5 Things To Keep In Mind Before Deploying A Mobile Learning Strategy
Digital learning is advancing day by day as an industry in its own right, and it is downright criminal for corporate organizations to not have a mobile learning strategy by now. But unfortunately, a number of organizations don’t. Even when corporate organizations do implement a mobile learning strategy more times than not that strategy simply consists of responsive digital learning courses that can be accessed by employees on their smartphones. This is not how a mobile learning strategy works nor how it is deployed.
There are a number of considerations that an organization has to and must think about before implementing mobile learning, like will you be using BYOD (bring your own device) to deliver mobile learning or will you issue employees with company-owned smartphones? How will you deliver the content to learners? How will you track learner progress? These are just a few, among many considerations, one has to keep in mind before implementing a mobile strategy. But don’t worry, in this article, we’ll discuss every one of them and then some.
1. Create A Native mLearning App
In this day and age, you need an app to ensure that your learners will even bother looking at your mLearning courses. The app should be native too so that learners can access learning materials whether they are connected to the internet or not. Make sure that the learning content is downloaded and stored in the learner’s device when they’re connected to the internet. Don’t use web apps as they’re the same as a learning portal which needs to download courses every time the user logs in.
2. Use BYOD, But Invest In Security
Issuing company-owned smartphones to every employee in your organization can be mighty expensive, especially if there are a lot of employees in the organization. BYOD is a much better way, the only problem being that of security. The solution is to ensure that your mLearning app has a single sign-on (SSO) that integrates with your organization’s authentication technology. There are other ways to ensure security, be sure to research them and invest in them, this will still be much cheaper than buying every employee a smartphone.
3. Get An Advanced LMS
There are countless LMSs on the market, but when you’re implementing a mobile learning strategy, you need to look for an LMS that offers you all the features you’ll be needing with respect to mLearning. Get an xAPI enabled LMS that can track employee activity and record valuable data regarding an employee's effectiveness. Also, ensure that the LMS has features like gamification, talent management, eCommerce, and the like, and finally that it can be integrated into your mLearning app.
4. Create Types Of Content Suited To mLearning
The type of digital learning content you deliver to the learners can make or break your mLearning strategy. The modern workforce mostly consists of tech-savvy individuals who’ve been using smartphones for a long time now. Deliver content in bite-sized units no longer than seven minutes (think microlearning), use gamification in your mLearning courses, and use video-based learning to demonstrate how to perform tasks or apply skills. Use branching scenarios to give learners the freedom of choice and help them understand the consequences of decisions. Use quizzes as assessments and make them engaging. Try to stay away from off-the-shelf courses as much as possible.
5. Weave Your mLearning Strategy Around Your Business Strategy
At the end of the day, the whole point of a mobile learning strategy is to train your employees to be smarter and more productive. Although that benefits the organization, there needs to be a much more direct connection between your mobile learning strategy and your organization’s business strategy. To ensure that, always begin with a problem statement, which describes a problem the company is facing and how it can be rectified. Most problems can be rectified by upskilling employees in the concerned departments, so create a mLearning course to do just that! For example, if sales in the last quarter didn’t increase as expected, create mLearning that trains sales executives to communicate better, get more leads, and convert those leads into sales!
Mobile learning can be extremely powerful when you take the time to carefully plan and deploy it. So make sure you keep all the above tips in mind when implementing your mLearning strategy.
