The effectiveness of an e-learning tool can only be judged by how well it delivers a course content to educate and train its intended set of learners. But grading their performance at the end or asking them to fill out multiple surveys are not the only ways to judge its effectiveness. 

Yet, getting proper feedback from the learners themselves is an excellent way to learn about the “behind-the-scenes-action” that happens when a learner attempts a course using your tool.

So how do you improve the e-learning experience?

Learning from the learners by asking them & the course instructors the right questions at the right time, being specific and will ensure that your e-learning tools are built according to a strategy that is not only meaningful but also actionable.

After reading this blog, you’ll learn what you can do to make your students and partners more successful with e-Learning tools. See how easy it is to learn from your students, collaborators, and corporate clients by collecting feedback in the right context, at the right time.

Let’s start by understanding in depth why feedback is so important.

Know Why User Feedback Matters

User feedback can determine important factors like identity and custom properties, such as which courses they are taking, whether they are taking a one-off course or pursuing a degree, etc. You can do that using a tool that captures feedback in a contextual but non-intrusive manner.

For example, with Qualaroo Nudges (learn more about them here), you can find out this and much more including factors such as Geographic location, Time-on page, Page scroll length, Button click, Exit intent, and more that you can set as triggers for Nudges. They also let you:

• Whitelist or blacklist by identity/IP address etc.
• Ask the user the right question at the right time
• Create questions on the basis of user details like geographical location, paid/unpaid subscription, referral codes used & many more

Watch: How Qualraoo Survey Software Works

Now let’s understand the scope of such feedback.

User Feedback in the Context of E-Learning

• Serve Nudges in factor-specific situations e.g. when user shows exit intent
• Seek feedback with custom questions or choose from a variety of Qualaroo templates

To deliver delight to learners and instructors alike through the best e-learning software you can create, it is advisable to collect feedback before, during, and after courses.

For example, with Qualaroo Nudges, you can target users by any property (course selection, student vs. instructor, individual learner vs. corporate student etc.) that you can track on-site. Set up your nudge wherever students are: 

• on your website or mobile site
• within your web or mobile app

You can even set them on mockups for beta testing of new e-learning tools.

Watch: Qualaroo Exit Survey Recipes

Take E-Learning Feedback to the Next Level

• Use advanced targeting for serving appropriate Nudges to learners
• Analyze responses visually and actionably through Sentiment Analysis 

Whether you want to tailor research questions to specific personas or only collect user insights for a particular use case, advanced targeting can help.

For example, you can target your Nudge based on virtually anything you can track on site with Qualaroo’s advanced targeting capabilities, such as:

• Learning about engagement by tracking the portion of the e-learning course completed, time spent on page etc. 
• Targeting a certain group by tracking cookies to see if the learner is using a paid or free version of services or whether they have used any referral or promo codes.

By asking the right question at the right time to the right learner, you gain invaluable insight into how to create or promote your e-learning software or course.

Once feedback is collated, you can use Qualaroo’s proprietary Sentiment Analysis, powered by IBM Watson, to really understand how users feel about your e-learning tools and improve them. 

Watch: 3 Ways Online Learning Platform Udemy Learns From Their Students

Now to Do It Right, Here Are a Few Important Dos and Don’Ts

Create online learning tools for all ages & abilities

If there is one thing to keep in mind at all times during the designing phase of e-learning tools, it is that the pace and style of learning varies from individual to individual, and can vary widely among a group. Hence, design the feedback systems keeping this in mind.

Know when to use open-ended and closed-ended questions

• Open-ended Questions

Such questions let users answer in their own words, forming their response the way they want and deciding how much information to give. Open-ended questions allow you to collect information that may not be possible to collect otherwise. 

These questions may to some extent eliminate the risk of the user not having enough knowledge about the subject – they share what they want in their own words. Open-ended questions are more conversational and therefore natural to answer.

Instead of asking: “How satisfied were you with the content of the e-learning module?”

Ask: “What made you like or dislike the e-learning module?”

The first question with a ranking scale gives only a statistical average of customer satisfaction levels.

The second one lets users fill in the blank with their opinions, you will get valuable feedback about your features and content that will help you improve your elearning software and/or tools!

• Closed-ended Questions

Closed-ended questions make data analysis much easier! 

With closed-ended questions, the answers are included in the question and the user is asked to choose which is closest to their opinion or experience. The answers to closed-ended questions may vary. 

Common types are as follows:

• Yes or No.

• Radio select with more complex answers (usually 3-5) to choose from.

• Likert scale – typically used to determine the degree of acceptance of an opinion of phenomena; or agreement with a statement; or intensity of feelings. Typically there are 5 to 7 degrees from very negative to very positive.

With such questions, collecting feedback to improve e-learning tools that can be part of free e-learning software becomes easy. However, closed-ended questions shouldn’t be used when speaking about complex generic problems and when users may have different opinions or experience with different aspects of the matter.

For example, if you have created a sales training course for your marketing team and want to gauge their opinion and takeaways from it, these are a few questions you could include in the feedback questionnaire:

• What challenges did you encounter during this sales training?
• Did anything in the sales training modules come as a surprise to you?
• What do you think should be added to this sales training course?
• What do you think about the navigation during and between the training modules?
• Were you able to find learning resources and communication information easily? 
• Do you have any suggestions to help improve the sales training?

Avoid leading questions

You should compose questions in a way that they don’t suggest any particular answer. We can identify a few pitfalls of asking leading questions:

• Avoid making it easier to answer in a particular way. For example, 

Leading question: “Do you support international space programs?” 

Non-leading question “What is your opinion about international space programs?”

• Another aspect of this issue is including positive or negative implications by using words that

have an emotional charge. 

If you ask a question like: “What did you love about your experience today?” 

You are (possibly falsely) assuming that your users were delighted with their experience.

• Finally, avoid linking possible answers with something desirable (or undesirable). 

For example, the question “Are you for or against increasing the product price to provide better data security?” implies that you should be for increasing the product price.

Avoid double-barreled questions

Double-barreled questions, or compound questions, are questions that ask about two topics but only allow for one answer. While guiding users to provide actionable insights is important, you also don’t want to influence or confuse their answers. If you ask about two things in one question, you cannot find out exactly what the user was referring to when answering the question. 

Also, you don’t want to assume the answer applies to both questions now, would you?

Improve E-Learning With Qualaroo!

Once your e-learning software or platform is up and running, it is a widely adopted best practice to constantly collect feedback from both learners and teachers/instructors. Getting feedback from both learners and instructors is also an important part of collaborative learning, a modern training methodology where learners share their knowledge with another at the same time. As your e-learning users’ needs, habits, and ways of using e-learning tools and technologies change, your online learning tools should be adapting with them. In the current scenario brought on by the corona virus pandemic, e-learning tools have become essential services for nations all over the world, to ensure that learning never stops, as UNESCO put it. 

If you would like to see your e-learning tools help learners learn as well as instructors instruct, book a real demo of Qualaroo, and see it in action for free!