Fostering learner engagement

Course Creation at DataCamp

Kelsey McNeillie

Instructor Success Manager

Your favorite teachers

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Elementary school teacher reading a book to a group of learners

University professor giving a lecture. A blackboard full of math is behind her.

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General devices

Use compelling examples
- DataCamp learners love real-life applications!
Use interesting datasets
Use intriguing titles for:
- Slides
- Exercises
- Chapters

Image of course exercise titles; Membership constraints, Members only, Finding consistency, etc

Motivation from the start

Image of course exercise context explaining the dataset, the issue presented in the dirty data, and how it will need to be cleaned.

Be encouraging

Don't be condescending
Keep a positive tone

Hint of a DataCamp exercise that reads: "Do you remember how you updated your reserve_date column? You can use the very same trick with flight_date!"

Hints about hints

Don't give away the answer
Don't repeat the instructions
Jog the learner's memory
Anticipate problems a learner may encounter

Image of a DataCamp exercise hint

Celebrating success!

Praise, but not too much
Highlight interesting outcomes or findings

Success: Super Summarizing! Taking the minimum and maximum of a column of dates is handy for figuring out what time period your data covers. In this case, there are data from February of 2010 to October of 2012

Video best practices

Motivate your materials around the "why"
Congratulate learners for their success
Tell stories!
It's okay to be funny
Invite learners to practice
Sound enthusiastic!

Exciting times!

Course Creation at DataCamp