Many eLearning courses offered today are not doing very well, mostly because the course designers have not adjusted to the demands of modern learners. Let’s look at some issues that modern learners have with some online courses.

1. Not engaging enough

Modern learners require more than text; they demand engaging media as part of their course. Online courses that consist mostly of text don’t cut it anymore. Even outside online learning, there is a general demand for video online. Video is currently responsible for 80% of web activity.

Today’s learners expect videos, audio, and graphics to enrich their learning experience – they have all these media at the ready on their smartphones, so they have come to expect it everywhere. Course materials that lack a variety of media will be perceived as old-fashioned and boring.

2. Offers no sense of achievement

Modern learners want to know how they are doing on a course. Online learners want to have their progression gauged through strategies like gamified tests. Otherwise, it’s all too common for them to feel that they’re not making any progress. Some experts suggest that course designers incorporate some ranking system to encourage competition among learners and give them a sense of achievement.

3. Lacks opportunity for interaction

Doing an online course is a lonely pursuit that many give up too easily. To avoid this, course designers must, as a matter of necessity, provide ample opportunities for course goers to interact with each other and tutors. Course designers can create activities for learners to participate in and to practice their new skills on each other. This helps to build confidence and the sense that you are not alone in studying online.

4. Too teacher-centered

In the past, teaching was teacher centered. With the integration of technology into the classroom, education has become more student-centered. Online courses must follow this trend – students should be leading their learning. Educators have a supportive role to play – in discussions, they should act as facilitators. A student will abandon a course if he doesn’t feel supported, so the educator must be attentive and provide support and feedback but must not take over and tell the student what to do.

5. Does not allow for microlearning

Millennials who make up 75% of the current workforce, have a short attention span. Therefore, it has become important to present training materials in short bits of content that are easy to study and absorb in a short time. Intensive training courses that are heavy on content and require too much time to study and absorb don’t fit in with the demands of modern life.

6. Not mobile-friendly

This point goes hand in hand with the previous one. Consumers constantly use their mobile devices to access all manner of information – they want to access their learning material in the same way. An e-Learning course that isn’t mobile-friendly will not get out of the starting blocks.

These are some of the issues that contribute to the failure of some eLearning programs. As more of the programs become available on mobile devices and are designed to be more interactive, they are bound to succeed.