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Designing Online Courses That Keep Students Before They Leave

Jennifer Coon

Lilly Conference, Asheville • August 10–12, 2026

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What percentage of your online students do you think make their real exit decision, the one where they mentally check out, before the official drop deadline?

Hold up your card

Pink

Under 10%

Yellow

10–25%

Green

25–50%

Orange

More than 50%

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Consider the idea that this isn’t a motivation problem.

It might be a design problem.

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How this works

20 minutes

for the whole gallery walk

Three stations

self-paced

In your packet

worksheet and design cheat sheet

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Welcome back

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Which of these showed up for you?

Show of hands, one at a time

Cognitive overload

Unclear navigation

Time management failure

Technology barriers

Unclear expectations

Declining engagement

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What stood out?

The evidence

Before and after, one course, six issues resolved

The transfer

A second institution, a second delivery format, same three principles

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How can I get started?

Do a Course Audit

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  • Click through your course as a first-time student would
  • Time yourself completing one module
  • Check whether due dates and expectations are stated more than once
  • Note every place a student has to guess what to do next

Design Elements to Consider

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  • Accordions or drop downs
  • Call out boxes
  • Tabs
  • Borders

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Tip: Ask a colleague outside your field to review it

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Questions?

Tools from your packet

  • Canvas HTML Custom Builder
  • Code Canvas — Rich Content Editor
  • HTML5 Canvas Creations

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Same question. Hold up your card again.

What percentage of your online students do you think make their real exit decision before the official drop deadline?