How to create a learner persona for your online course

Creating an online course to cater to every audience—irrespective of their preferred mode of learning—is an art. Even if you have the best course content about a particular topic but still can’t identify potential learners, creating a “learner persona” could solve that problem.

A learner persona can help you market your course in a better way, especially when you’re running paid ads on search engines and social media.

In this blog post, we’ll delve deeper into the concept of learner personas, explore their advantages, and provide actionable insights on how to gather, categorize, and utilize them when delivering and promoting your online course.

What is a learner persona?

Learner persona refers to the imaginary profile of learners based on their interests, learning methods, and other useful information. These personas are derived from real data and insights to represent a diverse learner segment.

Creating learner personas enables you to tailor your course content, delivery methods, and engagement strategies that match the needs of your learners.

Advantages of categorizing learner personas

Understanding the diverse needs and preferences of learners has become a cornerstone for creating effective and engaging learning experiences. Course creators can unlock multiple advantages that extend far beyond the confines of traditional teaching methods by creating learner personas. Here are some of the advantages.

1. Personalized learning experiences

Categorizing learner personas facilitates a custom-made learning journey for each group of learners. By comprehending their preferences, skill levels, and motivations, you can develop content that addresses their learning objectives and resonates with their unique perspectives, fostering deeper engagement and understanding.

2. Targeted marketing

Armed with insights into distinct learner personas, crafting targeted marketing campaigns becomes a strategic advantage. Personalized messages delivered through email, social media, or other channels significantly improves the ability to attract and retain learners by directly addressing their specific needs and aspirations.

3. Adaptable course design

Recognizing that different learner personas may have different preferences in course formats, assessments, and interactivity allows you to design a course that adapts to the diverse learning styles in your audience. This adaptability enhances the educational experience and boosts overall learner satisfaction.

4. Improved communication

Clear communication is paramount to the success of online courses. Knowing the characteristics and communication preferences of each persona allows you to tailor your messages effectively. Whether through announcements, forums, or feedback sessions, personalized communication ensures your message resonates with your learners, fostering a sense of connection.

Types of learners based on different parameters

People exhibit unique learning styles influenced by various parameters, including cognitive, sensory, and social factors. Recognizing these differences can enhance your teaching methodologies and facilitate a more tailored approach to education. Here are the different types of learners based on various parameters.

Classification of learners based on their learning styles

Identify and categorize learners based on their preferred learning style, such as visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. This helps to tailor content delivery methods to accommodate each learning style, ensuring a more inclusive and effective learning experience. 

Visual learners  

Visual learners prefer visual aids, such as diagrams, charts, and infographics in the course content. They can understand the subject better when it’s presented in images, videos, and demonstrations.

Incorporate slides, infographics, and videos into your course content. This provides opportunities for visual exploration and represents concepts through diagrams and charts to make your content more appealing to visual learners.

Bonus fact: 65% of the general population are visual learners who prefer videos and images over text.

Auditory learners 

Auditory learners prefer to consume course content through listening and verbal communication. They can understand the course content better when it’s presented in the form of lectures, discussions, and podcasts.

Incorporating audio elements, such as podcasts and recorded lectures, in the course content will encourage these learners to actively participate in the learning environment.

Bonus fact: Auditory learners comprise about 30% of the population.

Kinesthetic learners  

Kinesthetic learners understand concepts better through hands-on experiences and physical activities. These learners enjoy simulations, experiments, and interactive exercises.

Incorporate hands-on activities, simulations, and interactive sessions in your curriculum. Provide practical examples and case studies that allow for real-world application of the concepts taught in the online course.

Social learners  

Social learners prefer a collaborative environment. They enjoy discussions, peer interaction, and group activities, and they value social feedback and engagement.

Foster a sense of community learning through discussion forums and group activities. Encourage collaborative projects and group assignments in your online course.

Did you know: Social learning can increase course completion rates by up to 85%.

Individualistic learner  

Individualistic learners prefer independent learning and self-paced modules in their online training. They enjoy personalized feedback and one-on-one interactions with their trainer.

To cater to these type of learners, provide self-paced learning modules and flexibility in your online course. Offer individual feedback sessions and personalized learning plans to keep them engaged with your online course.

Classification of learners based on knowledge

Evaluate and categorize learners based on their skill levels, from beginner to advanced. Design modules that cater to learners of each skill level and strike the right balance between accessible and challenging content.

Learners can be grouped into three important categories based on their knowledge level: 

• Beginner

• Intermediate

• Expert

Beginner 

This learner is new to the field and is just getting started. They need to know the basics and work on the fundamentals to understand the concepts better.

Intermediate  

This learner has decent knowledge of the topic and knows the fundamentals but lacks extensive hands-on experience.

Expert  

This learner has mastered the fundamentals and has solid knowledge of the practical application of the subject matter, but they still want to sharpen their skills.

Classification of learners based on goals

Categorize learners and create personas based on their goals. Try to identify what motivates them to take the course, whether it's career advancement, personal development, or skill acquisition. This understanding forms the foundation for tailoring your course to meet their specific aspirations.

Career development  

This is one of the most common reasons why people who are already working a full-time or part-time job take an online course. People can excel in their professional lives by taking an online course, which can be completed remotely and doesn’t require tedious registration and admission processes like conventional offline classes. 

Personal development  

People who are curious about learning new things to improve their knowledge also prefer online courses. They might take courses to develop skills that might be useful for either personal or professional reasons, either now or in the future.

Factors to consider while creating learner personas

While traditional learner personas often revolve around different learning styles, it’s equally important to consider a broader spectrum of factors that contribute to shaping an individual's educational journey. Here are factors that you should consider while creating learner personas for your online course.

