Mobile-friendly online courses are those that display and function well on a smart phone or tablet and can be launched by a mobile web browser.
While the vast majority of users will access BuckeyeLearn from their desktop computers, use of mobile devices, such as tablets and phones, is becoming much more common. Students and faculty are increasingly using their university-issued iPads to take and complete training.
Mobile-Friendly Training Required
For any content developed that has availability set to “Division 1: The Ohio State University” or “All OSU employees group”, the content must be mobile-friendly when it is new, reversioned, or replaced.
New
New training added to BuckeyeLearn must be made mobile-friendly at the time of development and before it is uploaded to the live environment.
Reversioned
If content is being reversioned due to substantial content changes, the new version must be made mobile-friendly before reversioning.
Replaced
If the training is replaced on a yearly basis, the replacement version must be made mobile-friendly at the next replacement date.
Creating a Mobile-Friendly Course
All online courses, including mobile-friendly courses, must follow all of the Online Course Requirements and Best Practices.
Familiarize yourself with how your authoring tool creates mobile-friendly content; each tool approaches the process differently.
When creating your course to be mobile friendly, consider:
- Does the content work on both a small mobile screen and a large desktop monitor?
- Do interactive elements work on mobile devices? Rollover interactions, for example, may not work on mobile devices.
- Can users tap buttons or click links easily on a small screen? Is there enough space between tap-able elements?
- If there is audio or video, are closed captions included? Users may not be able or may opt not to use sound when using a mobile device.
- Does the training work in both portrait and landscape? If not, alert the user to the preferred orientation.
- Does the training work well on both Android and iOS? Does it work on all versions of the operating systems? Training should work with all common operating systems
Publishing
HTML5 media on mobile devices is designed to wait for learners to play, and will not begin automatically. Be sure to include a play button if your authoring tool does not automatically include it.
Testing
Mobile-friendly content must be tested, as must all training in BuckeyeLearn. Perform all the testing steps outlined in the Testing Training job aid, noting any special requirements for mobile users.
Training Description
Critical Note:
All content that is mobile friendly should include the following statement in the description:
This training can also be accessed on most mobile devices by navigating to buckeyelearn.osu.edu using a mobile browser. If using a mobile device, a strong internet connection should be secured so that your training progress can be reported back to BuckeyeLearn.
In addition, you should include any support-related information discovered from your testing.