How do you communicate user progress in a course without a Learning Management System (LMS)?

Summary: Listen to this post: You can download the MP3 file, subscribe in iTunes, or listen with Stitcher. Differences in the idea of “learning” between tech comm and eLearning One difference between tech comm and eLearning is how each discipline approaches the idea of “learning.” Tech comm focuses more on learning just when the user needs the information. Tech writers produce documentation so that users can quickly find an answer and use it to solve a problem. The whole interaction — user needs info, consults docs, finds answer, returns to work context — takes place fairly quickly. Some people call this “just-in-time learning” or “informal learning.” eLearning approaches learning as more of a long-form course or training that a user undergoes to ramp up their knowledge and skills from one level to the next. It’s not a quick interaction but rather might take an hour or to several weeks, depending on the material. eLearning developers define learning objectives that they use to build a course around, and then sequentially take users module by module through the learning objectives. Along the way, to ensure progress toward the objectives, eLearning developers incorporate exercises, quizzes, and other interactions to ensure engagement and learning. Reference content versus a “course” When I created my API documentation site, I compiled the material as reference content for workshops I was leading. I didn’t approach the content as an eLearning deliverable, because eLearning concerns aren’t in my tech comm DNA. However, after I started receiving a lot of feedback from users who were progressing through the material as a “course,” I started to consider some of these eLearning considerations. Users aren’t consulting my API documentation material as a just-in-time learning situation, where they go to quickly consult the right terminology for documenting an endpoint and then return to their work context. Instead, most users want to transition into the field of API documentation. Either they’re traditional tech writers working with software documentation and want to make the switch, or they’re students trying to ramp up their skills for a future job. Others are tech writers who are assigned an API doc project at work and need a course of some kind to learn the needed skills. In short, I now suddenly find myself in an eLearning situation. I’m developing a “course” when course development isn’t usually in my target sights. I’m a technical writer. I produce information, not long-form learning experiences. How do I pull users from start to finish through a whole course and help them achieve their larger career objective? How can I inspire and motivate my users to consume and complete long-form material? In The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, researchers Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer argue that the greatest motivation comes from feeling a sense of progress. They explain: Real progress triggers positive emotions like satisfaction, gladness, even joy. It leads to a sense of accomplishment and self-worth as well as positive views of the work and, sometimes, the organization. Such thoughts and perceptions (along with those positive emotions) feed the motivation, the deep engagement, that is crucial for ongoing blockbuster performance. They base their research in work scenarios with managers and employees, looking through “nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees in 7 companies” (rather than examining eLearning scenarios) to arrive at their conclusions. But I think the conclusions apply to both scenarios. The idea of progress resonates with me. When I sense that I’m actually making headway on a goal, it fills me with motivation. Amabile and Kramer talk about progress as a “principle” to leverage, arguing that — of all the positive events that influence inner work life, the single most powerful is progress in meaningful work; of all the negative events, the single most powerful is the