Skip To The End

Mark Gash ponders why users look for shortcuts in your e-learning courses

We’ve all seen the meme with the dirt path straying from the paved walkway - showing how users will naturally take the most direct route to their destination, even if it goes against the intended design. As e-learning developers, we see this a lot in our own projects - client testing reveals how users try to blaze their own trail and find shortcuts to bypass portions of a course.

We are often at the mercy of client demands when we make courses - we get asked to either lock-down content until certain actions have been completed, or open all content which allows skipping. The problem with either of these approaches is that 9 times out of 10, the client isn’t the person who is going to be using the course and it’s hard to anticipate how a learner will respond to either being forced to consume content or given free reign to skip it.

Are learners looking for shortcuts because they’re lazy, or are they just dismissive of the awesome experience we’ve created? Could there be more valid reasons why people seek out shortcuts when it comes to digital training? Let’s investigate!

Relevance Matters

One key driver of the shortcut mentality is a lack of perceived relevance in the material. If learners don’t clearly understand why the content directly benefits their goals and role, their interest could be at rock bottom before they even start. Clearly establishing relevance and practical applications upfront is crucial to grabbing and maintaining engagement.

Keeping It Fresh

Let’s face it - hours of dense paragraphs and dry bullet points don’t exactly make for a riveting educational experience. When instructional design lacks interactive multimedia elements, real-world scenarios, and other engaging tactics, learners are likely to get bored and seek out any shortcut to progress more quickly. Variety and delivering content dynamically are key.

Respecting Their Time

In our era of packed schedules and constant demands on attention, learners are often crunched for time. If an e-learning module has a reputation for being drawn out or bloated, learners may be looking for ways to bypass non-critical sections. Keep your courses short and to the point.

Prior Knowledge

Those entering a course with background knowledge on the topic can easily get restless rehashing basics they already know. Incorporating knowledge checks upfront and allowing learners to test out of fundamental sections can prevent this issue.

Motivation Matters

Some learners may only be completing a mandatory course out of obligation, with no innate interest in mastering the content. In these cases, simply checking the box as quickly as possible is the sole motivator. Sometimes they need to see the big picture to realise why they’re taking a course, but this often needs to happen as part of the wider learning programme, before they even hit the start button on a course.

In an ideal world, all learners would approach courses with an open, engaged mindset. But as developers can’t affect that, it’s on us to keep pushing the boundaries to create vibrant, streamlined educational experiences.

Keep your instructional design toolkit handy and ensure you contextualise relevance, chunk information and keep it interactive (but not repetitive!). With a bit of luck, you’ll help pave a clear path toward effective skill development - one that learners will be glad to travel from beginning to end at a brisk walking pace - none of that skipping malarky allowed.

UX / UI Cheat Sheet

UI (User Interface) refers to the visual elements and controls that allow a user to interact with a digital product or system, such as an e-learning course. This includes elements like menus, buttons, sliders, text inputs, etc.

UX (User Experience) is the overall experience a user has with the product, including utility, usability, efficiency, and overall satisfaction. Good UX in e-learning requires intuitive UI, but also factors like clear navigation, engagement drivers, knowledge retention, and achieving the desired learning outcomes.

For effective e-learning, the UI should align with UX best practices like chunking content, using multimedia formats, enabling interactions over just clicking through, and consistent visual hierarchy. A good UI leads to a good UX and should result in users enjoying an immersive, meaningful learning experience.