Age and developmental stages

Age plays a significant role in shaping a learner's perspective, cognitive abilities, and preferences. The educational needs of a learner who is just getting started will different vastly from an expert who is polishing their skills. Recognizing the specific challenges and advantages associated with different age groups allows course creators to tailor the content and teaching methods accordingly.

Gender and learning approach

Sex and gender identity can influence how individuals approach learning. Research suggests that males and females have different approaches to learning. Integrating a gender-sensitive approach into teaching strategies can create a more inclusive environment, fostering equal opportunities for all learners.

Demographic and cultural sensitivities

Demographic factors consist of a wide range of elements, including socioeconomic status, geographic location, cultural background, and regional restrictions. While creating your learners persona, it’s important to keep these elements in mind and create culturally sensitive and relevant learning experiences.

Hobbies and interests

Learners aren’t defined only by their academic pursuits. They also have interests and hobbies. Understanding and integrating these passions into the curriculum can make learning more relatable and engaging. Whether it's incorporating technology for tech savvy students or weaving literature for avid readers, aligning education with personal interests enhances motivation and enthusiasm in an online course.

Digital literacy

In an increasingly digital world, learners are more comfortable with technology and it can influence their learning experience. So, when creating a learner persona, it’s crucial to include digital literacy as a parameter. Integrating technology into the curriculum and addressing digital literacy can bridge gaps and prepare students for the demands of the modern workforce.

How to create and use learner personas

Just like marketing professionals create buyer personas to target their audience, educators and course creators can craft learner personas to tailor their course content to a diverse audience. This approach involves developing detailed profiles of typical learners, considering factors such as learning styles, motivations, and challenges.

Collecting information about the audience

Gathering information about the learners is the first step in creating a learner persona for your online course. This can help you target and reach your audience in a better way. Here are some of the ways you can get this information about the learners so that you can categorize and build your learner persona.

Surveys and analytics 

Gather information about your learners' goals, preferences, and challenges by creating surveys. Supplement this with in-depth analysis of user data, including engagement metrics, completion rates, and feedback to identify patterns and trends that contribute to the creation of distinct and accurate learner personas.

Social media  

Conduct polls on social media and collect the required information directly from your audience. Release small pieces of your course content and evaluate the analytics to find what kind of interests the audience has, and implement them in your online course.

Keyword research 

There are many tools online to do keyword research. Find one that best suits you and do research on multiple keywords. Find the terms that users search for and use them to create different learner personas for your course.

Creating the persona

Let's consider the example of Sarah, a digital marketing expert, who wants to create an online course in her niche. Before creating the course, she wants to know the target audience for her course. So she creates different learner personas.

Let's create a learner persona for the beginner category.

Because we’re going to develop the learner persona for beginners, let's assume that they’re new and just getting started in digital marketing.

Gender: Digital marketing is an increasingly popular career option, and it’s common for both genders. Let's look at recent stats and analyze the trend.

According to LinkedIn data from 2019, women are more likely to start a career in marketing compared with men.

Other data says that 55.9% of digital marketing strategists are male. Considering this data, both male and female learners will be interested in taking a digital marketing course.

Age: Digital marketing doesn't have an age requirement, so people of any age can learn it. We can assume that people with internet access will be interested in learning it.

Educational background: Digital marketing doesn't necessarily require a specific bachelor's degree. Most digital marketers hold a degree in marketing, liberal arts, communication, or digital media. But it’s not limited to these degrees; people who choose other fields can also become digital marketers.

Hobbies and interests: Some hobbies and interests commonly associated with digital marketers are content creation, blogging, podcasts, and photography.

Digital literacy: People who are already skilled in the digital ecosystem and have an ample amount of expertise in social media prefer to learn digital marketing to elevate their skills. So the people learning digital marketing are likely to have high digital literacy.

Location: Demographics plays an important role in narrowing the audience of your online course. This is also important for targeting ads for your course to potential learners.

Let's consider that Sarah is targeting her course only in India. It’s important to consider cultural sensitivities and differences while creating and marketing the course in a specific region. It would be easier to reach your target audience if you had data on the number of online users in the particular demographics.

Learning style: Digital marketing is a skill that requires visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles to master the nuances. It’s better to include all of the required types of learning wherever possible in the curriculum because this lesson should also cater to the beginners who are just getting started.

Similarly, you can create learner personas for different types of learners, such as intermediate and expert level, for your respective course topics.

These parameters are defined for the digital marketing course that we used in the example. You can include different parameters based on your preferences to narrow down the audience for your course.

Leveraging the learner personas to improve your course

If you already know what learners are expecting from your course, it will be easier for you to create courses that fulfill their expectations.

Learner personas can be leveraged to create courses that fit each student's learning goals and objectives. It’s an important element that helps trainers create learner-centric courses. Eventually, this will help you create personalized learning programs for your learners.

Promoting your course based on the personas

Now that we’ve identified a learner persona, it’s time to use it to target and promote the course to the right audience.

This learner persona comes in handy when you’re promoting your course through paid ads on search engines or social media. When you create different learner personas for your online course, you can experiment with various types of advertisements on different social platforms until you find the one that really clicks.

This can significantly reduce your advertising costs because you’ve already figured out the type of audience that will be interested in your course.

Wrapping up

Building learner personas will help you design your course in a more intentional way, creating an inclusive and adaptive educational environment where no learner is left out. Learners’ holistic understanding empowers educators to foster inclusive, engaging, and effective educational experiences that cater to the unique needs of every learner.