Digital Learning: 5 Golden Rules to Disengage Your Learners

Your blood is boiling and you're at the end of your tether. Someone dared bring up "engagement" again. But let's be realistic: the more engaged your learners are, the more your courses will be scrutinised and your work potentially criticised... What if the solution to move fast and stay under the radar was... disengagement? Tempted? Follow the guide!

Rule #1: Never explain your objectives

Work hard on your project communication. 

• Stay vague: learners should not understand why they are being asked to train. They should not even know that your course could address a real challenge in their daily working life. 
• Keep quiet about the benefits of the training: the risk is that the learner might find it interesting, or even useful for their tasks, their progression, or worse... actually enjoy your course. 
• Ban phrases like "after completing this training you will be able to..." On the other hand, anything that sounds like a directive seems really effective at demotivating learners. They'll definitely grumble at the idea of having to train.
  

Rule #2: Whatever you do, don't listen to your learners' needs

As a course designer, listen to the voice of reason (yours). Trust only yourself and your instincts, definitely not your learners.

• Go solo: don't try to find out what your learners need, or identify their daily dilemmas. Focus solely on what YOU want to tell them. YOU are the digital learning designer. Everyone has their own role — no need to swap! And after all, a good expert doesn't need others to know what needs to be done. 
• Avoid empathy: don't waste a single moment asking yourself "Did I choose the right word? How will my learner react?". Your interpersonal skills might take over... Completely counterproductive when you're trying to disengage your learners! Ignoring empathy will create a gap between your course content and your learners' real needs, ideal for fostering disinterest and passivity. Bingo!
  

Rule #3: Standardise all your training programmes

There's no need for practical work-based scenarios or case studies. The learner as the hero of their own training, thinking about how to optimise their professional practices on top of that? That's unheard of! 

• Flatten your training programmes as much as possible: people feel less engaged if they feel treated like everyone else, without any special recognition. On the contrary, personalisation risks better meeting their needs. 
• Resist the siren song of adaptive learning: don't give in to the temptation of adaptive learning solutions that automatically create personalised pathways for each learner — for instance through placement tests or based on learner progress. They could be an obstacle to successful disengagement. 

Rule #4: Punish mistakes and give no feedback

Be strict. Become the ultimate weapon that destroys engagement. 

• Penalise without guilt: learners must be punished immediately. The more red cards they get, the more discouraged they'll be. Punishment is a bit like the carrot of disengagement, you follow? 
• Drop the feedback: if, when they make a mistake, learners don't understand why and feel incompetent or bad, they won't risk exposing themselves to potential new mistakes for long and will abandon the training. Job done! 

Rule #5: Bet on long and repetitive learning formats

To turbocharge disengagement, flood your courses with lengthy exercises and unnecessary information or content that adds no value. Use obscure and convoluted vocabulary. Honestly, why keep it simple when you can make it complicated? 

• Offer a completely unsuitable training duration: the longer your courses are, the harder it will be to fit them into learners' schedules. For those who do manage, boredom will finish them off for sure.
• Flee from precision: getting to the point is a very bad idea. Welcome unnecessary information with open arms. The perfect trump card for sabotaging your learners' attention and memory. 
• Create a tedious and unpleasant training: the word streamlined is not in your vocabulary either. Favour impenetrable walls of text. Illustrations or colour must not be used under any circumstances. The goal here is to create a disengaging learning experience — don't forget it! 
  

Learner engagement and adaptive learning: you'd be crazy to try it!

Are you really sure? Taking the opposite approach? My, aren't you the contrarian! Fine then. If you really don't want to follow this precious advice, the Didask asynchronous e-learning solution might just suit you, since it forces you to do exactly the opposite of our advice. It lets you engage your learners as effectively as possible, for the long term (not just a one-off), thanks to its features and its built-in pedagogical guidance. Be warned: even people with no teaching skills will be able to create engaging courses. Don't say we didn't warn you!