New Home Forums Community, Engagement & Gamification How do we turn the 97% failure rate around?

3 replies, 2 voices Last updated by  Bradley Morris 8 years, 9 months ago
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  • #22156

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    According to an interview I heard with Seth Godin on the Tim Ferris Show recently, the eCourse industry has a 97% failure rate — meaning, only 3% of people who sign up for an online course actually complete it.

    We really want to understand what it takes to craft the Ultimate Customer Experience that supports the people who sign up for our offerings to actually get the results they paid for.

    The purpose of this conversation is to explore the questions:

    1) How do we create the ultimate customer experience through our eCourses that keep our students engaged and excited to take their next steps?

    2) What kind of eLearning experience could you imagine creating that you’d be so excited to go through?

    3) What elements would be most important for your eLearning experience to keep you engaged in an online learning environment (community, entertainment, fun-factor, accountability?).

    The more specific, the better.

    let’s get creative!

    #22158

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Okay, I’ll start! LOL

    Every single exercise, lesson and supportive document needs to be cleverly crafted to support our customer on their journey. Giving them a video series with some PDF’s just isn’t enough anymore. People are numb to it. We must be creative to keep people hooked on the journey.

    This is why in the Great eCourse Adventure we have incorporated:

    A gamified experience that rewards participants for taking action and makes the lessons feel like a game. We even invented our own currency that works like money in our online store.

    Entertaining video lessons filled with magic, mystery, comedy, great visuals and adventure. Our intention is to make taking the next step on the journey an exciting thing, rather than another “to-do.”

    All around community support: from our active Campfire (community forum) to our “Buddy System” for accountability, to our weekly coaching webinars, we make sure our students have every opportunity to be supported.

    Fun autoresponder emails that make participants want to open the emails we send them and click the “take your next step button.”

    Interactive Journaling System: Rather than giving a PDF, which most students never print out and use, we created a whole journaling system that helps our participants be extremely organized AND all they have to do is fill in the blanks for each exercise. It’s simple and unbelievably helpful.

    Regular customer feedback surveys. We really want to know how people are doing, where we can improve the process, what they love and dislike. We’re constantly improving our creation to meet the needs of our growing community.

    A sense of adventure. The whole eCourse is made to be an adventure to the top of a snow-capped mountain. So instead of a bunch of boring slide show presentations, we bring people into a new world and take them on a crazy journey where they’re excited to see what happens next. Each lesson on the map is another action step that they have to take on the road to building their ultimate course.

    We are constantly thinking of new ways we can increase engagement and if you’re an eCourse creator.

    What crazy ideas do you have to elevate the learning experience and student participation? Share in this discussion board. Even if the ideas are things you’ve never tried before. Let’s open the flood gates!

    #22278

    Catherine Fox
    Adventurer
    @catherine_wildfox

    I am really impressed by all the ideas you have already implemented, staggeringly good. I think having community and focused support group part THATS AUTHENTIC is really good. Not a bunch of people selling to each other. Real engagement and support – and something else that you do that isn’t listed above is a sense of being part of something bigger.

    Luma and I just had a great time sitting on a blanket outdoors talking with a cat and we worked out something great on this theme – will start it as a new post as not sure if directly relevant to this one, it’s more of a question than answer. But essentially I think part of why there is a high failure rate is the courses start out selling to the part of us that always fails, or feels a perpetual failure so it’s a self fulfilling prophecy of doom. I think creating more engagement start from the very beginning with how you present what you are actually doing.

    In terms of what keeps me engaged, I really like the encouragement, and authentic interest of real community. It’s like the light side of accountability. Encouragability? Enthusiasm? Real people with real discussions?

    #22293

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    BAM. What you said here is freaking brilliant!!!

    I think part of why there is a high failure rate is the courses start out selling to the part of us that always fails

    Never heard it said so perfectly and 100% agree with that.

    Sell how you want to be sold to.

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