Already, some of the world’s biggest online educators are reporting that millennials make up the majority of their students. This segment is likely to continue to grow in the years to follow, as more and more millennials enter the work force.

That’s the good news.

The more challenging news is that millennials are looking for a heightened experience while taking online courses. Delivering on that experience will require online training and education providers to focus heavily on some very specific areas of that experience, in order to be successful.

With your online learning platform as a key component of your education programs, selecting the right platform will be crucial to your future success.

Here are a few things you should keep in mind when selecting eLearning software capable of meeting the needs of millennials.

Ease of Use

Millennials are the first full generation to grow up with technology. They’re comfortable with technology, but they’re also very demanding of it.

You can believe that they’re comparing your system to every other system they use. It might not be a fair comparison, but that’s what’s happening. If you haven’t worked out all the kinks in your user interface; if the workflow isn’t intuitive; if everything isn’t where your users would expect it to be, you’ll be fighting an uphill struggle to continually engage this important generation of online learners.

Video is Crucial

Video is the most powerful digital communication medium available, and everyone knows it. Companies everywhere are beginning to incorporate video into all they do, from marketing to – you guessed it – online learning.

Learning platforms that don’t provide video capabilities will have an increasingly hard go of it. Providers should be sure to select a platform that can easily deliver video as one component of online content distribution.

Mobile Learning

The Nielsen Mobile Youth Telefonica Survey reports that 84% of the millennials in the United States own a smartphone. (The numbers in China (97%) and the UK (91%) are even higher.) It is anticipated that complete market saturation will be achieved within the next two or three years.

What are millennials doing with all those phones? In a word, everything. And, that includes online learning.

Your online learning platform must follow a “mobile first” strategy, in order to successfully engage millennial learners.

There are other features that go into creating a good online learning experience for millennials. Social sharing and gamification are two examples. And, more will certainly reveal themselves in the future as being equally important.

As it stands, however, making sure that ease of use, support for video, and a mobile first strategy are part of your learning platform’s capabilities will serve you well as you seek to engage the important millennial market segment.