If you are a trainer, an HR manager, or an online course designer, you know it is now time to design and develop courses for mobile users. With high-end smartphones that stream at 4K speeds, increased battery life, and bigger screen sizes, you can expect mobile devices to eclipse desktop or laptop computer as the preferred medium to consume virtual content.
Google Insights reported that on average, people use 2.5 connected devices per adult, and “mobile is now central to almost all kinds of internet activity.”
You should create eLearning courses keeping in mind that your learners will take them on all kinds of devices, from the desktop computer with its chunky monitor to the mobile device with its palm-sized screen. Get ready to deliver.
In this post, we will tell you how reading on the mobile screen feels different than reading from a larger laptop computer screen. We will also provide tons of tips to help you create a distraction-free mobile viewing experience that aids learning.
The key to creating a stellar learning experience is readability. If learners cannot instantly get what is written on the screen, your course has failed to fulfill its purpose.
Although mobile phone screens have become bigger in recent years—from an average of 3.9 inches in 2011 to 5.1 inches in 2014, according to eMarketer—they are still a lot smaller than the average desktop and laptop computer.
Therefore, your objective is to design eLearning courses with small screens in mind and make sure that they are readable on any device.
Here’s how to design for small screens:
Designing for mobile screens presents a unique challenge because of the way these devices are used. We navigate a course on a desktop or laptop computer using the mouse or finger pad. However, we use our fingers when we navigate online content on mobile devices, meaning most of the times we block a portion of the screen from view. To compound matters, we tend to change our grips to carry out different tasks or when we switch between mobile devices. So it 's hard to design a mobile course that will let learners interact with it, in the tactile sense, consistently across devices.
However, you can create a smooth user experience if you follow these tips:
According to a research study undertaken by Google, smartphone users engage far more with mobile videos—they are less distracted—than when they watch them on any other medium, like the TV.
According to another researchstudy by Google,smartphone users feel more connected to the videos they view on their phones than when they watch them on their desktop computers or television. They are also more likely to share the videos and ads they watch on their phones than those they watch on the desktop PC. However, they have a preference for SHORT videos.
So, don’t hesitate to incorporate videos into your responsive eLearning courses. Here are some tips:
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If your learners are using their phones to access your eLearning courses, then it is likely that they have other things crowding their minds too. This means you don’t have their full attention because they are also, consciously or unconsciously, attending and responding to other events/tasks going on around them. For instance, external variables like lighting (This light here is not very bright. I will find some other place to sit and read.), Internet connection (Why is the video taking so long to download? Let me check the Internet settings.), and movement (I will watch this video while I am on the subway.) affect the learning experience.
You have to make sure that your responsive eLearning courses rise above distractions and deliver an engaging and smooth learning experience.
Keep the following tips in mind:
If you own a smartphone, you know how busy this little device is. It rings, buzzes, dings, blinks, beeps, and glows almost always. If you have the phone on you, it is likely that a call, a message, or a notification will come through any time. Smartphones can be distractions as well, says Naomi S. Baron, professor of linguistics at American University and author of Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World.
So it is certain that your learners will be distracted as they go through your training courses. Your goal is to maximize the visibility of your content.
Here're some tips:
Because mobile devices are small, we hold them close to our eyes to read better. We tend to hold our smartphones just 12.6 inches away from our eyes while we sit about 20 to 23 inches away from the desktop computer.
But we are not just physically closer to our smartphones. Take a look at how this pint-sized device has woven itself into our lives.
We wake up to its alarm and check a post or two or browse the news on it before we head out to work. We wind up our day by journaling the day’s events, reviewing our to-do list for the next day, or listening to a meditation audio, all on our phones. We share an intimate connection with our phones. As reported by The Pew Research Center, the average American perceives his smartphone as a device that helps him stay connected, be productive, feel happy, and become free. For him, his phone constitutes a profoundly personal territory (So what if it has been provided to him by his company), sacred and to be respected.
As an eLearning developer, your goal should be to deliver a learning experience that feels personal, intimate, and friendly.
Do not talk down to the learners. Don’t be preachy! Instead, talk to them and be that helpful buddy that everyone turns to when they want solutions.
As a training manager, HR executive, or an eLearning developer, you cannot ignore the mobile revolution. Your learners are more likely to be found buried in their smartphones than poring over books in the neighborhood public library. Catch them and talk to them in the way they are accustomed to listening.