Mlearning is a popular strategy to use. According to the statistics published by Budde.com, smartphones are becoming the central device used by younger generations to access the Internet. This is great news for the elearning industry because that means mobile learning can progress further.
While this is a great strategy to enrich the learning experience, there are a couple of do’s and dont’s that you need to follow. These rules will help you utilize this learning strategy so you can implement various learning initiatives effectively and efficiently.
3 Do’s of mLearning
- Do keep things simple. While you may be tempted to make your mobile learning course as sophisticated as possible, simplicity still rules the game. You have to take into consideration the small screen and the learners. Remember that these people are usually on-the-go. You do not want to make learning hard for them through complex and sophisticated programs. Make the mobile learning course as simple as possible. That is how you can make the learning process easier for the busy learners that usually opt for mlearning. Not only that, the small screen limits the interaction that can happen during the learning process. A thumb and two fingers – that is what learners can fit into the small screen of their mobile devices. Consider this limitation when creating your course.
- Do focus on your context. To help keep things simple, you want to keep your focus on context. What does this mean? It is simply focusing on what you want to happen in the course. It involves analyzing why the course was created in the first place. After all, we create something in order to address a need or a problem. Focus on solving this problem alone. This will give your decisions and choices direction.
- Do make it learner-centric. Finally, you have to make your mobile learning course learner-centric. As mentioned, your learners are those who are busy and always on-the-go. They want to feel like they are in control of the learning process. Make this happen. This will get their attention and will allow them to learn whenever they are most suited to do so. Try not to push them into the learning experience. They need to go through it at their own pace – when it is needed.
3 Dont’s of mLearning
- Don’t go overboard with information. Mobile learning is best served in bite-sized courses. You do not want to overwhelm learners with information because their circumstances will most certainly make them unable to cope. More often than not, they will forget some parts of the lesson This is why you need to combine mlearning with microlearning. Cut your course into bite-sized pieces. This will make the learning process easier to digest.
- Don’t use multimedia just for the sake of it. As you choose the information that you will highlight with every course, you also have to be careful of your multimedia courses. Do not use it for the sake of having variety. Take into consideration who will be learning your course. A video can be done in different ways. If your target are kids, some animation will do the trick. A more mature set of learners will make a simple slideshow sufficient.
- Don’t assume elearning can be directly converted to mlearning. It is also very important that you avoid assuming that you can directly convert your elearning course into an mlearning course. There are some programs that will distort the layout of an elearning course when shown on the small screen of a mobile device. This is especially true if you are converting an old elearning course. Be cautious of the compatibility. It takes more than just saving your old content into a mobile program to make mlearning work for you.
Consider these do’s and dont’s so you can create an immersive mobile learning course for your target audience.
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