5 Ways ELearning Can Annoy People

By: Justin Ferriman • February 25, 2016
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instructional-designerChances are you have taken an online course that you didn’t really enjoy.

There are many reasons why someone could dislike an elearning course that they take.

If it’s because the content of the course isn’t something that interests them, then there isn’t much you can do.

However, this is rarely the case.

Most people get annoyed with online courses because they are poorly designed. In other words, the user experience is sub-par.

The worst thing is that these situations can often be avoided by just taking a moment to review your course. Below are some of the more common items that annoy learners when taking an online course.

Too Long

Our attention spans are limited and there are many distractions at a computer that can pull us away from an online course. When a course start to take two hours to complete, it feels like a chore.

Try breaking up your courses into logical chunks so that learners can return at a later date.

Not Mobile Friendly

People aren’t always sitting at a computer. If your course isn’t mobile device friendly then it means that learners need to schedule time in their busy lives to be at a computer to complete the course.

Give learners the freedom to take a course anywhere and with any device by ensuring cross-device compatibility.

All Text, No Media

No one wants to read paragraph after paragraph on a computer screen. Put some effort into leveraging various methods of media to give life to the content.

Too Much Quizzing

Quizzing is an important part of any elearning program, but if it’s used too much then the point is lost. Avoid the temptation to include a quiz after every lesson or section.

If you have to include a quiz, don’t require a passing percentage. Allow people to fail, see the correct answer(s), and move on. You can retest them at the very end of the course with a comprehensive quiz.

Outdated Content

Keeping course content up-to-date is difficult, but critical to your course success.

The second learners see dated content they become annoyed and feel like they are wasting their time. Schedule regular check-ups for your courses to ensure the content is still valid.

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter