Mobile technology is changing everyone’s life and the way people learning too. It has been recognized as one of the most important innovations that influenced teaching and learning. To fulfill “anytime” and “anywhere” mobile learning, it needs many efforts and collaborations. eLearning content developers are experiencing several problems in mobile teaching and learning: technical learning, digital content development, curriculum design, education for both teachers and learners, IP protection and network stability.
To design a good educational mobile curriculum or program, it is important to understand students’ needs and requirements as well as the technologies available. Not all contents are suitable for m-Learning like a 2 GB video of a class on a mobile device with a 4G connection could be too costly. A long document with 1000 words is a laborious task to read on small screens too. Keeping this aside, many factors like study design, table of contents, mobile signal strength, security of content, content length etc. should be taken into account while designing a decent mobile teaching program.
Learner-Centred Design
User-centred design and Learner-centred design seems like a similar word but are way apart from each other. User-centred design is to support a task completion, whereas learner-centered design helps in remodeling the experience around the learner. Design and development of both user-centered and learner-centered practices are required for m-learning.
Learning performance can be beheld by looking into several aspects of design like:
a) Motivational lessons
b) Re-Conceptualization, Re-Contextualization and Application of the materials must be done in a parallel manner.
c) Feedback session.
d) Supporting learners preferences like language, format etc. preferred by the learner.
e) Location-based learning experiences
Mobile sensitivity and behavior
In today’s world, people expect to have a full control over a mobile interface. Touchscreen and sensor-based inputs like tapping, pinch, zoom, swipe, auto-rotate, and touch vibrations seem to increase motivation and engagement of learners for the mobile devices. The year 2013 survey on mobile learning from ADL, the interaction of touchscreen was also selected as the top area of mLearning design that training professionals were most interested.
Touch-sensitivity learning or tactile learning is the method of absorbing more information by using the sense of touch. The screen size of the tablet is bigger than the smartphone – content visualization will change. Designing of the content must be as per the devices like smartphone or tablet. While high-quality content and instructional design are important, clean graphics and visual design help attract learners to interact with the interface and content.
Read our next blog on – What will mobile learning be like in next 10 years?
