Designing Digitally
11/23/2017
ELearning has been on the educational scene for a while now. It’s been proven to be a valuable part of corporate training exercises, where businesses have seen the positive effects on their bottom line.
But, technology continues to advance in new and innovative way. To stay relevant, it’s necessary to follow the changing educational trends and provide students the most up-to-date experience available.
The latest advancement in employee learning is to go mobile. Mobile learning, or mLearning, is the newest way to engage employees in the learning process. While some may think the transition is as easy as copying an eLearning module to a mobile platform, there’s more to it than that.
Here’s what you need to know about converting eLearning courses to the mLearning platform.
Create a complete and detailed outline that contains the information you need from the eLearning course, as well as any new content that’s being added. This allows you to have all the data in one place. An outline also allows you to address how you’ll be meeting the specific learning objectives, which should be clearly laid designated.
A mobile device has a small screen. It’s essential that the content is streamlined to remove any extraneous information. For example, there may be a graphic in the original eLearning course that fits the learning objective, but isn’t adding enough value and is taking up too much space to warrant being left in, as a part of the mLearning course. Each and every element that’s added should have meaning and be relevant to the learning goals.
High-quality mobile learning strategies will hold the attention of their audience. One way of ensuring this is to break the content up into chunks of information. Three to five minute bursts are all that most learners will pay attention, before their mind starts to stray. Take advantage of that time that you have their attention. Captivated learners are successful learners.
It’s important that the mobile learning content is just as accessible on a smartphone, as it is on a laptop or tablet. Graphics, text and other elements should look just as crisp and clear on any device. A learner may work on their smartphone while they’re in transit, but use their laptop when they are at home. Easily switching between devices without missing a beat is one of the great advantages of mLearning.
The navigation buttons in mobile training courses should be easy to see and easy to access with a thumb or finger. Remember, the use of a finger isn’t as precise as the use of a mouse on a desktop. Don’t make the learner scroll farther than three screen lengths or use “next” buttons instead.
An eLearning program can successfully be converted to a mobile experience if these guidelines are followed. It isn’t a simple copy and paste job but requires specific changes to make the mobile course appropriate and effective.
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