Why Aren’t You Finishing Your Self-paced Course — And What You Should Do Instead

In the current reality we’re living in, online courses are more relevant than ever. They provide us with an instant and safe solution to continue developing our skills from anywhere in the world, from the safety and comfort of our own home.

Within the online courses realm, self-paced courses are a popular choice mainly due to the flexibility they offer. Not only they’re usually more affordable, but we can easily adapt them to our schedule. This is especially useful for busy learners with unpredictable schedule like me. If you struggle finding extra slots in your calendar or keeping the pace of a structured program, then self-paced courses might be for you.

However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The perceived advantages of a self-paced course; flexibility, affordability, lifetime access, can quickly turn into cons.

If you are like most of the clients I’ve consulted with, you might have purchased more than a couple of courses in the past that are now sitting around, waiting to be completed.

Why does this happen?

From a learning science point of view, there are a few potential explanations for our tendency to postpone endlessly the completion of a self-paced course.