Why do learners drop courses

5 methods to increase conversions

A lot of educational services have emerged last year and they use similar approaches to educational processes’ organization — they provide listeners with content, include some gamification, give feedback and certificates. But still there is a problem how to keep online-students motivated to complete courses despite of many factors, which can spoil their intention.

Conversions of learners who started the course (enrolled) into learners who finally earned the statement of accomplishment.

For example, Coursera, the leader on the market of online education has pointed out this year the problem of lack of learners’ motivation: almost 90% of distance learners drop courses. The rest 10% is a conversion rate of learners who started the course (enrolled) into learners who finally earned the statement of accomplishment.

This post is dedicated to conversions in educational projects and tries to figure out the main reasons why they leave courses and methods how to retain learners.

Reason 1:
Where to go

Misunderstanding of why and where online students should search educational content might appear to be an important issue. Educational services sometimes are messy with information and suggestions and concrete goals of the service become not clear enough. Another point is that there are a lot of options to choose, what can be a little bit confusing for learners while they’re looking for only one thing — getting knowledge.

Method 1:
Follow simplicity

The majority of users knows what they actually want. So that makes it easy to show the direct path to what they want. Try to predict their behavior on the site. It’s all about usability. Just targeted information, just clear actions. The greatest examples of an intelligent approach to landing pages are:

• Google search engine — one purpose: a user enters the site and gets what is wanted.
• Airbnb’s splash screen — one message: where do you want to go in a search string.

Reason 2:
What is the reason

Very often a bright name and a description of the course is enough to enroll for, but after the first lecture the student loses interest and motivation to complete it because of external factors, which haven’t been taken into consideration before. Moreover, learners don’t schedule their time in advance and many distractions may appear. And doubts about whether a student should finish a course at all are not so rare. As Phillip J. Fry from Futurama might say “not sure if I watch the course later or have already dropped it”.

Method 2:
That’s all for your sake

The most complicated thing for a content manager of the course (or the platform) is to convince the learners that this particular course is all they dream of. This is about describing the perspectives and privileges of participating. So it’s necessary to give arguments in a very simple and affordable form.

• Earth Hour project by WWF shows the impact on environment of turning off non-essential lights for one hour.

Reason 3:
It’s too complicated to get the knowledge

Almost everywhere the first step on the way to get information is the user registration process, requests to tell and to invite friends, to fill in personal and contact information. Then click, and click, and click… And finally no profit. To learners educational process is not a flow, it often seems to be more as a climbing. The problem is that it is really annoying and decreases the likelihood that the user will be satisfied. The value of the educational platform is hidden so deeply that many learners start struggling but give up.

Method 3:
Low barriers to enter and to go on

What should be done is to set low barriers to get the knowledge. Any educational resources should stay not an advertising platform for collecting information, but a source of knowledge. Several measures can be taken as implementing a simple registration via social networks or even excluding personal accounts at all. Also making personal offers about further courses according to current programs learned and building the program for users is efficient so learners do not have to waste time finding ways to go on.

• Users watch videos on YouTube and keep on watching recommendations.

Reason 4:
The absence of visible result

Unfortunately, with more learners enrolled it it is getting more complicated to give feedback personally, follow up with their achievements and success. And when a learner doesn’t have results or has it belated the motivation is decreasing dramatically.

Method 4:
Feedback

In order to observe an instant response many small but not so primitive tasks should be solved. Outsourcing professor’s roles to community, i.e. checking tasks, is also a solution but it doesn’t work well after the tipping point. Therefore atomic questions and quizzes help to maintain learners' attention. And the more types of such quizzes are presented (not just a multiple choice) the more learners will be willing to wait for other results.

• Notifications on Facebook on every event (messages, updates, etc.)

Reason 5:
A low-level or high specific content

Having a specific or niche content might be a problem when facing a mass oriented education. Too deep courses lower mass learners’ interest. Coming back to Coursera again there are courses based on a higher educational background which do not cover all the possible areas.

Method 5:
Really mass content

Making MOOC indeed mass oriented is a solution. Niche courses are critical at the beginning but it is reasonable to add different directions, more variable courses so that learners do not lose interest and always could find something more, something different. The secret ingredient is in mashing up niche and mass educational content.

• Long tail model of Amazon.com.
• Spotify’s platform: for all tastes in music.

Conclusion

This overview is given to remind the problems of learners dropping courses on education services and to propose methods to increase conversions.

1. Simplifying the usage of the service lead users not to be irritated and to be satisfied at least with saving their time on choosing the right direction.
2. The question about the necessity of participating in online education services can be answered by defining the goals of the course or program and demonstrating benefits. So that, motivated and encouraged users would have a clear vision of a practical application of the course.
3. High entrance barriers can be managed by excluding useless steps on the way to get knowledge.
4. The problem of not feeling the progress can be leveled by offering many small tasks to get users loyal and enthusiastic.
5. Proper content should be presented for proper users. As the result, the content will be shared with target audience which enhance virality.

Originally posted: “Why do learners drop courses”.
Photo credits: Disney Enterprise, Inc. Alice in Wonderland.