Decoding Mobile Learning To Download Great Learning Efficiencies
Zack is being groomed for a leadership position and he wants to access short exercises on team handling, preferably on his mobile so that he can take them when traveling to work.
Erin, a senior training manager, is looking to introduce mobile learning in the organization but is apprehensive of its success, given that mobiles are usually associated with fun and games.
Pete is new to the organization and wants to learn more about the structure of his department in his free time. He would want something visual that can be accessed on his mobile.
What do these three scenarios have in common? They are a microcosm of the mushrooming need for mobile learning or mLearning as it’s popularly known. Mobile learning happens when the learner is not physically tethered to a location and learns through a device that’s small enough to fit one’s palm, pocket, or purse.
Why is mLearning popular? As you’ll read in the eBook Decoding Mobile Learning - A Handy Guide, it has to do with the present-day propensity to look for information at the point of need. The last time you needed help repairing the vacuum cleaner at home, did you go through the manual? Most probably not! You would have watched a video on your mobile device and replicated the steps.
The same holds true for corporate training. The ubiquity of mobiles makes them the perfect vehicle to deliver information to learners, at the point of need. mLearning addresses today’s learner preferences for cohesive learning in disparate chunks of time offers spaced interventions and overcomes distractions in a distraction-prone environment.
With some much in its favor, don’t let misconceptions or a lack of understanding waylay your best-laid plans to use mobile learning in your training. Explore this eBook for inclusive coverage of the aspects needed to ensure the successful implementation of mobile learning in your organization.
What Do Organizations Gain By Accommodating mLearning In Their Training Strategy?
Happy, productive employees is the obvious answer as learners with on-demand access to learning will be more efficient at workplace application of knowledge, leading to improved efficiencies. This will help learning step out of its traditional confines of the classroom, desktops, and laptops. With mobiles becoming a natural extension of our regular lives, mobile learning suits all training types – from product and compliance to software, pharma, and process training.
Reinforcement is made easy and timely as learners need not search through documents or online assets on the LMS for related information. Mobile info kiosks offer solutions to the problem at hand. Imagine a service technician stuck while repairing a high-precision equipment at the client side. Taking out a bulky manual and leafing through it will hardly save the day. A smart video, on the other hand, will not just ward off the blues and solve the problem but will also wow your customers. This is why mobiles are the most sought-after electronic performance support systems.
How Can You Proceed With The Design Strategy?
First, designing for mobiles is not about fitting online courses for mobile screens. It requires a different approach where the limited size of mobiles, learner characteristics, and the purpose of the mobile asset play a crucial, decisive role. More about mobile assets in a minute.
For example, if you are looking to familiarize new hires with your organization structure, vision, and mission, you can have short animations, videos of top management, or infographics to convey the same. What if it is a safety course for blue-collared workers in remote locations? Bandwidth problems and the educational level of learners necessitate the need for self-explanatory infographics rather than videos, which slow down the course download.
As evident, mobile learning is not restricted to courses; rather, it can be delivered through a variety of engaging formats that learners will be eager to take up – based on their learning need, location, and learning styles. These assets can include podcasts, videos, infographics, eBooks, flashcards, and digital job-aids.
How Do You Deliver Mobile Learning?
To realize the benefits of mobile learning, these assets have to reach learners the right way, without loss of functionality and aesthetic appeal. To this end, organizations can ensure their learning management system is mobile-compatible – this makes it easy to deliver mLearning and can be accessed on learners’ devices. Other delivery options that can be explored include mobile apps and mobile-optimized websites.
With advancements in the tracking and data mining capabilities of LMSs, you can gauge the effectiveness of mobile learning by monitoring various performance and engagement metrics—such as the time spent on each screen, number of learners who answer a question incorrectly—and maximize training ROI.
Testing learners can become ‘treating’ them through mobile assessments. A simple word puzzle to reinforce key terms, a treasure hunt to identify potential hazards, or an adapted board game to test sales concepts, you have a wide variety of testing options to measure learner performance, whilst keeping the pressure at bay.
While we hope this article has given you a brief idea of the flexibility and versatility of mobile learning, it is just the tip of the iceberg. With the social engagement it offers, availability of high-end authoring tools, close ties to performance support, and more, mobile learning is the way to go if you want to make an impact on your employees.
Cater to their learning needs and offer learning that’ll leave no room for excuses and you will reap the benefits of a workforce that’s raring to go—armed with the latest training resources—and ready to roll.
If you want to learn more about the potential of mobile learning, download the eBook Decoding Mobile Learning - A Handy Guide.
