Impact of different technologies on your eLearning course
eLearning and digital training is typically taken on a computer or laptop, however increasingly learners are taking eLearning on a wide variety of technologies including smartphones, tablets and laptops. Depending on the type of technology your learners are using it can impact how you design, develop and deploy your eLearning and digital training.
Below are some of the impacts that different technologies have on eLearning.
1. Device Types
When designing eLearning and digital training the type of device the course is taken on can impact how you develop your course. The main impact of using smaller devices is screen size and how the user interacts with the course. In terms of screen size, for mobile devices it is much smaller than that of laptops or tablets, as a result the amount of whitespace you have on screen is also much smaller. When developing training for mobile devices it is important to always consider how much whitespace you have to work with, in some cases content that works for a laptop might not work for a phone.
2. Clear Layouts
Another thing to note when designing and developing eLearning and digital training for various device types is the layout. When looking at the layout for User Interfaces on a phone it is much more compact than that of a PC, you have much less room for buttons, text and images and therefore have to make it more intuitive and compact. On a laptop however the screen is much larger and you have much more room to spread out your buttons and navigation elements. One way to protect yourself from having designs you cant use for smaller devices is to try and make the interfaces as clear as possible, by having a clear user interface design will not only protect you from not being able to run your content on mobile devices but also make for a more enjoyable and interactive experience for your learners.
3. Navigation
Navigation is a big one when it comes to eLearning and the type of device you are creating eLearning and digital training for will impact your navigation. On a laptop you will find that you have more room for navigation, you can make navigation buttons bigger and have labels If needed (e.g a NEXT button), however for mobile devices you wont have this luxury and may need to use icons or other ways to demonstrate to the learner that this is something you need to click to proceed. With this in mind, it is important to always consider how intuitive your course is, you will have a wide variety of learners taking this course, all with different skill sets when it comes to technology, so it is important that your course is an intuitive as possible.
