Struggling to Make Courses More Engaging – Any Practical Tips?

I once heard Dr. Michael Allen give a speech about computer-based training (as it was called in the pre-internet days). He said something like this:

Alternate navigation is not interaction. 

In other words, clicking a button on the page/slide to reveal more content (instead of clicking the main Next button) isn't an interaction in the engaging sense of the term. 

True interactions require the 3 C's: context, choice, and consequence. Describe a situation, offer potential options, and give feedback based on the user's choice. That provides a real back-and-forth interaction. 

So, as much as possible, connect the content to desired behaviors. That typically involves storytelling/scenarios. 

Ideally, that's all presented in a pleasing-looking format. But a super-high-production-value design isn't required when the instructional design is strong.

Also, remember that Storyline slides and Rise blocks are "free." When you simply have to use a lotta text (compliance!), it's usually better to chunk it into smaller pieces. 

In addition to Judy's solid answer of the time-tested 3Cs, I'd also like to add some nods to multimedia theory and Gagne's Nine Events.

The gist of multimedia theory is to consider if training is too focused on one medium at the expense of additional ones. It's often said for instance that a picture with words is better than only words, and a video with words is better than a picture with words. There's more nuance than that, but the idea is about the channels of information through which we can engage learners.

Gagne's Nine Events have helped me understand either what I haven't done in an eLearning yet or act as a guidepost for what I'm currently trying to do. How I approach a slide should probably differ depending on if the goal is to present information versus assess performance.

Motion is simple on its surface but can be very deep, typically relying on principles of animation and audiovisual editing. Though Storyline is more or less "Super PowerPoint," we can create slides that function as modular videos. If your eLearning typically presents a lot of text on screen and then narrates it to the learner, there's likely an opportunity there to trade many of the filler words for visuals and animations. Visual metaphors can help content come alive in a way the standard text doesn't.

When it comes to interaction, I like to distinguish four types:

1. Cognitive interactivity, where learners actively process and reorganize knowledge. Examples include prediction-and-reveal sequences, analogy-based explanations, and concept challenges.
2. Constructive interactivity, where learners manipulate outputs that show their reasoning. Examples include categorizing, sequencing processes, and assembling a model.
3. Social or Dialogic interactivity, where learners encounter multiple perspectives and must choose, justify, or evaluate decisions. Examples include branching conversations, comparing rationales, and responding to viewpoints.
4. Applied / Authentic interactivity, where learners apply concepts in context with meaningful consequences. This is where our scenario-based challenges, decision simulations, and variable-driven systems live.

Which type I try to leverage is usually determined in part by the level of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy I'm trying to target, and then from there I try to contextualize the interactivity to the learning. Not every training needs to be entirely immersive, but how great would it be for people to pass a training with flying colors and not even know they were learning?