Scaling Student Success: How We Onboarded 2,400 Learners in a Single Weekend

How do you onboard 2,400 students to brand-new online course in one weekend without drowning in customer service messages?

Answer: Create a seamless onboarding experience to ensure everyone can effortlessly navigate the course platform and material.

Approaching Black Friday 2023, I was preparing for exactly that when we launched our new self-paced course Pillars of Productivity inside our Circle community. (I’ve published an in-depth retrospective of the course launch here, if you’re curious)

Here’s what I put in place and the results:

The journey for our new students begins in the 'Start Here' space. This initial step is designed to cover five crucial aspects of an effective onboarding process.

1. Understanding the Course Structure

We start by explaining the structure of the course within our community. This includes the purpose and functionality of the various spaces, offering students a clear roadmap of their learning journey.

We’ve purposefully limited the number of spaces inside the course to a minimum as we’ve found that engagement in each space declines if there are too many to choose from.

2. Encouraging Mobile App Usage

Acknowledging the growing trend of mobile-first users, we encourage students to download the Circle mobile app. This ensures that they can engage with the course material and community from anywhere, at any time.

3. Familiarizing with Circle's Functionalities

Recognizing that some students may be new to Circle, we offer detailed guidance on how to navigate the platform effectively. This includes leveraging the powerful search function as the first step in addressing queries, understanding how to use bookmarks for easy access to content, and customizing notification settings. These instructions are delivered through both written explanations and demonstrative GIFs, catering to different learning preferences.

Here’s an example of a walkthrough GIF:

4. Guidance on Seeking Help

We provide clear instructions on how students can seek assistance, whether their queries are related to course curriculum, technical issues, or require one-on-one support. This ensures that students are directed to the right resources without confusion.

5. Addressing Frequently Asked Questions

The 'Start Here' space also includes a section dedicated to FAQs, addressing common queries such as invoice requests, updating their email address on Circle, and understanding community guidelines. We found that a proactive approach to addressing these questions leads to higher student satisfaction and fewer customer service inquiries.

Progressing to the Course Curriculum

After familiarizing themselves with the foundational aspects of the course, students are directed to the 'Curriculum' space. Here, each lesson is structured to not only impart knowledge but also to encourage action and interaction:

📽 Watch asks students to watch a video lesson.

🤸 Your Turn gives the students concrete action steps to implement what they’ve learned.

🚀 Share prompts students to share their results and interact with other students.

🗃️ Additional Resources provide further guidance.

🙋 FAQs answer the most common questions that come up at this point.

The Results

Thanks to our onboarding process, our customer service rep was not working overtime during the launch.

As for the course itself, Pillars of Productivity currently has a 36% completion rate, which is way above the general 5% that most online courses seem to have.

Another metric we’re measuring is the Net Promotor Score which tells us if students would recommend the course to their friends/family/coworkers. It’s currently at 53 (anything above 50 is considered excellent).

But are students actually learning something and getting value from the course? I feel qualitative data from our feedback survey is still the best way to gauge that. Based on the many positive comments and wins shared there, I’m confident that the course is doing it’s job.