Persuasive e-Learning: How to Win Over Your Learners

Convincing your learners they want to take your e-Learning course is an art, much like the art of persuasion. There’s a lot we can learn from studying persuasion skills and techniques. In the article “The 21 Principles of Persuasion,” Forbes lists 21 lessons on persuading people. Many of these lessons can be applied to persuading youre-Learners too, so I chose 5 to share with you.

Here are 5 principles of persuasion that will help you win over your learners:

  1. Persuade. Don’t manipulate.
  2. Don’t trick or force your learners into completing your e-Learning course. Instead, persuade—use clearly stated learning objectives to explain why it’s in their best interest to take your course.
  3. A person must be interested to be persuaded.
  4. If your learner isn’t interested, you won’t be able to persuade him. Again, remind your learners why this course benefits them. For example, you can use checkpoints in an e-Learning game to show which objectives have been fulfilled and how your learners benefit from that.
  5. Don’t assume things.
  6. Never assume that your learner already knows or doesn’t know something. Create a pre-test to assess your learner’s knowledge and skills, so the course is customized to his or her needs.
  7. Images are important.
  8. “What we see is more potent than what we hear,” says Forbes. Keep that in mind, and carefully choose all visuals in your course. Images can be powerful persuaders.
  9. Always communicate clearly.
  10. Explain each concept with clarity. To successfully persuade your learners that they want to complete your course, you must simplify complex ideas and communicate what your learners should care about.

Now you’re ready to try the art of persuasion yourself. Use these 5 principles to persuade your learners that they want to take your online training course!

If you liked this post, check out this one too: 6 Memory Tricks to Use on Your Learners.

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