Let’s say you’re staying up late, racing against a deadline to put the finishing touches on the slides for an online course you developed. You’re resigned not to sleep that night. As you’re working, you think you’re doing your best—although you’re actually not doing good at all. Your wakefulness is filling you with mania, exhaustion and absent-minded activity, triple-checking what you’ve already double-checked. And you’re setting yourself up for a tiresome, wobbly next day. W

For all its benefits, online learning often fails for one reason: abandonment. Too many students start courses but don’t finish them. The research varies, and there’s more of it for higher education than for corporate training. But the percentage of students who don’t complete their online courses is generally north of 70%. And for the most part, we tolerate it. Could you imagine if 70% of your workforce didn’t bother to come in today? Or if seven out of 10 cars coming off an