Mobile learning is no longer the future of eLearning; it’shot right now. In 2015, 68 percent of American adults had a smartphone and 45percent had a tablet; among 18- to 29-year-olds, 86 percent had smartphones,according to Pew Research Center. And those numbers are growing, as are the ways that peopleuse their mobile devices.
Not all eLearning designers know—or can control—wherelearners use their content. Ensuring that all learners, wherever they are, havea positive eLearning experience has become more of a guessing game.
Responsive design to the rescue
Using responsive design provides a solution for designersand developers; content will look great on computers, tablets, and smartphones.These guidelines can help make eLearning mobile-friendly and improve theappearance and usability of responsively designed eLearning:
- Keep navigation simple. Sketch out theflow, and see whether it makes sense on a smaller screen; modular layouts whoseelements can be stacked on a smartphone screen are less likely to lose learnersdue to navigation issues than multiple pop-up or drop-down menus and heavyreliance on links scattered throughout the text. Make it easy for learners tomove through the content in a logical way—but also to skip sections that covermaterial they already know. Use simple, clear navigation elements, and put themin the same place on every screen.
- Narrow the focus. Keep mobile eLearningmodules short and focused. Don’t look only at word count or even video length;there’s no hard-and-fast rule about length. Cover a single concept or idea permodule. When “chunking” eLearning content, seek balance: Include enoughinformation that learners will understand the idea or concept, but be mindfulof learners’ attention spans. A mobile learner is unlikely to engage with a30-minute module. Sketching can be helpful here, too—drawings of the same modulefor a smartphone screen and a laptop can quickly show when the module has too muchtext. Narrow the focus further if needed, breaking the content into smallerunits.
- Create a template. “Templates areessential for more efficient and cost-effective projects,” said Todd Macey,president of Vital Learning.Design a template that works on any device, test it on multiple devices(including several different tablets and phones)—then add content. Knowing thatthe design works before creating multiple modules can avoid costly repeatederrors and provides a framework to guide content length. It also helps createwhat Macey calls “harmony” between the content and the design.
- Test, and then test some more. Test withvarious users. Create and test multiple iterations, getting user feedback oneach. Test on several types of devices. Test on different browsers. Bear inmind that all of that testing takes time, but it’s better to do the testingthan to find out later that the eLearning won’t work for the intended audience.Macey advises, “Build a ‘product team’ of actual users to provide continual feedbackearly in the project.”
- Accept that not all eLearning will workeverywhere. An in-depth eLearning course is unlikely to work well on asmartphone: Even with a responsive design, longer content will always be asquare peg squeezing into a round hole. Some learners will try to do all theireLearning using their phones, but it’s perfectly acceptable to preface anin-depth course, a simulation, or a serious game with a note that says thecontent is best used on a laptop or tablet.
The need for mobile-friendly eLearning is likely to continueto increase. When done well, responsive design ensures that eLearning remainsattractive and engaging to learners anywhere—everywhere—on all devices.
