Introduction 

Are you looking for strategies to boost learner engagement in your continuing education program? Look no further!

Freestone LMS has reviewed the top learner engagement strategies to foster a successful continuing education program. Check out our top seven strategies for learning engagement.

Why your continuing education program should utilize learner engagement strategies

To drive learner engagement in your continuing education program, you need the right strategies and the best technology. According to the latest Community Brands Association Trends Study, members and association professionals agree—membership organizations will no longer be a go-to source for professional development if they don’t innovate.

Today, more learners are turning to their professional organization and employer as top sources for professional education content. Member learners also rate the quality of content created by their organization as higher than content created by other sources.

These findings suggest a real opportunity to drive engagement and continuing education success by taking time to develop a learning engagement strategy and pairing it with innovative technology.

The top learner engagement strategies for your continuing education program 

The best way to increase learner engagement is to ensure your learners are active stakeholders in their professional development.

Here are the top seven learner engagement strategies to empower your learners and foster a successful continuing education program:

1. Engagement with a robust learning management system (LMS)

The goal of implementing any continuing education software is to encourage learners to keep coming back over time. It is also important to provide a flexible, streamlined user experience that makes it easy for learners to engage with content and meet their professional development needs.

Along with that, you need to consider the benefits of managing online courses, data, and continuing education and more – from start to finish in one platform to reduce staff time on labor-intensive administrative tasks and provide interactive dynamic content. With a robust learning management system (LMS), you can accomplish all these goals and maximize learner engagement.

2. Understand the needs and skills of your learners

While the standard practice is to review performance data to determine learning needs and skills, KPIs might not be readily available and don’t necessarily encompass the entire picture. Obtain feedback straight from your members, the learners themselves.

Personal interaction is one of the best ways to engage and motivate learners. Other approaches may be hosting interviews, observations, focus group discussions, surveys, and even brief informal conversations.

3. Set clear learning engagement goals

Setting and communicating clear learning engagement goals will help you pave a way to greater learner engagement. Get specific with your goals and identify KPIs to ensure you create a path to success.

As you identify and set learning engagement goals, you’ll also want to communicate them with your members and key stakeholders. Communicating your goals in a member town hall will show your commitment to strengthening your continuing education program and increasing learner engagement. Understanding your goals will help learners feel more connected to your program, ultimately boosting retention in the long run.

4. Make learning relevant and convenient

With your LMS, you’ll have the ability to make your continuing education program even more accessible to your members. Choose an LMS that offers flexible live and on-demand events. Flexible learning options will help you reach more learners, attracting non-members and increasing retention with your current members.

Consider utilizing webcasts, rebroadcasts, webinars, and on-demand content to expand your event audience and boost learner engagement.

5. Be open to communication and feedback 

Maximize your robust LMS by providing surveys after a course is finished. With course surveys, you can gain valuable insight into how a course meets a learner’s needs. Having member feedback will be immensely helpful in driving learner engagement.

Additionally, consider asking your learners about how often they’d like to hear from you and in which mediums. Discovering this information can help you tailor your communications, allowing you to add another layer of personalization to complete your successful marketing learner strategy.

6. Include interactivity

Learners have a variety of learning styles. To maximize learning engagement in your continuing education program, be sure to leverage an LMS that caters to all learning styles.

One of the easiest ways you can make your learning program more accessible is by choosing an LMS with interactivity tools like pop quizzes, videos, group chat, Q&A, real-time polling, surveys, checkpoints, and more. You might also consider rewarding learners for their engagement by highlighting the participants who go above and beyond.

7. Use more of what you already have

Not starting from scratch when you need to create new learning content makes it easier to focus on reaching more non-members and retaining current members. Consider repurposing your current content to drive learner engagement. By taking an existing webinar and converting it into an on-demand course, you can give new life to existing content helping you connect with more learners.

To boost learner engagement, you can also try turning long content into short learning opportunities. Breaking up longer courses into smaller, easier to consume chunks is called microlearning or micro courses. Micro courses will help you make learning more accessible and ultimately drive engagement. 

 

Discover more top learner engagement strategies

Freestone makes it easy to quickly roll out learning content without having to build complex courses or manage multiple platforms. Leverage the strategies in this blog to make your members active stakeholders in their learning. To boost learning engagement and deliver a powerful learning experience, Choose Freestone LMS. Learn more about how Freestone LMS can enhance your learner engagement strategy! Connect with us today.