Introduction

The eLearning Guild recently released the free e-book, 84 Tips on New Instructional Design for New Instructional Technology so we are going to share some of these tips we learned over the next couple weeks. The first of this series is Twenty-one Tips for Putting Learning Goals and Learners Before Technology.

For this eBook, the eLearning Guild asked 21 learning professionals who have successfully melded new instruc­tional design with new instructional technologies to give their best tips; they have highlighted the tips from their featured contributors, and you can learn more about them at the bottom of this post. Click here to access the entire free e-book.

7 Tips for Making Learning Mobile

Mobile computer prototypes—download free printable sketching and wirefram­ing templates from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/03/29/free-print­able-sketching-wireframing-and-note-taking-pdf-templates/ . –Leah Kendrick Jones, Leah Kendrick Jones Consulting

Mobile design and/or training—show your designs and/or train clients by wire­lessly mirroring your compatible iPhone or iPad device to a Mac or PC with Reflector Airplay Receiver. Obtain the reasonable software license(s) from http://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/. –Leah Kendrick Jones, Leah Kendrick Jones Consulting

When designing for mobile, think of the smallest device that will be using the content. For example, if a smartphone is the smallest-screen device and you are making PDFs, create a template for what will look good on that device. The larger devices will work fine. –Mira Mendlovitz, W.W. Grainger

When working with SMEs on content being made into mobile documents, ex­plain to them that the format they create the content in is not important. Get their thoughts in a Word or PowerPoint file and you can convert it from there. -Mira Mendlovitz, W.W. Grainger

When creating mobile content, if there is a file that will only look good on a tablet or laptop, tell your users that at the front of the description. Not everything will look good on all devices. -Mira Mendlovitz, W.W. Grainger

Finding the right tool for mobile development is important. I like to use a tool called gomo by Epic Learning that allows me to create a multi-device learning file from scratch. You create your content once and it renders your information on all devices. -Mira Mendlovitz, W.W. Grainger

When chunking down content to consume in mobile, I find it useful to think about how much information a learner can take in during five minutes or less. We make videos for viewing on a mobile device no longer than three to four minutes. Our best videos are less than two minutes. -Mira Mendlovitz, W.W. Grainger