The Importance of Mobile Friendly E-Learning Content

Before you begin to create new content, consider your existing content. Is there a way that you can repurpose this content for your new project? Even if this content isn’t directly related to the current topic, there will likely be aspects that you can reuse in some form, which will save you time.

You may argue that this old content is no longer relevant or accurate or that it doesn’t fit the tone you are aiming for, and while this may be true, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use it. You can reuse this content to create new forms of content to include in your course; for instance, you could use statistics to design an infographic or create a video from a blog post. If you decide to reuse this previous content, but the tone is not what you need, all you need is an editor to tweak the writing to match your intended voice. You can be as creative as you like here – the aim is just to save you time so you can focus your attention elsewhere.

To decide the course’s tone and design, you will need to create a buyer persona or, in this case, a learner persona. These personas will help you design a course that will appeal to your target demographic.

For instance, if you are creating a course about computing basics, it is likely that you are targeting an older age group. This group tends to like detailed step-by-step guides that give them all the information they need in one place and allows them time to digest and understand the content, such as blogs or slow videos. Conversely, millennials and Gen Z prefer media that gets to the point more quickly, so memes, short videos, and quizzes are ideal for capturing their attention.

Creating a buyer or learner persona can help you identify what the learner will look for in a course and what their needs (conscious or otherwise) might be, enabling you to design a targeted course.

If you have read any of our other blogs or guides (you can see them here), you will know that we stress the importance of error-free work. Errors in your content, either factual or grammatical, will decrease your users’ trust in your work. This is particularly relevant when you are creating educational content because learners will expect the content to be word-perfect. You may already have in-house editors and proofreaders, but if not, you could outsource this task to a company such as Proofed, which specializes in E-Learning editing. Making sure your work is free of spelling and grammar mistakes will boost your reputation as a subject-matter expert, creating more demand for your course and driving sales.

Once you have decided on the course content, you will need to decide on the platform you will use to host your course. This may be the most important part of this process because choosing a platform that doesn’t work with the type of course you are creating will automatically cause issues for you and your users. Ideally, you could build a platform that matches your needs perfectly. But this can cost tens of thousands of dollars, so this may not be an option for you.

If you can’t have a platform built for you, there are plenty of websites that offer customizable templates. The most obvious are Udemy and Skillshare, but there are many other platforms that you could use to host your course. Make sure you do your research before you commit.

Even though most people understand how to use technology or have enough experience to be able to work it out, it saves them a lot of time and frustration if you include a short tutorial about the platform’s features and layout. This can be in written form, but it is more effective to create a short video that shows the user how to navigate the site. It doesn’t have to be long or complicated; it only needs to give the user an idea of how to find the most important parts of the course and troubleshoot any issues they may have. Saving your users time and frustration will endear them to your course.

Although it may sound a little clichéd now, the KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) principle is still as relevant today as it was when it was created by the US Navy in 1960. According to interaction-design.org, this principle asserts that if we can’t understand a product, we can’t use it properly or effectively, and the widest audience possible must be able to understand the content for the product to gain the maximum market share. This is as applicable to mobile e-learning content now as it was for fighter planes in the 1960s.

You should avoid overcomplicating your content. Depending on the course’s subject matter, you might be talking about very technical or abstract concepts, so you should aim to make other aspects of the course (e.g., design or usage) as simple as possible. This will keep your platform clean and uncluttered, meaning your learners can focus on learning.

Keeping your learners engaged in your content may be one of the biggest struggles you will face as an e-learning content provider. Wyzowl.com reports that scientists now believe we may have a shorter attention span than goldfish, with our average attention span dropping from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8.25 seconds in 2015. But there are ways to retain your users’ attention, such as creating interactive content.

You could create end-of-module quizzes or games that test your learners’ progress or have interactive in-lesson features with pop-up explanations. Even just having a “Continue” button can be helpful to encourage users to push on with their e-learning journey. The most important thing is that your learners engage with the content and that they can participate in the course while on their phones.

You must consider the design of mobile e-learning content. Remember, the screens of smartphones are typically smaller than computers, laptops, and tablets, so it is even more important that you get the design right. Trying to fit too much onto the screen will make it difficult for the learner to read and understand and will likely overwhelm them. And nobody wants to continue with something that overwhelms them.

So, it’s best to keep the design simple and clean. Keeping the text centered and using a decent-sized font will also help. Anything you can do to make it easier for your learner, the better the outcome will be.