Designing Digitally
11/16/2017
Many people spend their days with a smartphone within arm’s reach at all times. They are used to staring at a screen for a good portion of the day. It makes sense to create corporate training that utilizes a device that people are already familiar with and using frequently.
Effective m learning courses necessitate more than just retro-fitting an eLearning course to a mobile device. Mobile training programs require designers to come at the instructional design from a whole different angle.
Here are the elements that makes m learning course successful.
It’s important to create a comprehensive outline that details each aspect of the course. This will serve as a guide as you go through the development process, from start to finish.
The learning objectives should be clearly laid out and adhered to throughout the entirety of the course. The outline helps to keep the learning goals primary.
Make sure the layout of each page is proportional to the small screen size of a smartphone or tablet. Remember, the navigation will be done with one finger, which doesn’t provide the precision that using a mouse does.
Keep in mind the battery life of mobile devices and the attention span of the user. Information should be put into bite-sized units that can stand alone as a lesson in itself. These chunks should be no longer than five minutes to process. This segmenting of the content also allows the learner to access just the portion that they need at one time.
It’s also important to streamline. Make sure that every bit of information that’s included is adding value and ties into the learning objective. Eliminate fluff and stick with the content that’s absolutely necessary.
Make it easy for the learner to find the information they need on the screen. Use lists and bullet points with headings and subheadings, instead of paragraphs of information.
The mobile course is most likely going to be accessed while the learner is on the go. There will be interruptions, variations in light, noise level, and other changing variables as the user works through the program. It’s not a good idea to embed video or audio because the learner may not be in a place where those elements can be accessed.
Another factor to consider is scrolling. Don’t require the learner to scroll any more than three screen lengths or break up the information so that it only takes up half the screen. Doing this and adding a “next” icon will cut down on scrolling.
During the development process, the mobile training course should be tested periodically. This allows any glitches to be fixed right away and will save time in the long run.
Part of the testing should involve viewing the m learning course on different devices to make sure there’s no dysfunction in the conversion from one screen size to another.
Following these guidelines is a way to ensure that the m learning courses you create are effectively meeting the learning goals of the users.
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