One of the benefits of mobile learning is that it helps to make training easy – by reducing the cost and time of moving to a classroom. Apart from that, it helps instructors to deliver accessible learning and empowers learners to study on the go, at their convenience.
M-learning is a big deal in L&D, and many instructors are taking advantage of it to engage their employees to acquire new skills. It is useful to create accessible learning, and newbies in e-learning should start incorporating it into their learning program.
However, to achieve effective training, there’s a need to do the “on the go” training the right way. Here are a few common mistakes that you should avoid while creating your m-learning courses. Hopefully, they should help you during your course design.
5 common mistakes to avoid while designing your mobile learning course
Designs without IT backup
One of the m-learning mistakes to avoid in designing your program without full backup from an IT specialist. Why do you need an IT backup?
Security purpose
No doubt, learners are going to drop some vital information about them while registering for your course. To ensure that the information gets secured, you need to team up with an IT expert.
Mobile app analytics & feedback
In the case of certificate programs or courses that involve a large curriculum, there’s a need to carry out several data analyses. The analyses can require you to track your learners’ participation or check if they have completed your course, to certify them.
On the other hand, getting feedback from learners can help to deliver better learning. So, by teaming up with IT experts, you can get continuous improvement on your platform to get accurate analysis and feedbacks that matters.
Mobile learning is not eLearning
Although both mobile learning and e-learning make use of digital communication to deliver knowledge, they are not the same. Most organizations are fond of using their existing desktop design learning and asking their employees to access it through their mobile devices.
They forget that engaging and visually pleasing e-learning content can be unengaging and less pleasing on mobile devices. So, to deliver more engaging and flexible learning, ensure to use the mobile design approach.
This approach should focus on delivering responsiveness to various device screens and browsers. Also, it should be flexible and offer an ease of use feature, including control in the case of video and audio content.
Adding too much content
Another mistake that instructors often make in mobile learning is putting too much content in your course. In mobile learning, interface and screen sizes are much smaller, hence the need to offer less interactive elements.
Adding a lot of visual elements like images, animation, and video can only help to distract your learners. Apart from distracting them, it also complicates learning, hence making learners lose interest.
So, during your m-learning course design process, ensure to reduce the usage of interactive and visual elements, to deliver better training for mobile users.
Not using it for social and collaborative learning purpose
Although mobile learning does not support all kinds of learning, you can use it for collaborative and social learning. It enables learners to have a strong connection with each other as well as with the content.
With that, you should harness the power of m-learning to enable learners to share their content on social platforms and receive comments. The more they share your content, the more users you get for your m-learning program, and the more you get to improve on your content.
Also, you can make use of mobile app analytics to track comments, to better improve your training.
Ignoring the emotional part of learning
Although mobile learning involves delivering short content, it should not ignore the emotional part of learning. Irrespective of how short your content is, it should be able to strike your learners’ emotional side, to deliver better learning.
You can make that happen by using an active voice and informal approach to make it more conversational and friendly. Also, you can incorporate gamification strategies to make it more engaging to catch their emotions.
In Conclusion
To achieve the best results with your mobile learning, ensure that you avoid the common mistakes. Follow the above tips to avoid making unnecessary mistakes that can ruin training for your learners.
