Using design to increase course completion rates
Low course completion rates are one of the biggest issues with online learning. Some of these edtech platforms have course completion rates in the single digits.
If learners aren’t completing courses, they aren’t learning, they are less likely to take additional courses, find value in the product, and renew their subscription (or tell their workplace not to renew).
At Bedrock, our course completion rates are much higher than typical online learning and Edtech platforms. We are consistently iterating on how we present courses in the platform to drive up higher user satisfaction and course completion rates. This enables more sales and higher renewal rates.
What are the barriers to online course completion?
Courses not chunked up into bite-size modules
Course software not remembering place
Courses not convenient to take take when learners have the most free time
Learners don’t know how much they have left to complete a module or course
Learners not being nudged to jump back in
E-learning platforms often lack engaging non-course content to draw learners in
Courses aren’t engaging or well done
When taken together, many online learning platforms just require too much of users and are not using concepts of good, engaging product design to create an experience that users want to come back to. It’s very much a build-it-and-they-will-come model when, in reality, we need to be grabbing users and being super engaging.
First, Bedrock courses are created by true subject matter experts. They are high quality. They are engaging.
We have combined this high-quality content with top-notch product design to really drive up course completion rates. All of the Bedrock courses are broken up into modules that can be completed in 5-15 minutes. They can be completed from just about anywhere, as Bedrock works on all different device types.
The courses can also be taken as audiobooks, which means that they can be taken when learners have free time, unlike most online learning. This means while commuting, at the gym, making dinner, etc. Bedrock works great while sitting at a desk for a deep session, but it also works great in those other times of the day.
We rolled out new course cards for the homepage that show exactly where a user is in a course, down to the specific module. A user can even see how much time they have left in that module. That may seem like a small thing, but it turns out that it removes a lot of stress and anxiety from users to jump back into a course.
This took the mental model from users for one where jumping into a course is a big lift that may require a lot of time to something where they can see how they can chip away at courses when they have some time to kill each day.
It makes jumping back into courses feel a lot less daunting. What you will find with online learning is that getting people to just get started is often the biggest barrier. If you can convince users to get started, you are well on your way to success.
We also created this concept called Learning Campaigns, which combines courses and open-source intel (and soon games) on topics. Individuals and groups of learners can do Learning Campaigns, and they provide a deeper dive into a topic than an individual course.
We took the concepts we had from our course cards to the next level. Now users can see how much they have completed in each Learning Campaign at a glance and can see how they can quickly make progress.
It’s a very empowering experience, where if a user has 10 minutes to kill, they will see the completion bars for a Learning Campaign go up and their completed section get bigger.
Great content + great product design is a recipe for stickiness, user happiness, and high course completion rates.