The mobile learning (m-learning) market has flourished over the years. According to the statistics published in the marketsandmarkets.com, the Mobile Learning Market is expected to be worth $37.60 Billion
Hence with the increasing growth of m-learning, isn’t there a need to focus on improving the learning experience on the mobile devices?
Frankly, I believe yes and there is an urgent need and the market clearly reflects it.
As you see, the e-learning domain today speaks more often about responsive designs and the latest authoring tools of today that claims to develop the best responsive e-learning module for an improved mobile learning experience.
In this blog, let’s look at the various factors that contribute to an improved mobile learning experience. Here are my 5 handpicked tips to improve the mobile learning experience.
1.Optimise for multiple devices
With a large number of mobile devices flooding the market, there is an increased risk of various screen size. For example, the iPad Pro version is defined by 2048 x 2732 pixels, whereas an iPhone SE is 640 x 1136 pixels. While the pixel resolution varies extensively across the mobile devices,the developers should ensure that the learning content is super smooth across the mobile devices. While the responsive design approach helps in creating amazing learning experience across your device screens(to know more about responsive design, read my blog here)I recommend adopting the mobile first design approach i.e creating contents for mobile first before desktop.
2.Social Collaboration
Human beings are social animals and hence the organisation can leverage this natural trait in humans to ensure effective mobile learning experience. For example, the developers can include chat rooms, forums and other platforms where the learners can interact with the peer learners to share and exchange knowledge. The developers should be very careful to ensure that the process is butter smooth for the learners and ensure a good participatory environment.
3.Microlearning
If you are looking to improve your mobile learning experience, you need to ensure that the modules are s mall, concise and effective. The limited attention span of the learners is increasingly becoming a challenge for the various organizations. If the findings of a study by Microsoft are to be believed, the human attention span (8 seconds) is lesser than that of a goldfish (9 seconds). While the organizations of today are working around to find the right strategy to engage and train the learners effectively, microlearning can prove to be an effective solution here.
Microlearning is built around the subject content which can be delivered over 3-5 minutes which ensures that learning experience is enhanced. The short duration is very ideal for mobile device.
4.Send reminders to your learners
A beep and your screen show that you have a message, technically called as push notifications, organisations can effectively use this functions to send active reminders to help the learners to stay connected to the learning topics. An effective mobile learning experience will not be achieved if there are constant and indefinite breaks in the learning process. Hence the active reminders are an effective way to bring back the learners and help them to finish the learning on time
5. Feedback is crucial
The constant feedback received from the learners are the most valuable information that is used by the organisation and developers to improve the learning experience. While designing mobile learning experience, the developers should allow the learners to submit feedback. I personally recommend collecting feedback that allows the learners to be anonymous. Being anonymous can bring more genuine comments and feedbacks.
6.Fix cybersecurity loopholes
It is the responsibility of the organisation as well as the developers to ensure that the cybersecurity loopholes are fixed and the security measures are constantly updated. With the increasing cybersecurity threats that are arising every day, the developers should ensure that there is no loophole left unattended. The organization should ensure that they have a good IT backup team to handle such threats if any.
These are five handpicked tips to improve the mobile learning experience. . Feel free to share your recommendations and suggestions using the comment box below.
