10 Tips for Publishers to Create Interactive K12 Digital Content

The advancement of technology has changed the way people perceive digital content today. The preference has shifted from simple reading to highly interactive content.

Digital learning platforms today enable publishers to create and publish eBooks with ease. But the challenge lies in making the content interactive.

Below we will look at 10 ways to make digital content highly interactive and engaging for K12 students.

Table of Contents

• 10 Tips to Create Highly Interactive K12 Digital Content

1. Use Consistent Color and Themes
2. Include Animated Elements
3. Add Audio and Background Music
4. Include Games, Quizzes, and Puzzles
5. Add Pictures and Graphics
6. Include Videos
7. Use Fun Fonts
8. Add Widgets
9. Connect to the Real World
10. Know Your Audience

• To Conclude

Most digital content designed for students use bright and vibrant colors. No doubt, it is a great way to draw students in. However, keeping your color palette and theme consistent is essential.

For instance, use the same color for highlights or arrows. This way, each page will look familiar and make it easy for students to use.

Also, ensure sufficient color contrast between the text and background for easy reading.

Using animated elements and gestures makes digital content not only fun and enjoyable but also positively impacts a student’s learning.

The human brain is said to  process visual information faster than it processes text. So using animation for complex concepts will help students visualize and comprehend them better. Animated elements also encourage the use of multiple senses, which allows for better retention.

So try and include animated elements through illustrations, graphs, or charts in your digital content for better and faster learning.

Some learners may prefer to listen to content rather than read it. Adding audio to your content will give them the option to choose the way they wish to consume it. It will also help them prepare notes or complete their homework more quickly. 

Another interactive sound element you can add is background music. This works best with story narration as it provides emotional cues and hooks, giving students a more immersive experience.

Another way to make digital content more exciting and engaging for K12 students is to include quizzes, puzzles, and games after every few pages. Solving puzzles and riddles allows students to indulge their curiosity and stretch their imaginations.

They are also known to improve a students language, social and cognitive skills and thus are a perfect addition to eLearning courses.

Interactive games and quizzes can include multiple-choice questions, matching the pairs, sequencing quizzes, audio-visual crosswords, jigsaws, and many more. 

Go for a digital learning platform that allows seamless integration of these elements in your content.

Did you know that visual aids can improve learning by up to 400%? Visuals, such as infographics, summarize the content into smaller chunks that are easier for students to process and digest. Students tend to relate emotions faster with such visuals. 

It’s also difficult to hold a student’s attention only with text. To avoid them losing interest, add graphics and pictures to your digital content. They could be photos, charts, graphs, maps, gifs, etc. These make the content visually more attractive and add to its relevance.

Pairing visuals with concepts is also one of the easiest ways to make the information stick to student’s long-term memory. Studies have found that people recall visual illustrations more easily than written or spoken presentations.

One study has shown that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch a video and only 10% if it’s textual.

Videos are especially useful if you need to explain complex concepts as they cover multifaceted aspects of the given topic. They not only increase a learner’s engagement levels but also help in reducing their cognitive load.

Including videos in your content is an even better way to grab a student’s attention and improve retention.

Do you give much consideration to fonts when you create digital content for K12 students? If not, it’s time you did.

Students are more likely to enjoy learning when they see large and fun fonts. These fonts are more interesting than standard ones and can engage students as much as images.

Some examples of students-friendly fonts include:

• Plantin Infant
• Gill Sans Infant
• Sassoon Primary
• Bembo Infant
• KG Neatly Printed Font – free for personal use
• Futura – available on most computers
• Andika – free Google font

Digital content today is no longer as static as it used to be. Technological advancements such as the use of widgets have transformed today’s content into highly interactive documents.

For the uninitiated, widgets are mini-apps that learners can use while reading your digital content. There are different types of widgets such as calculators, image carousels, questionnaires, whiteboards, worksheets, hotspot images, games, etc.

You can also include third-party plugins such as Youtube videos, Google maps, Wikipedia pages, or social media links through widgets if you can’t embed them directly into your eBook.

Adding widgets lets learners perform necessary actions or get supplementary information without leaving your platform, improving their overall user experience.

If you want to make your content more relatable to your audience, try to maintain connectivity with the real world. For instance, you can use pictures of real people or add 360-degree images of actual sites while teaching students about them.

Similarly, if the subject matter is to do with historical museums, why not add a virtual tour of the same in your eBook? This will help students explore new places and add value to their education.

Students of different age groups interact with digital content in different ways. Hence, you should begin with a clear understanding of your target audience’s behavior patterns. 

If you’re creating content for young students (from K to 3), focus more on visual elements. Make the content more about having fun and trying new things.

While visuals are great for older learners as well, they will also be able to read more text. Try adding games and puzzles. Including challenges, such as moving to the next level, will engage them more and keep them attentive.

You can also include social elements such as polls, comments, and feedback to encourage interaction.

Interactive courses drive more engagement and better learning. Hence, K12 publishers must take steps to make their digital content more interactive. The higher the interactivity, the more effective learning becomes!

If you’re looking for a digital learning platform to create, enhance, and deliver amazing K12 digital content to your learners, try KITABOO. With our quick-connect technology, you can onboard multiple K12 organizations easily and provide students with excellent learning resources.

KITABOO is secure, accessible, intuitive, and easy to use. It also has an SDK version, to simplify the integration process. 

To know more about adopting effective digital content solutions, write to us at KITABOO@hurix.com.