eLearning: Make it Mobile Friendly!

Mobile eLearning seems nearly limitless!  It can happen anywhere at anytime. But is “what’s happening” truly engaging and memorable? It will be if you remember these tips!

1. Clean and Concise

Remember- mobile learners are already being inundated with external distractions. Rather than add one more, make your eLearning a little safe haven. Don’t make them sort through clutter or unnecessary information. Embrace white space, make navigation simple and avoid cognitive overload.

2. Screen Space Is Gold

Screen space is your prime real estate. Reduce image size. Substitute large blocks of text with bullets. Avoid graphics, text, and graphs that require excessive screen scrolling.

3. Compress and Link

Mobile learning is often limited by bandwidth. Images that show up instantly on a laptop can take much longer on smartphones. Optimize all of your multi-media elements. Compress large files and/or include links to external sites that can be accessed later.

4. One Touch Navigation

For navigation, opt for an icon with a drop down list. This minimizes space without sacrificing navigation. Make them clear and easy to tap. Use hot spot graphics or buttons instead of hyperlinks. Remember the the mobile learner is often operating with one finger.

5. Audio Autocracy

Audio can be challenging for mobile learners, thanks to those external distractions. If learners don’t have headphones, they aren’t going to reap the rewards of your audio. So give them complete control of the audio playback, including muting, pausing, and adjusting volume. Include subtitles when possible.

6. Make Sure You’ve “One” Them Over

Mobile learning dictates small doses. That’s why it works well as a moment of need support tool or  knowledge refresher. Learning courses must be bite-sized and easy to swallow. Think one learning objective; one goal, or topic for each mobile-friendly online course. Break complex […]

eLearning: Make it Mobile Friendly!2020-02-18T14:18:48+00:00

Making the Move to eLearning

As a company starts to grow and expand, it requires an increasingly greater investment to bring instructors and learners together; whether they are your own employees, distributors, or clients.

Consider the task of on boarding. Companies want just-in-time training, yet it makes no sense to fly in a trainer to instruct one new employee in a timely basis. Even legacy employees have training needs which include skill improvement, systems, and product updates and compliance certification.

These challenges are all addressed through eLearning:

  • The divide between physical location and time disappears.
  • The learner experiences consistent, convenient, and enjoyable training.
  • You have the ability to instruct anyone, on any topic, at any time.
  • With an LMS, you can track training records and assess real performance and results.

So now that you’ve decided to make the move, what are the steps you should consider? Here are a few tips that will help you make an effective transition.

An Expert for a Partner

You can always bring your resources in-house once you know you have a training system that works. However, depending on the vendor you choose, you may find the flexibility that outside consultants and designers offer will provide the ongoing return on investment you need. Whether you partner with an expert or go it alone, the remaining tips are important to keep in mind.

Training Objectives

Why did you create your traditional training materials? What should learners be doing differently once they complete the training? These are important questions to consider.

Instructional Design

There are various models and theories to choose from. What approach best addresses the learner population, the content, and your culture? For example, if you design online training courses based on the cognitive load theory, you will create smaller eLearning modules that are […]

Making the Move to eLearning2020-02-18T14:17:15+00:00

eLearning: The Importance of Templates

eLearning templates serve as blueprints to build courses that are effective and professional looking, while insuring engagement for the learner through consistent high quality content and interactions. Here are just a few of the benefits for both designers and their clients for using templates.

Easy to Build or Update Courses.

Customized, reusable eLearning templates meet your design needs, from user interface design and image sizes to interactivity and functionality. You just have to import, copy and paste, add or remove without constantly recreating the wheel. Templates can make it easy by preparing for different page layouts, image and text treatments, and different interactivity that meets the different needs of your audience.

Saves Development Time and Cost.

Using eLearning templates make it faster and easier for your your designers to create eLearning courses, which translates into reduced future investment for you as a client. It also reduces the amount of time you need to spend reviewing and approving.

Consistency.

Uniformity is a vital part of any eLearning course. Templates provide a feeling of consistency for learners for both course architecture, navigation, and look and feel, and interactivity. A customized template is created for your company to also reflects your brand and culture.

Focus

As the client, the use of templates allows you to focus on content, not the time consuming process of building designs, programming and complex development for each new course.

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Whether using already created templates or having custom templates created, we highly recommend spending time considering the best experience for your learner and the information they need to learn. Knowing this helps you determine a what template is going to lead to the best educational outcome.

Using  customized Templates is a win-win for both elearning providers and their clients. It especially  insures ease of […]

eLearning: The Importance of Templates2018-06-07T13:45:09+00:00

Online Learning vs. Distance Learning

Once interchangeable, these two terms today definitely indicate two distinctive types of learning.

Online learning and online learning tools simply means that the source of the tool the learner is using is web-based, cloud-based, or is generally available through the internet.  It can be accessed  anytime, anywhere (asynchronous). It can be a stand alone training experience or part of a blended learning experience.

These learning tools can also be used as part of instructor led training for a portion of class time, perhaps replacing reading and skill practice, and aligning with instructor led discussions and role playing/ case studies. Depending on how the eLearning is created, it might also double as a reference tool after the training is complete, or for sales and service people as a customer interface tool!

Distance learning is completely different. It is commonly defined as “education that takes place via electronic media linking instructors and students who are not together in a classroom.” Distance learning generally has a live aspect to it. Distance learning that requires on-site presence for any reason (including testing),or face time between instructor and student is referred to as hybrid or blended learning.

Distance learning is about the geography, whereas Online or eLearning is more about the mode or method. So how do you decide which of these options are best for your learning situation?  That is where understanding your needs comes into play.

Questions to ask yourself could include: Can the learning result you require be achieved with only online learning? Would the cost of bringing learners to together out-weigh any future investment in eLearning revisions? Can blended learning be leveraged by offering eLearning prior to quarterly or annual meetings where additional instructor-led reinforcement training might take place?

Illumen is always […]

Online Learning vs. Distance Learning2017-05-21T12:42:26+00:00
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