What motivates adult learners to choose online learning

The world of learning is progressing at a rapid pace. There are constant changes across a wide array of industries, many of which are not covered by formal education. In order for a company and its employees to move forward, it is essential to invest in e-learning and education, which helps employees achieve self-growth by acquiring new skills.

With the increasing popularity of online learning, it is easier for adult learners to acquire knowledge through elearning platforms.

Although eLearning is a sound method to impart new skills or refresh existing ones; it’s only effective when learners are engaged enough to complete their courses. Given the ever decreasing attention spans of adult learners, it’s tougher than ever to create a course that keeps learners engaged and improve the learning outcomes of any online course.

Interested to know what elements persuade learners the most to choose online courses? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why adult learners prefer elearning.

Engaging elements

With a multiple platforms to teach modern learners, there are varied new methods used to deliver knowledge and make elearning  more engaging. Through gamification, for example, adult learners can be motivated in a novel way which takes new approach to skill acquisition.

With thoughtful design and a wide array of elements, a course creator can create the best gamification experience for participants. New learning experiences help participants cover content from courses easily while retaining more information from them.

Use of multimedia

Online courses allow you to incorporate video, multimedia and GIFs that have much higher information retention rates. Visual learners can better connect to course materials it easier for students to learn and remember facts.

Mobile optimization

With the prevalence of microlearning, learners no longer need to learn within the confines of a classroom. Learning can take place on mobile devices such as smartphones and iPads anytime, anywhere. When the pressure to learn is removed, learning becomes a rewarding experience and feel less like a chore.

Create compelling online courses without breaking a sweat

Including all these elements in your online courses make it more consumable, thereby ensuring better engagement and learning outcomes. Introduce these elements one at a time, track learner engagement and then go for the changes.


About the author: Kamy Anderson is an ed-tech enthusiast with a passion for writing on emerging technologies in the areas of corporate training and education. He is an expert in learning management system & elearning authoring tools – currently associated with ProProfs.