employees are the pillars of the organization; its most important asset and its largest investment. Every employee of every team of every department or line of business has a designated role to play and the less-than-average performance of even one employee can take a toll on the way business operates. To make sure employees are on track, engagement must be increased to boost business metrics, gain customers, and improve customer satisfaction. As such, employees must be led differently. How can this be done? Let’s find out.

The Engagement Conundrum

As employees of an organization, individuals are expected to perform their duties as defined by their employer and be committed to the goals of the organization. Employees, according to their work ethic and dedication, may live up to these duties. The primary question that an organization is faced with – are employees engaged? And as simple as the answers may be, theoretically, the execution aspect is just as difficult.

Employees often apply the WIIFM tool when tasks are being assigned to them. ‘What’s In It For Me?’ Justifying the answers employees derive after such inquiry using various techniques is what we would refer to as Employee Engagement. It is a fundamental approach to the Employer-Employee relationship that influences the efficacy of Performance Management in an organization.

Engagement Drivers

According to Bain & Company, an employee who feels engaged and inspired is 125% more productive than the satisfied staffer.

So, how can an organization engage its employees? Here is a list of engagement drivers at a glance and the tools that could be used to leverage them:

• Leveraging the Drivers
  • Senior Leadership
  • Work Group Experience
  • Job Responsibilities
  • Work Environment
  • Training and Development
  • Manager Role
  • Rewards and Recognition
  • Recognition Specifically
  • Social Engagement
  • Diversity and Inclusion
• By Using the Tools
  • For Yourself as Leaders:
    • DiSC tool
    • Leadership Development Portal
    • Elearning Libraries
    • Educational Assistance
    • 360 Feedback

• For Your Direct Reports:
  • DiSC tool
  • Recognition Survey
  • Recognition platform
  • Performance Reviews and Development Plans
  • Social collaboration tool
  • Stay Discussion

Why is Training critical?

Training reinforces the vision and mission of the organization to align business goals with employee growth and performance. It plays a vital role in cultivating talent within the business unit as opposed to hiring new talent. Training reduces employee turnover and is a better option than replacing an employee. This not only benefits the organization in saving costs but also boosts employee productivity and motivation.

A study by SHRM suggests that the cost of replacing an employee is 50% to 250% of their annual salary + benefits, which only reiterates that training for employee engagement is crucial for employee retention.

Subsequently, this influences customer satisfaction and ROI in business. According to Hay Group, in one study, companies with engaged employees had 89% greater customer satisfaction and 50% higher customer loyalty than their disengaged counterparts.

Training for Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is driven by training. Each of the engagement drivers mentioned above is significant in their respective ways thereby ensuring training to positively affect engagement and the current employment situation of lack of engagement. Training can be provided for various reasons; some of them are listed below:

• New Hire Orientation/Onboarding
• Technical Skills Development
• Soft Skills Development
• Compliance Training
• Launch/Introduction of Products/Services
• Executive Development

Driving Employee Engagement through Flipped Classroom Training

Flipped Classroom, as the name suggests, is an inverted classroom where learners access lectures (that consume a majority of the training time) through online mediums, and the virtual classroom is reserved only for activities and exchange of knowledge. The facilitator will get to see whether the participants have understood the concepts and focus on discussions/activities and addressing any weak areas for the learners.

A long-term goal for a multinational professional services network was to change the way its employees were trained and have a targeted 50% of learning delivered in classrooms by 2021from an initial approximately 80% in 2015, saving 50 million USDs in annual travel costs. The company adopted the flipped classroom technique where the programs selected were designed to be delivered virtually to its employees via eLearning as well as in virtual classrooms. The virtual classrooms were reserved for high-value learning activities that required groups and facilitation; for example, authentic practice, custom feedback, and reflection.

Earlier, employees needed to spend a disproportionate amount of time in physical classrooms, which affected business ROI negatively and also led to the employees’ billable hours not being accounted for appropriately. In the flipped classroom technique, the learning experience was distributed into blends of smaller learning objects – each one the most efficient tool for the job – and was combined into a program.

The business objectives that the program successfully addressed in terms of effective employee engagement can be listed as follows:

• Improved speed to capability and proficiency resulting in high-quality performance
• Reduced expenses and more productivity due to reduced travel expenses and reduced classroom-based learning
• Reduced attrition rates and recruitment costs as new hires started to feel motivated, engaged, and educated
• Easy access to the on-demand training program for all, with the ability to complete training in a time and place that suited the learners
• New design and structure for the training, moving from a push only, tell-design for purely information-based outcomes to an experiential, interactive, and pull-based experience for higher application-based outcomes
• New hires as well as existing employees were able to access the training at any time even after completion to easily access useful information to help them make sound decisions when on the job
• Increased employee participation

All the virtual components of the programs were deployed on the company’s learning portal which helped new hires and existing employees to search for learning resources according to their learning needs effectively and efficiently.

The post The Flipped Classroom: An Effective Training Strategy for Employee Engagement first appeared on Aptara Corp.

The post The Flipped Classroom: An Effective Training Strategy for Employee Engagement appeared first on Aptara Corp.