Forum Discussion
📱 Mobile Learning that Actually Works – What are Your Best Practices?
Hello everyone,
I’m currently preparing a project involving several Web-Based Trainings (WBTs) that will primarily be used on mobile devices. Based on the nature of the content, I will have to use Storyline most of the time.
While researching, I came across a “definitive guide to multi-device e-learning”—it already offers a bunch of practical insights. However, I’d love to hear perspectives from the community as well.
So I’m curious:
- What are your go-to principles for designing effective mobile learning?
- What are your biggest takeaways or lessons learned?
- Do you have any examples of successful mobile learning activities or formats?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, ideas, or even challenges you’ve encountered along the way.
Looking forward to your insights!
3 Replies
I bet JamesDavis-7777​ MichelleCole-3b​ and PhilFoss​ have some answers to these!
Hi there kimmm​! This is a great question, and I have some go-to principles I can share with you:
- Keep your interactions simple: Think about the interactions in your course--are they complex? Do they require clicking buttons, hotspots, or other targets that might be very small on a mobile device? If so, remember that learners will be tapping rather than clicking, so you'll want to make your "tap targets" a little larger than you would for a desktop-only course. Also, try to avoid using any hover states, since there isn't a way to hover on a mobile device. Drag-and-drop might also be one to avoid unless the drag items are quite large.
- Use 16:9 slide dimensions: Storyline has a responsive player that dynamically adapts to different screen sizes and orientations, but that doesn't mean your slide size will fill the smartphone screen. Most smartphones have an aspect ratio of 16:9, so that's a good ratio to use for your slide. You can also lock smartphone viewing to "landscape only" so learners won't be able to view the content in portrait mode.
- Test on actual devices: Storyline preview has a mobile device option which allows you to get an idea of what the slide will look like on a phone screen, but you'll get the best experience testing the course from a real mobile device. Publish your content to Review 360 and open the URL on your own smartphone before sharing the course with learners.
The official Storyline 360: Publishing a Course for Mobile Devices user guide is a good bookmark for answers to most publishing and tracking questions.
I hope this helps, and I'm curious to hear what other go-to principles your community peers will share. Keep us posted on how your mobile-friendly course turns out!
Hey Alyssa,
These are some great tips—thanks for sharing! 🙌
I especially agree on keeping interactions simple and avoiding hover/drag elements for mobile. This is something that does not always come easy to me, so I am still learning.
Testing on real devices has also been a game-changer - even though after such a test there is always more work than originally anticipated :D
The possibility of locking smartphone viewing is completely new for me, thanks!
- Keep your interactions simple: Think about the interactions in your course--are they complex? Do they require clicking buttons, hotspots, or other targets that might be very small on a mobile device? If so, remember that learners will be tapping rather than clicking, so you'll want to make your "tap targets" a little larger than you would for a desktop-only course. Also, try to avoid using any hover states, since there isn't a way to hover on a mobile device. Drag-and-drop might also be one to avoid unless the drag items are quite large.
