How Do You Boost Course Completion Rates on Udemy?

Hi Udemy Community,

I’m working to increase completion rates for my Udemy course and could use some advice. What strategies keep your students engaged to the end?

Details:

Setup: New instructor, running a web design course on Udemy (2025), ~200 enrolled students.
Context: Following Udemy’s instructor, I’ve added quizzes, assignments, and short video lessons. Analytics show a 40% completion rate, with drop-offs in longer modules.
Steps Tried:
- Split lessons into 5-minute chunks.
- Added interactive coding exercises via Udemy’s practice activities.
- Sent motivational messages through announcements, but engagement dips mid-course.
Goal: Boost completion rates to 60%+ while keeping students motivated.

Questions:

What techniques do you use to maintain student engagement throughout a course?
How do you structure lessons to reduce drop-offs?
Any tips for leveraging Udemy’s tools (e.g., Q&A, announcements) to improve retention?
For instructors with high completion rates, what’s your secret?

Excited for your insights! Thanks!

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Bessy

Hi @Gabrielavale728, thank you for asking! ☺️

While another instructor may jump in to help with your questions, here’s a post that might be useful where other instructors shared some tips and opinions on how to get students more engaged.

I hope this helps.

Gabrielavale728

Hi @Bessy,

Thanks for the warm reply and for sharing that post! 😊 I’m diving into the tips shared there, and they’re super helpful so far. I was wondering if you or other instructors have specific strategies for keeping students motivated in longer courses, like those over 10 hours? Any tricks for adding engaging elements without overwhelming them?

Looking forward to more insights!

Best,
Gabriela Vale | Founder of (Link removed)

Jeremy_Farrell

CERTIFICATE OF TRAINING adult adhd Template v2.pptx

Not sure if this can help with your kind of course:

My completion rate increased in the last 2 weeks when I introduced an extra 'Certificate of Completion' with some criteria. They had to answer a final 10 question quiz, answer a choice of 1 of 10 'paragraph' answers, and send me screenshots. This suddenly got 4 x 100% completion students. My certificate does not promise the person becomes a 'Certified ADHD coach' (like some charlatans on Udemy promise 'Certified Life Coach' etc). It gives an accredited certificate (CTAA) because they have to do something extra within the course. Examples happy to share attached.

I also improved the follow-on rate by brazenly copying Graham (The priority academy) in his warm 'see you in the next video'. . (Wish I was as warm a personality, but hey ho.)

For your kind of course maybe look at similar Youtube teachers and see how they convince people to subscribe (ie to stay in the tribe)