Creating an online course is a great way to share your knowledge and an amazing opportunity to make money (ching ching). However, the success of your course largely depends on your students’ completion rates. Yikes! Low completion rates can be frustrating and discouraging, and they can also harm your reputation as an educator, especially if you choose Udemy as your course hosting platform.
Don’t worry – you can fix this. There are several easy changes that you can implement to increase your online course completion rates. Good completion rates lead to better reviews. Let’s learn tips and tricks to keep your students engaged and motivated.
1. Set Clear Expectations
Sometimes students stop watching lectures or don’t start watching your lectures just because they don’t know what to expect. To avoid this, you should set clear expectations right at the beginning. This means having a transparent landing page, a course promo video that explains learning objectives, and course screenshots that show the back office.
Please make sure your course description and any course promotional material you use clearly outline what students can expect to learn and what value they are getting.
2. Provide a Warm Welcome
First impressions matters! That will greatly impact how your course is perceived. And it will impact the course completion rates. To achieve that, make sure you welcome your students properly, especially if they paid a lot of money for your course.
This means that you should introduce yourself, explain your background and expertise, and tell them why you are excited to have them. You can also create a welcome video or send a personalized email (good marketing practice) to help them feel valued.
3. Use Engaging Content
Engaging content keeps your students motivated and interested in your course. How can you achieve that? Use various multimedia elements, such as videos, images, podcasts, and interactive quizzes. Those are the rules of good course design.
If you are camera-shy, don’t worry! Narrated presentation courses can also be interactive and engaging. Make sure your content brings value to your students. Add some downloadable materials (to do lists, tracking tables, templates, etc.) to your course.
4. Encourage Interaction
Online courses can sometimes feel isolating, which can lead to disengagement and low completion rates. To combat this, it’s important to encourage interaction between your students. You can have discussion forums or chat rooms where students can share ideas, ask questions, and connect with each other. You can also offer live webinar sessions to provide students with the opportunity to interact with you directly.
Your students can also be guests on your webinars, where they can share their ideas or present their projects. For example, one course that teaches options trading hosts weekly webinars. Sometimes students share their screens in order to show a new trading strategy. That way, other students are getting more value and that can encourage them to really apply strategies learned from the course.
5. Provide Regular Feedback
Feedback is essential for helping students stay on track and motivated to complete your course. Ensure you provide regular feedback on their assignments and participation and offer constructive criticism and encouragement.
This will help students feel supported and valued. The more active you are as a lecturer, the more progress you can expect from your students. Eventually, that leads to better reviews.
6. Set Realistic Deadlines
Setting realistic deadlines is crucial for helping students stay on track and complete your course successfully. Make sure your deadlines are achievable and realistic, and consider providing students with a calendar or timeline to help them stay organized and on track. You can also offer flexible deadlines or extensions in case students need extra time to complete assignments.
7. Offer Incentives to Boost Course Completion
Incentives can be a great way to motivate students to complete your course. Consider offering a certificate of completion or a badge that students can add to their online profiles. You can also offer discounts or freebies for students who complete your course successfully.
These incentives can help students feel motivated and rewarded for their hard work. Gamification is one example of incentivized course. You can check out Forento Course Hosting platform if you want to include gamification.
FAQ – Course Completion Rates
If your students are still struggling to complete your course, it may be worth revisiting your course content and structure. Consider offering additional resources or support, such as one-on-one online coaching or mentoring. You can also ask for feedback from your students to identify areas where you can improve your course and increase completion rates.
Most online course platforms provide analytics tools that allow you to track student progress and completion rates. You can also create your own surveys or quizzes to gather feedback from your students and assess their level of engagement with your course.
Following up with your students after the course is complete can be a great way to foster long-term engagement and build relationships. Consider sending a survey or feedback form to gather their thoughts on the course and how you can improve it in the future.
You can also offer them additional resources or opportunities to stay connected with you and other students. This is a very good marketing practice because you will probably make more courses in the future, and you can offer your current students a discount to join your new course.
