I’m a big fan of the WordPress Learndash plugin.
If you’re not familiar with this powerful WordPress Plugin you can find it on many of my sites where I’m selling courses. http://www.facetofaceselling.com and http://www.wpgrow.com are two quick examples. The Learndash plugin is fully featured and easy to use LMS ( Learning Management Software) that allows anyone to create, distribute, organize, online courses with all the additional requirements anyone teaching someone would require. I’m talking about quizzes, testing, certification etc.
It’s like having your own Teaching Homeroom or Online Campus.
Justin Ferriman the creator of the WordPress LMS Plugin plugin recently posted this article that reminds us that there’s more to being successful teaching online than just having good content
There could be many reasons to explain this, but I believe the primary one is based on incentive. While many people have an inherent desire to learn, having an incentive to do well and finish the course is a critical component.
In traditional education, this translates to getting a passing grade and some form of credit (such as actual university credit). For professional training organizations, this can be in the form of a certificate, or points towards accreditation (also known as continuing education units).
The point is, people are often motivated by obtaining rewards of some kind. So in order for an online course to have adequate completion rates, it really should be associated with some kind of benefit.
The Rapid Growth of Online Education | LearnDash
So the next time you’re thinking about adding content to your WordPress blog ask yourself some questions.
- Why would my reader want to complete this post, page, course, activity?
- What is the outcome that I want from making this post/course?
- What are the next steps for the reader or participant?
The advantages of using WordPress fo online education goes beyond the corporate environment. Interestingly, studies are showing that online students are actually outperforming their peers (see the infographic above, created by Independence.edu).
But the completion rates for massive open online courses (MOOCs) are pretty low with only a small fraction of students actually complete the entire course and its requirements. So next time you’re thinking about adding content to your blog whether it be a course or just a regular Blog Post ask yourself those 3 questions.
