Learning engagement is crucial to an elearning course.

The “e” in elearning refers to electronic. However, some of the elearning courses churned out these days are not so entertaining. There are very fewer people who finish a course. This percentage is just 3-12% of those who have started it. This is true with all the MOOC platforms whether it be Udemy or SkillShare.
 
Elearning is yet to become popular because there is not a proper comprehension of how to use this medium. You cant have a webinar in an elearning course, this is boring. An elearning course is just like a movie. When a book is transferred to a movie, it’s quite different. The movie has a shorter duration and the story of the book has been simplified to a shorter screenplay. Instead, if we copy and paste the characters and dialogs of a book onto a PowerPoint screen and expect the viewers to enjoy it, it does not happen that way. Instead, PowerPoint slides have to be made crisp, with interesting character drawings, lesser dialogues than the book and include animation if required. Quizzes and other interactivities are also needed in an elearning course. These are the differences between a book and an elearning course inspired by it
 
Elearning course must be short
The duration of an elearning course is important. It should be around 90 minutes max. When you think people will watch a 5-hour course in just one go, that is wrong. They need breaks in between because there is no popcorn also.
 
Be focused
An elearning course must have a strong storyline or theme. This is the only way viewers will stay glued to it throughout or will return. If your elearning course is scattered, user retention is not going to be high. The elearning course must be developed around a theme. If it is not, user attrition will be higher. The user will watch the course over a long period which no author wants. For example, it can take a user a week to watch a 90-minute module.
 
Have a good introduction
This is the most important part of an elearning course for learning engagement. Within the first 3-5 minutes of the course, you must get acquainted with the viewers. But this is not enough. You must try to get them hooked with an interesting anecdote or story. Even TEDx speakers tell a captivating or intriguing story when they start a speech.
 
Lesser narration
Visual elements are not so important in an elearning video unless you are planning to make a movie.
In fact, for learning engagement, there should be a lot of dialogues between the characters. The visual material has to be less. This is opposite to the movies where visual material is more focused upon and dialogues between characters are less.
 
Inclusion of Humor
It is also an interesting part of the elearning course. It also implies that there must be a cartoon here and there in the course. This is important for retaining the user’s interest. Tragic movies have light-hearted moments also. So, such moments make user watch the course, again and again, increasing learning engagement.
This is how you can convert your course into an elearning module. Your focus must not be on how much elearning material must be in a course, rather how much material can be shown engagingly in an hour.