Communication Persuasion

Online Education: Breaking Boundaries

Many students will be able to socialize with students from all around the world thanks to the arrival of online education. There will be cross-cultural interactions in which all students will participate, as well as access to on-demand content and visual field visits through exchange programs. In essence, digital learning will break down geographical, cultural, and economic boundaries. Online education allows students to be immersed in a variety of experiences while working on their own schedule or timetable. With the growing market industry, getting jobs will require education that will be passed the high school level and online education provides a perfect platform for getting the experience and required profession. This statement was made by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Chief Knowledge Officer Mr. Karen Pedersen (Stiff, J. B. (2016). Therefore, in order to influence a majority to be involved in online education, they need to be persuaded in order to influence their attitudes, motivations, beliefs, intentions or their behaviors.

Keyword: online education, persuasion in communication

Online learning campaign

The campaigns central message will be “GET INSPIRED GET INVOVLVED”

The targeted audience will be teenagers that are still in high school and want to join college. The working class and would like to continue with their education but lack enough time to pursue their career and go back to class will also be targeted. This is because it will increase their chance of them taking their classes at the luxury of their homes. Parents and guardians are also addressed so that they may gain knowledge about the importance of online learning and they should encourage their children to take online learning instead of traveling around the colleges and universities.

The medium that will primarily be used to promote the online learning is by creating awareness on social media platforms, mass media and via the internet. Most of the targeted individuals who will use the online learning are on active social media platforms. By doing so, most of the individuals who are affected will get the needed information having a clear communication between them.

The intended persuasion outcome that will be expected is to get enough people change their perspective, beliefs, and ideas regarding online learning by giving them a free choice atmosphere. The persuasion message that will be relayed must contain arguments and be pleasant like adding a music that gives a nice memory to the mind.

Persuasion in Communication

Persuasive communication is aimed at manipulating the minds of the people receiving the message. It causes stimulation to the brains of the audience. A persuasive communication priorities, reinforces and intensifies existing beliefs (Compton, J. (2017). The purpose of stimulation is to develop a commitment, build group cohesion or spur action to individuals that have a common set of goals. By using this approach, acknowledgment of common grounds is first established then an introduction of new ideas is brought fourth. This helps the audience to value the unity of all the information that they have been given.

Persuasion communication leads convincing of different perspectives to different audiences. The message that is given aims at convincing the recipients of the rightness and importance of a certain course of action or a choice. The convincing persuasion is accomplished by using logical reasoning or providing evidence (Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986).

The persuasive argument gives an outline to a call to action. Call to action accentuates and reinforces beliefs by stimulating the interests of the audience and convincing them on to a particular viewpoint. This intends people to change their behavior or way of practicing something. Calling to action is basically the implementation of decisions. There are four ways of a perfect call to action: adoption, deterrence, discontinuance, and continuance. Adoption is when the speaker wants the audience to engage in totally new ideas. Shifting to online learning is an example of adoption call to action in persuasion communication where people have agreed to be studying online rather than attending physical classes.

Persuasion communication may also work to increase the consideration of the audience position. Regarding on how the message is framed and delivered, an open persuasion group of the audience is targeted (Entrepreneur Press. (2012). Audiences that are not emotionally moved by appeals are more likely to be influenced by rational arguments and facts. This gives a limited method of advertising the online learning unless a proper approach is used to increase the willingness and awareness of audiences to consider their current positions.

An effective persuasion communication is tolerant to alternative perspectives. Helping the audience to develop a tolerance for alternative perspectives is essential in creating a persuasive communication. The audience is at liberty to choose a variety of things and is not only limited to one option (MacArthur, R. (2014). By giving them the online learning option, they have to weigh if that option is important to them and identify all the problems that they may encounter if they decide on making that particular decision.

Theories of Persuasion

There are four theories of persuasion which are:

Social judgement theory. This is the theory where the pre-existing attitudes are important to the audience so that the persuasion that they try to argue may be accepted.

Elaboration likelihood model. In this theory, the recipients of the message should be able to process objectives of the elaborated message given to them. If they are unable to process this information, aids such as peripheral cues may be used to help them understand.

Cognitive dissonance theory. This theory explains persuasion as a post-reactive response to inconsistencies that are seen from the actions and beliefs of the audiences. The persuaders give a solution, an action or a product that reduces the disparity between the existing beliefs and behaviors of the audiences therefore taking advantage of them.

Narrative paradigm. This theory deals with the emotional theories that are based on the story telling rather than falling in the rational process category. It gives narratives a coherent and a reason for it to be influential and be accepted by the audience.

Conclusion

There is a successful way of influencing another person’s mental state by persuasive communication. The person persuading have some degree of freedom and they exercise it. Therefore, running the campaign on online learning is important to use persuasive communication so as to attract more people to adopt the new way of learning unlike using other forms of communication.

References

Compton, J. (2017). Persuasion and communication in sport, exercise, and physical activity. Routledge.

Entrepreneur Press. (2012). Online Education Business: Entrepreneur's Step-by-Step Startup Guide. New York: Entrepreneur Press.

MacArthur, R. (2014). Online education fraud: The diary of a short seller. Stamford, Conn.?: Alternative Research Services, Inc.

Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change. New York, NY: Springer New York.

Stiff, J. B. (2016). Persuasive communication. Place of publication not identified: Guilford.