7 tips for mobile course design

April 28, 2017

At the recent MoodleMoot UK & Ireland 2017 (10 – 12 April) in London, our Moodle Mobile Team Leader, Juan Leyva, talked about seven tips for mobile course design.

We have been concentrating a lot on Moodle mobile lately and with over 70% of global internet traffic coming through mobile, it is definitely something that is important on our roadmap.

In case you missed it, we recently posted two blog posts around mobile course design:

 
Today in this blog post, let’s look through Juan’s seven tips for mobile course design.

Tip number 1

When it comes to content creation, keep your descriptions short and simple! We’ve all heard of the KISS principle and we can apply it to content creation for mobile.

By keeping your content descriptions short and simple, it will be easier for learners to read on their mobile devices, engaging them already from the very beginning.


Tip number 2

Sticking with content creation, Juan also suggest that if you are going to include images in your content, you firstly resize and crop the images!

Pixels cost bandwidth and might slow down a learner’s mobile device in accessing their content and courses easily.

The other thing we should make sure with images is to make them responsive (img-responsive class) – so that when learners do see the images on their mobile device, it adjusts automatically to size. This way they can view the images as they would easily on a desktop.

Tip number 3

While we are still on the topic of content creation and including the right images, let’s extend that to making sure your course content uses the right media formats.

And make sure you include a description of the file type and size for your learners so that they are aware whether they should be able to access the media file straight on their mobile device or if they should wait to download another time or on another device.

Tip number 4

Being able to conduct an assessment on mobile devices is one of the most sought after capabilities from educators on our Moodle Mobile.

The “Choice” feature in Moodle Mobile is great for quick in-class polls. Try using “Choice” to get an answer from your learners quickly, wherever they are, on a question or a particular topic associated with your course.

Tip number 5

One of the most important aspects of mobile learning is the ability to meet your learners wherever they are. In today’s world when our learners could be in the workplace or need to be mobile due to other commitments, out of classroom learning has to be possible but also still engaging.

This also means that if you, as an educator, would like to conduct an assessment out of the classroom, you should be able to do that. With Moodle Mobile, we recommend using revision/formative quizzes to conduct out-of-class testing on mobile devices.

Try it out today by following the steps from our other blog post on Moodle mobile.

Tip number 6

Moodle Mobile’s sensors are also a great way to make assessments easier and faster on mobile devices. By using the mobile sensors you as a teacher will be able to direct students to conduct evidence gathering and submission on the go, on their mobile devices, for a more engaging experience.

For example, as a teacher you can create an assignment topic that encourages your learners to take images or do research outside of the classroom, for example, take photos of heritage buildings in your city.

Your students can then record an audio/video and take a picture on their phone of heritage buildings they spot and then upload it directly to their private files or submit it straight away for their assignment.

Tip number 7

In today’s digital world, integrating your courses with social media is important, especially if your learners communicate mostly through social channels or access some of their research through any social media channels.

You can integrate your courses on Moodle mobile through links to social media channels, uploading YouTube files for immediate streaming from the site, and with Moodle 3.3 coming up soon, integration with Google and Microsoft for easier and direct access to files and log ins from these two popular sites in Moodle.

There you have it – seven tips for mobile course design from our Moodle Mobile Team Leader, Juan. If you have any others you’d like to share through your own experiences with Moodle Mobile, we’d love to hear about it!

Tweet us at @moodlemobileapp or use #MoodleMobile

You can also view Juan’s presentation on slideshare.

To find out more about Moodle Mobile App and to download it, please visit our moodle.org website.