Learner personas: A training improvement hack

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There are various devices people are using for learning online. It can be LMS software, Mobile LMS apps, or anything where they can access learning material. So, why not create course content that will make your learners feel connected.

The best way to create an engaging and relevant course is to make your client the main focus of the learning process. And you can do this by creating learner personas. These characters are fictional, but they play an important role in eLearning. Our goal in this article is to show you how to use learner personas to enhance your online training course.

Creating Learner personas

The creation of learner personas starts with gathering information about the users. Combine qualitative and quantitative data analysis. As a result, you will have authentic learner personas that accurately represent your potential consumers instead of projecting what you think they might be.

Utilize your LMS (learning management system), surveys, or human resources to collect quantitative data. In addition to gathering quantitative data about users, it is also important to learn about what users do. Things like how they spend their time, what interests them, what topics do they enjoy the most, and such things that will help us understand the type of person they are.

Furthermore, interview individuals, conduct focus groups, and ethnographic studies to gather qualitative data. Ask your learners questions to learn more about them. For example, how do they want to learn? Which information are they seeking? You will learn a lot about them through the interview.

Analyze and summarize information

Building learner personas requires more than collecting user data. Using them effectively requires analyzing and summarizing them. Group features that are similar to each other and find rare traits. Give the hypothetical learners a face and describe their characteristics. Name them after the individual learner in the learning group. You can create a persona character form.

Make the persona more interesting by adding an image that matches their personality. However, creating your learner personas relies heavily on the analysis and summary. Take your time when you handle the learner data. Create your personas together for fast results and effective learning. Make collections of different personas by repeating the process and varying the approach.

Using the personas

Hopefully, at this point, you have created several learner personas, which represent your learners. When you effectively use your learner personas, you can improve your eLearning training. When designing your eLearning courses, ensure they are centered around these personas. Have all members of your design team familiarize themselves with these personas. Address them as if they are students who will be taking the course.

For instance, we can use Jay as an example. How much do you think Jay knows about this course? Is there a design element that could make this course more accessible for Jay? Do you think Jay would enjoy playing this game? The eLearning course you created would address the group’s expectations based on the answers to these several questions.

Additional tips

Learning personas can be viewed as a distraction by some, but another group supports their value in helping them connect better with their audiences. Some people believe that personas are not an effective approach to identifying the audience’s needs. While some other think that learning problems can be solved using personas from the perspective of learners. These personas can also accommodate the individual needs of learners.

However, you should understand and recognize the type of audience you have. That is the only way to understand if learner personas are going to help you or not. The best way is to design your courses around learner personas and see how it affects your learners. Or you can consider the below options.

Try speaking to a representative of your target audience group.
Your team should consider using personas to personalize the design.
Empathize with the audience. As you imagine their story, you gain a deeper understanding of their persona.
Create realistic profiles of your target audience for your personas.

Conclusion

Learner personas need to be relevant to improve your learners’ learning experience. A good representation of your learners is grounded in the experience of the real person. The foundation of an engaging and relevant eLearning training course is establishing rich and relevant personas.

The process of creating learner personas can take time. However, it can enhance the learning process or can help engage your users. Use your imagination; be creative. This will help to increase the productivity of your learners.