The Key to Long-Lasting Success for Students in Online Courses

The key is: Habit Formation

Why would we give you the answer in the first sub-header? Shouldn’t we make you work for your answer a little bit?

The thing is, you probably still need to read the rest of this blog to learn why habit formation is key and how to utilize it in online courses.

What is a habit?

A habit can be described as a practice that is “settled” or regularly done.

Bad habits are hard to give up, and healthy ones are hard to form. A common example of a bad habit that’s hard to give up is biting your nails, and a healthy one that is hard to form for many is flossing.

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How do you form a habit?

Forming healthy habits are difficult because they require discipline and consistency. But don’t worry, there are tips and tricks that can help you as you try to develop them. Habits are built by having big end goals, and many small action-based objectives to get you towards those end goals.

Specific planning of your habits is a good way to make it seem more visible and easier to achieve.

• Instead of “I’m going to exercise”, maybe set a schedule of 5 nights a week, you’re going to do 100 situps and 50 pushups. Instead of “I want to get more sleep”, make a reminder on your phone to remove all electronics from your room around 8pm.

Constant motivators can help you stay focused and on track when your willpower may be weak.

• ‍It’s so much easier to just hop on the couch and munch on some chips rather than gnaw on some carrots and celery. Maybe before work you could leave a note with a motivational quote on the bag of chips. Can’t get out of bed early to go for a morning run? Perhaps you set your alarm as your best pump-up song.

Eliminating excessive options is a great course of action for habit formation, as it forces you to do what is necessary, puts you in a healthy environment, and makes decision making easier.

• ‍Stock your fridge with only fruits and veggies so you can finally become a healthy eater. Remove the TV and XBOX from your room and replace it with a bookshelf so you can eliminate TV before bed. Delete all apps off of your phone so you can be more present and detached from technology.

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Why habits in online courses create long-lasting success

Having online courses incorporate habit formation methods aids students in changing their behavior for the better.

Courses that can motivate and that teach through small, action-based steps are more effective because they involve students and make them take actual steps in their lives.

To sum it up, without habits, behavioral change doesn’t occur. If behavioral change doesn’t occur, then will the lessons and actions taken by students really matter for them after they’re finished?

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myQuest

It just so happens that we have a habit formation tool for mentors to utilize.

What a coincidence!

For one mission per level, you have the ability to add a habit. You can give that habit a name, explain what it entails and why it’s important.

Doing the habit gives users extra points, the habit follows you from level to level, and you get AI notifications on your phone to reminding you to complete your habit. The habit is not checked off as complete until the user has done the action 3-5 times, and you can only click that you did the habit once per day.

With the myQuest habit tool, you can gradually instill certain actions in people’s lives and constantly remind them to do that action. Habits do not stick overnight. We understand this fact and that’s why our habit formation tool is designed the way it is.

And overall, myQuest is a behavior change company, and we allow our users to achieve behavioral change through action-based microlearning. With our platform, each mission is a small action-based task that requires interaction from users.

All in all, our focus is creating change, one small step at a time.