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.

Motivation. The word is bandied about too much these days. An entire body of literature has sprung up around it. There are coaches who teach people how to cultivate motivation. There are websites, courses, seminars, and workshops to teach the how-to's, the wherefores, and the what-ifs of motivation. So first, let's address what is motivation? And why should you care about it as an eLearning professional?

We, instructional designers, know the feeling. We take copious notes when we interview the SME, and when we return to our desks, we are at a loss wondering what information to include in the course and what to toss out. Most of us end up squeezing into the course almost everything the SME had said. At other times, we read through the raw content, fall in love with a piece of data that is new to us and seems exciting, and cram it in the course. The result is an information-heavy eLearning course that overwhelms the learner but does not benefit him or elicit the response from him that you had desired. Information overload is a common pitfall that eLearning designers should be wary of. Your goal should be to create a course that packs in only that much information that fulfills the learning outcomes. Relevance increases learner engagement. Besides, your adult learners are busy people; you cannot expect them to sit through a course as you ramble on.

With the impressive array of content available from online sources and beyond, it’s no longer necessary to create everything from scratch. It’s also not feasible to do everything yourself when technology and everything else moves so quickly. Content curation allows Instructional Designers to use existing material while putting their spin on it to give learners added value.

eLearning courses are designed to provide students with helpful information and not to bombard them with irrelevant and unnecessary pieces of content. What many eLearning designers don't realize is that if they exceed a human’s brain capacity to understand and retain information, then all the effort spent creating the course goes to waste. Designers are often asking us how they can improve the quality of their eLearning courses and make them more engaging. Our answer: Stick to one of design's timeless rules: “keep it simple.” Applying the principle of simplicity in eLearning means conveying information in the simplest way possible. Less information will always be more. When too much clutter vies for the learner's attention, the learner may not see the forest for the trees. They end up thinking the course isn't worth so much effort, and the content gets lost. However, keeping it simple can be an art. So, let’s discuss some tips to improve your eLearning design and help learners get through the course as fast as possible.

According to a report by HubSpot, posts and tweets containing colored images increase viewers’ willingness to read by a whopping 80 percent! Other research revealed readers remembered 65 percent of the information several days after viewing it when text was paired with one or more relevant images than a paltry 10 percent when the content was just a hunk of text. Look at yourself. Would you like to watch a demo video and learn how to fix a broken washer or read through the pages of the instruction manual? We love watching movies. We post photos of our trips on Facebook and not essays about our vacations. The power of visuals is undeniable! As an eLearning course creator whose goal is to create memorable learning, you MUST NOT underestimate using this medium correctly when you design your courses.

A good-looking eLearning course is not a guarantee of its instructional effectiveness. Think of all those magazines with glossy covers that you flip over expectantly only to find that the pages are filled with trash. Unfortunately, many course developers have no clue of how visual design can increase (or decrease) learnability of the material.

How do you read an article in the newspaper? You start with the headline that screamed at you from the newsstand. Then you read the sub-headline, which is printed in smaller font size. Next, you proceed to read the body copy. Why do you read in this order? You read the headline first because its large, bold font grabs your eyeballs as soon as you glance at the newspaper. Next, the sub-headline catches your attention. You are compelled to read in this order because of the way the text is presented. This is visual hierarchy, where information is ordered based on its importance and visually presented using contrasting forms to influence the viewing order.