Training and education that are accompanied by an online course in addition to the traditional seminar event usually achieve more sustainable learning effects. To ensure that participants work effectively with the learning platform, you as a trainer can take some support measures. What factors you should influence in what ways has been discovered by blink.it employee Niklas Appelmann in his scientific thesis.
Your goal: Maximum learning success with blended learning
Are you thinking about incorporating online courses into your training? Or have you already started? Then you have probably already come across the various advantages you gain by using online courses:
You gain a unique selling proposition
You gain a new source of income
You gain new customer groups
You gain measurability
You gain reusability
You gain flexibility
You gain a variety of media
While you already gain most of these advantages with pure e-learning, it is only through the combination with live events such as seminars or workshops that you benefit from the advantages of both worlds: personal and intensive support in face-to-face training and the high (temporal and spatial) flexibility through online courses.
This combination of traditional face-to-face learning forms with content from online courses is called blended learning. The learning success in blended learning is proven to be higher than in courses that consist solely of pure e-learning or pure face-to-face training.
Your challenge: Online courses with high participation
So what is stopping you from deciding to start with online courses? Perhaps you wonder whether your participants will also utilize the additional online offerings. After all, you don’t want to invest in a platform that ultimately is not actively used.
In face-to-face training, you can immediately see who is actively participating in the course and who does not show up or sits there unengaged. In the online course, this is also apparent – at least with the blink.it software – but with low participation, you cannot easily encourage your participants to be active as you can in a live event.
Working independently with a learning platform is initially an adjustment for your participants, especially if they were only accustomed to traditional learning forms such as day seminars or workshops. Therefore, they need good support during the online phase – for example, in the form of clear calls to action.
However, you can do even more to keep your participants engaged in the online course. Recently, we published an article here on the blog in which we provided you with seven simple tips on how to keep participants active in your online course.
Now, blink.it employee Niklas Appelmann has researched in his thesis at the Technical University of Darmstadt how trainers can act to motivate their participants to engage as much as possible online. The good news is: You have a significant impact on your participants' learning success with online courses!
Study results: How trainers can specifically enhance the learning success of participants in blended learning
One result of the thesis¹ confirmed the assumption of “Instructional Scaffolding,” that certain measures taken by trainers have a significant impact on the behavior of participants.
Instructional Scaffolding refers to supporting the learning process by providing guidance or other tools for initial orientation. Especially in the area of e-learning, this is an educational measure because the trainer can influence the participant less directly than in traditional face-to-face events.
How can the trainer influence the behavior of their participants in the online course? For this research question, Niklas analyzed anonymized data over a span of two years and examined the correlation between trainer and participant behaviors closely.
Data for the study: A period of 2 years
Objective of the study: How do trainer and participant behaviors correlate?
Study title: “Automatic analysis and classification of trainer and participant behavior in a blended learning environment as a basis for interventions”
The online courses examined by Niklas had to meet certain criteria to ensure that only actively used courses (from both the trainer and participant side) were evaluated. In his sample, he analyzed 85 courses, which were used on average by 78 participants, with most courses having between 10 and 50 participants (see graphic).
Graphic from the thesis by Niklas Appelmann: The courses examined in his study mostly had between 10 and 50 participants.
Based on the data from these 78 courses, Niklas found a connection between trainer behavior and participant behavior. Here, “trainer behavior” refers to the type of content (quiz, video, text, etc.) or the timing of uploading new content. “participant behavior” refers mainly to the completion or dropout rate of the entire course or the handling of individual contents.
However, Niklas’ analysis revealed not only the mere fact that trainers influence participant behavior but also concrete answers on how they can statistically achieve higher participation. The following overview shows the most relevant statistical results from Niklas’ thesis:
Two measures show particularly positive effects on participants:
Use many quiz elements in your online course
Set up your course so that you release new content as frequently as possible!
Measure No. 1: Use many quiz elements in your online course!
Quiz elements increase the activity of participants in the online course, based on the statistical results mentioned above: Analyzed courses that used many quiz questions had more active participants who viewed at least 50% or even 100% of a course.
If you choose blink.it as your learning platform, you can choose from typical quiz content with open-ended questions, scale questions, or multiple-choice or single-choice questions. Exams or surveys are also quite simple. With such interactive elements, the training remains varied and interesting for your participants.
Measure No. 2: Set up your course to release content at short intervals!
A second result that we would like to pass on from Niklas’ thesis as a tip for your online training: Release content with minimal time intervals. Courses in which the time between the publication of individual contents was relatively long (several weeks) showed low participant activity.
With blink.it, you can conveniently set the time interval in advance and choose, for example, intervals of 3-7 days. With this full automation, you do not need to constantly log in and manually release content – the software takes care of it for you.
In light of all the results, remember that these are statistical analyses that may be biased and do not claim general validity. Our advice for you: Look at the various correlations and test yourself in your online course with which types of content and at what intervals participant activity and thus the learning effect is the highest. Using quiz questions should put you on the right track!
Do you have any questions about the study? Please leave us a message!
¹ Title of the thesis: "Automatic analysis and classification of trainer and participant behavior in a blended learning environment as a basis for interventions." Niklas Appelmann, TU Darmstadt, 2018.
