Designing your course for a mobile experience

A large minority of learners on the Liverpool Dental Learning Hub access courses on a tablet or phone — between cases, on the train, before bed. Designing for that explicitly costs little and avoids the most common usability complaints.

What works on mobile

• Short text blocks (2–4 paragraphs) interspersed with media.
• Video over slide-decks.
• Single-select MCQs over multi-select grids.
• Native video players with built-in captions.

What doesn’t

• Large tables — they horizontal-scroll and learners give up.
• Hover-only interactions — there is no hover on touch.
• PDFs embedded inline — they’re fiddly on small screens.
• Side-by-side layouts assuming a wide viewport.

XBlocks and touch

Most of the 11 custom Liverpool Dental XBlocks are touch-friendly:

• image-hotspot-xblock — works with taps.
• drag-drop-matching-xblock — works with touch-drag.
• sort-into-bins-xblock — works with touch-drag.

The XBlocks that benefit most from a larger screen: image-annotation-xblock (free-form drawing), timeline-presentation-xblock (wide aspect).

A quick mobile-readiness check

• Open every unit on a phone before publishing.
• Pinch-zoom: does any text need it?
• Try every interactive component with thumbs only.
• Pause a video — do captions render?