When I started tutoring online courses , at the beginning of 2018, the figure of 85% student completion that tutors were expected to achieve in our courses seemed like a utopia to me.
I remember joking with a tutor, more experienced than me, about this figure, which seemed unattainable. At that time, despite my best efforts, I was not able to get over 50% or 60% of students to finish.
Reaching that coveted 85% began to obsess me a bit. With several tutored courses under my belt and knowing other tutors who reached or came close to that number in many of their courses, I began to rethink some methodologies that I was using in my tutoring to see how I could improve them. If I didn't change anything, my results wouldn't either...
In this article I am going to tell you about the factors I have been changing since then until now, with more than 300 training courses provided.
How I managed to increase the completion rate of my online courses by 25%
You already know the tips that I use in all my courses and that helped me increase the completion rate by more than 25%. But before applying them, you should reflect on the internal and external factors that can affect the analysis of why students complete or do not complete a course.
Factors external to tutoring that affect the completion rate of students
It should be noted that there are factors external to tutoring that affect the completion rate of students and over which the tutor cannot influence . The most important in my opinion are:
Whether or not it is necessary to have the degree.
If the student needs the degree to access a job, for example, the probability that he or she will complete the course and obtain his or her diploma is much higher than if he or she does not need it.
The need or not to have knowledge
Sometimes the student does not need a degree, but rather the ability to “know how” to perform certain tasks for their job or professional project. For example, an entrepreneur who wants to offer their services online needs to know how to manage their own website, create content, manage their social networks, etc.
The current employment situation of students
In the case of those who are “employed”, they have less time for training than students who are unemployed.
Furthermore, among those who are working, they may find themselves in seasonal periods with a higher peak in work coinciding with the course. For example, courses in the retail sector that coincide with the Sales or Christmas have a low completion rate because students do not have time to dedicate to the course. The same occurs with hospitality courses that coincide with holiday periods. It makes perfect sense.
The ability to reconcile
Work, family and education are a difficult mix to manage. The particular characteristics of the students will determine the time and dedication they can give to the course.
Internal factors to tutoring that affect the completion rate of students
Fortunately, there are many other aspects that tutors can influence to kuwait phone number motivate students and ensure that they successfully complete their courses.
Speaking from the experience gained over the last 4 years of tele-tutoring of training actions for employment, I consider the following factors to be the most relevant in order to ensure that students complete their courses:
Personalization
We are people tutoring and guiding people throughout their training. People with a face, a voice and a tone and style of communication of their own.
A tutor who is close to you, easy to contact and who responds individually to each student and not just with templates and generic communications, has a lot to gain.
The interaction
From the tutor to the student and from the student to the tutor . Constant, individualized and direct. Monitoring the course, proposing forums, answering questions and providing feedback. Using all the channels at our disposal: telephone (preferably WhatsApp), email, forums, chat, webinars...
The connection with current events
Both in terms of the course content itself , which may sometimes have become a little outdated (e.g. annual reports, statistics, new tool features) and in terms of linking training to current events through news and debates.
For example, linking to a news item about the demand for a new professional profile related to the training you are providing in a particular sector can motivate students to continue training to access that type of job offer.
In some subjects, content becomes obsolete very quickly and the tutor must know how to mitigate these situations. Seeing a report on Social Networks that is only a few months old can demotivate the student and create the perception that what they are going to learn is outdated and will not be useful to them. The tutor can, and should, try to review and update the course content whenever possible.
Proposing a real, current practical case for students to analyse or discuss how it was resolved through a forum encourages students to reflect on what they are learning and connect it to reality, which makes them more involved in the course.
The feedback
Many students only have time to read the content, watch the videos and take the final exam on the last day of the course. But for many others, this is not enough; they need to show that the course will be useful to them in order to feel motivated to continue.