There is a long talk on online student engagement. Carefully designed certification is one of the most important ways to do so. People love to get something quantitative back from their learning.
When designing a course it is a good idea to pre-arrange certification types for your learners in order not to waste time when the course is completed.
With TalentLMS you can keep things simple and your learners happy to receive certifications.
There are four default templates: Classic design, Fancy design, Modern Design or Simple design you can select upon a course completion.
If you want to create your custom template simply use the tool “Certification” on the Account & Settings Tab. Choose any of the available templates and modify the details to fit your needs.
Why certification matters
– Obviously certification works as an award for your learners. In many cases they can even use it as an asset in their life.
– For you (the course creator), it works as the perfect tool for engaging learners and make them return to follow your other courses.
– You can also then ask your learners to share their certificate (or simply the fact they have completed a course) on the social media. This simple trick will bring you more leads and potential customers.
Other engaging techniques
Visual art is considered one of the most effective ways to socially or academically engage learners. Let’s take a quick look at a few important examples.
– The Photo Cascade. This learning activity was introduced by Wang and Burris in 1997. It was actually conceptualized for elearning in 2006 by Perry & Edwards who suggested using purposely suggested images (actually make a collection) and affiliated reflective questions in order to engage learners. In practice, the course leader provides the first images and asks students a reflective question to initiate the learning activity. Then the leader adds more images before going into more detailed questions. As a result, questions and images are “discussed and shared” leading to specific assumptions that reinforce knowledge and course credibility.
An example: During the course building at TalentLMS prepare a page/unit with images like the ones in Figure A.Then ask learners question 1. “Which image from Figure A would you choose to best describe cloud computing? What style of graphs would you suggest using?”
Figure A:
– A Word sculpture is another interesting visual way of engaging learners. Using free online software, ask your students to reflect on various issues of the course and make relative word sculptures. Then use these sculptures in order to trigger discussions and underline the learners’ contribution to the course execution.
An example at Figure B: Ask learners question 1: “Can you think of other words with the ending ….ight? Ask learners question 2: “Do you know any …ight ending words that start with a vowel?
Figure B:
