Back to Basics: Why does e-learning need to be fun, and how do you get there?

Employees today are less engaged in their jobs than ever – worldwide, only 20% of employees are engaged with their work. According to Gallup, engaged employees are “those who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace”. 

Why is it important to keep employees engaged? Companies with high employee engagement were found to be 21% more profitable!

That’s not all though – high engagement improves morale in the workplace, improves the quality of service your employees deliver to customers, and can even reduce absenteeism as much as 41% according to one study. 

And possibly the most important benefit of engagement is that it aids retention and reduces attrition. In fact, it was found that as a result of low employee engagement, businesses end up needing to spend $4,700 on average to hire new talent, and around $986 to onboard the new hire; that means you directly lose almost $6,000 each time a disengaged employee walks out the door!

Now we can all agree that learning and development (L&D) initiatives help to increase job satisfaction and employee loyalty. But it’s also important to realize that unless e-learning is fun, employees are not going to fully engage.

One study shows that those who have the chance to learn in a fun way are less likely to encounter mind wandering than those who attempt to study dry texts. This is because the excitement that accompanies fun experiences acts as a great motivator for attaining excellent scores. The same drive for excitement stimulates motivation among adult learners also.

In short, fun and engaging e-learning really works – both to deliver great learning outcomes and to keep learners and employees engaged and motivated.

So, how do you make e-learning fun? Here are 7 methods we strongly believe in.

1. Gamification in e-learning

Add game-like elements such as points, badges, leaderboards, and rewards to learning modules to improve competition, collaboration, and a sense of achievement. As any teen parent will tell you games are addictive, so use that to make e-learning ‘addictive’ as well. Build a game structure to incorporate gamification in e-learning improve engagement. One can have increased interactivity through quizzes, challenges, and simulations.

2. Storytelling

Another way to engage learners is to use the techniques of storytelling. Build storylines, characters, plots, narratives, and scenarios into your modules to enhance engagement and relatability. Stories always help build a better connection which leads to better retention.

3. Interactivity

AR or VR-based immersive scenarios, navigation through 3D environments on quests, interactive e-learning simulations with role-playing or learning-by-doing, decision-making scenarios, drag-and-drop exercises, interactive e-learning multimedia, virtual labs, case studies – these are some of the many ways you can enable your learner to actively interact with your learning program.

4. Multimedia

Animations are an effective way to make e-learning courses more engaging, especially if they have an audio element to them. You can also incorporate videos, images, audio, and infographics strategically into the module not just to break up chunks of text but also to illustrate concepts.

5. Immediate feedback

Prompt, constructive feedback on assessments and activities help learners gauge progress and course correct. They also acknowledge effort, celebrate success, identify areas of improvement, clarify misconceptions, fill knowledge gaps, and provide guidance for improvement. It also turns learning active, which improves retention.

6. Social or collaborative learning

E-learning can be a lonely path, so providing social or collaborative learning opportunities in online courses to allow learners to interact is a great way to improve engagement. Provide discussion forums, use video chats to make the exchange immediate, adopt the flipped classroom approach (where learners can take the lead on a session), and host Q&A sessions, and group projects to increase engagement.

7. Personalization

With e-learning, you can customize courses based on the specific needs, goals, preferences, and even abilities of your learners and then set them on adaptive learning paths that adjust content and difficulty level based on performance and progress. This tailors modules to individual needs. Above all, personalization of content creates a sense of ownership and relevance.

At Hornbill FX, we’ve always believed that interested learners are better learners. Now’s the time to make e-learning more enjoyable to get your employees fully engaged. Talk to us today about how we can get started.