Online Learning Fatigue: 7 ways to Overcome Stress in eLearning

In Africa, online learning and training is gradually being embraced. Since the onset of the Covid 19 global pandemic, virtual communication has helped businesses and training programmes to continue. Despite the slow rate of adoption of eLearning in Nigeria, and while some organizations are already getting used to this shift to online learning, there is still one potential challenge with online learning and training: online learning fatigue! In this post, I will be sharing with you 7 ways to overcome online learning fatigue.

But first, imagine this scenario:

After a long workday, with series of conference meetings and business calls online. And when you are supposed to take a good rest, a sudden pop-up appears on your screen, reminding you of a training session that is set to begin in 30 minutes.

I know you won’t be as excited at all (or excited as you ought to); I can imagine the level of exhaustion and how mentally unready you are.

This is the case with many remote employees today. Employees are experiencing burnout, stress and anxiety on a daily basis in their remote jobs and online training.

Statistics have it that 69% of employees working from home are experiencing burnout.

This is why we are considering this topic: online learning fatigue; what it means and how to overcome it.

What is Online Fatigue?

Online learning fatigue is the overwhelming sense of exhaustion, anxiety, stress, or burnout employees feel due to constant online calls, meetings and trainings.

It is similar to “Zoom fatigue,” this state of weariness can pose a challenge to employee learning and development.

Online learning anxiety and stress is not only peculiar to employees; students of all ages experience it too, especially when learning is done online or blended.

Online learning fatigue (or Zoom fatigue) symptoms include difficulty concentrating, physical exhaustion, anxiety when entering or participating in a meeting, irritability, headache, and eye strain.

This can be detrimental to their overall job performance of an employee. Even for the most motivated employee, an extra online learning session might feel too much.

Read also: Employee Onboarding with an LMS | Choosing the best E-Learning Vendor

7 Ways to Overcome Online Learning Fatigue

So, as an administrator, how do you fight online learning fatigue in your organization? I have explained 7 tips to help overcome stress in eLearning and improve learners’ engagement and performance.

Keep it Concise

Gone were the days when learning materials had to be so bulky and voluminous, so learners can learn all there is about a subject matter. This is usually tiring and learning may end up not being effective because of the bulky content.

In order to overcome online learning fatigue, microlearning is key. A situation where the voluminous instructional content is being broken into snackable pieces for easy understanding of the learner.

Training videos that should have taken up to 1 hour, should be broken into tiny videos of 5 minutes, maximum. this will help to boost employees concentration, while learning is taking place.

Make it Flexible

Online training should be flexible and convenient for all employees and learners irrespective of the time, present location and mood. An effective eLearning system should in any organization emphasize on self-paced learning.

We understand the stress one must have gone through in the day’s work and the need to rest. So, if training and training is to be more effective and less stressful, employees should be able to participate in their best time and location.

Self-paced learning helps employees overcome online learning fatigue by giving them the flexibility and liberty of learning anywhere, anytime.

Make it Fun

To be sincere, learning and training can be so uninteresting, especially after a long day at work. So, what is usually expected of course creators is to add some element of play to what would have been a very serious training.

Gamification is a way of easing the learners day-long stress by making learning content engaging and fun.

Integrating some form of achievements, points and badges to learning, makes the learner more engrossed to the learning material and less stressful.

Make it Social

Organizations should build a sense of community, so employees do not feel isolated when working and learning remotely.

Interacting and engaging with trainers and other employees can make one feel less alone.

Creating groups and forums for different categories of learners will easily help employees to overcome the stress associated with online training.

Build more Engaging Content

Try to ensure that whatever content is being delivered to your employees grabs and holds their attention.

Use multiple media format (text, images, videos, slides, etc.) when creating training content.

Also, include interactive elements like quizzes and polls that will requires learners to do something while learning.

Interacting wit the course content strengthens their interest and keeps training from feeling like a chore.

Great User Interface

Online training are better with a Learning management system. Be sure your LMS is easy to use and intuitive. It is not only the learning content that matters, the environment where the learning content is being dished out also does.

A Leaning Management System (LMS) is a platform that aid in creating, delivering and tracking online learning. An LMS with a great user interface and experience, would easily aid learning and make it less boring and stressful.

Integrate Training into Work Schedule

Separating learning from work, makes it feel like the learning is not important. Since, employees are expected to learn form their daily work, then learning should be built into their work schedule.

Employees too are lifelong learners, and building learning into their work schedule will surely give them a better learning experience.

When employees know that training is part of their daily work experience, it takes away stress and they feel more comfortable with online training.

Wrapping Up

Employee training doesn’t have to be stressful and boring; employees’ burnout can be avoided with the 7 tips mentioned above.

All you need to do as an administrator or trainer, is to create an amazing learning/training experience for your employees.

Using an LMS like Gopius will help you boost your employees performance, drive growth to your organization, while you reduce the online learning fatigue of your employees.

Check out Gopius LMS now.

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