Access to training and education are two main reasons that people join associations. They play a significant role in helping members maintain their competitive edge and keep their skills current and relevant. Many associations also provide members with opportunities to acquire certifications and licenses, giving them an advantage over non-members.
Providing members with professional development opportunities is essential for keeping them engaged. Offering courses and certifications increases the value of their membership, making a learning management system (LMS) a critical component of an effective learning strategy for any association.
An LMS provides associations with the necessary tools for distributing courses and certification materials and encourages lifelong learning, which helps members in all aspects of their careers. This article explores how associations can leverage learning strategies and LMS to keep members engaged.
Encourage Member Participation
Meaningful content tailored to your members' needs can increase engagement in your association's learning program. Create profiles of your members based on surveys and their job titles to ascertain the most suitable educational opportunities.
With that information, find ways to be creative when using an LMS to design content relevant to your members' needs. High-quality images, quizzes, and polls are a few things that you can use to encourage members to participate in your learning programs.
Associations should also include continuing education courses and industry-standard certifications. These can lead to greater engagement because they offer tangible results, including potential promotions and new career opportunities.
Ensuring that their educational offerings are broadly accessible should also be a priority for associations. Members should be able to access learning materials across devices, enabling them to study at their own pace, wherever they are.
Use Gamification to Increase Engagement
Promoting a bit of friendly competition among association members can motivate them to engage with educational content, and gamification is one of the most effective ways to do this. It's a good idea to consider this factor when designing an effective learning strategy with your LMS.
Gamification involves using game-based learning events to create an interactive experience where learners participate individually or compete against others. Elements like badges and leaderboards play a central role in driving engagement.
These things tap into people's natural desire to succeed, motivating them to remain engaged with their learning to achieve the desired outcome. Gamification also keeps learners interested by enabling them to make social comparisons to see how they stack up against others.
Keep your members returning by applying gaming concepts and designs to learning situations to make them more entertaining.
Add Interactive Elements
Association members want to participate actively in the learning process rather than absorb information passively. Interactive learning can also help learners better understand training and apply it more effectively.
Discussions, feedback, presentations, roleplay, and brainstorming are all examples of interactive learning activities that associations can implement as part of an effective learning strategy within their LMS. Adding video content and podcasts to your LMS and inviting subject matter experts from your industry are also ways to incorporate interactivity into your educational program.
Adult learners thrive when interactivity and interactions play a central role in the learning process because it enables them to take control of their learning, motivating them and keeping them engaged.
Associations can use their LMS to boost engagement by including comment tools and pop-up questions to get members talking with each other and course instructors. Enabling members to upload and share related documents, videos, images, and completed assignments is another way to ensure that they're engaged in active learning.
Promote Microlearning
If you want to keep your association members interested in your association's learning program, make it convenient for them. Your members are busy and may not have time to sit through a live conference or complete an entire online course. Microlearning enables learners to squeeze in learning sessions when their schedules permit.
Incorporating microlearning modules into your association's LMS means members can decide what they want to learn and when. Learning in short bursts also makes it easier to retain information.
Take Advantage of Live Events
Over the past few years, associations have increasingly moved their educational content online. On-demand learning enables members to study at their own pace and take charge of their education.
While providing on-demand video content will engage association members, adding live content to the mix is also a great idea. Streaming events live over your LMS and making recordings available to members enables them to connect and engage in new ways.
If your association records speakers at conferences, chapter meetings, and other events, you can take advantage of these resources by uploading them to your association's LMS. You can then expand on this material by adding tests, PowerPoint slides, and notes to help learners who couldn't attend the live event.
Final Thoughts
Using your association's LMS along with an effective learning strategy is an excellent way to create educational opportunities for your members that will keep them engaged.
Career and professional development are priorities for association members. Associations can help their members achieve their goals by providing the learning programs that they need to build the careers and futures that they want.
Here at Cadmium, we make it easy for association educators to deliver personalized learning to members to keep them better engaged and improve content satisfaction. To see how we can help you better engage your association members, reach out to our expert team today!
