8 Steps To Launch A Mobile Program In Corporate eLearning

8 Steps To Launch A Mobile Program In Corporate eLearning
Summary: Here is how to develop a mobile strategy that aligns with your Learning and Development goals.

Enterprise Mobility In Corporate eLearning: How To Launch A Mobile Program In Corporate eLearning

While it never hurts to start exploring mobile opportunities in eLearning that are essentially quick wins, there’s enormous value in developing a comprehensive mobile strategy that aligns with L&D goals and broad business goals as well. So, certainly, play around with mobile options to test the waters, but for the long game, plan to launch a comprehensive mobile program that incorporates some of the following elements:

eBook Release: Get a free eBook about The Rise Of Enterprise Mobility In Corporate eLearning
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Get a free eBook about The Rise Of Enterprise Mobility In Corporate eLearning
Mobile learning is not an option, it is a prerequisite for every corporate eLearning program.

1. Build A Mobile Strategy

Build out a “single-source-of-truth” mobile strategy document that covers all aspects of the mobile plan, including a needs assessment, implementation plan, vendor analysis, resource allocation, goals and performance KPIs, and so on. This document will help you measure the success of your program as it is implemented and adopted.

2. Align Mobile Strategy With L&D Strategy As Well As Overall Business Objectives

The mobile strategy cannot live in isolation. As a recent Brandon Hall Group paper revealed, too often L&D program objectives are not mapped to overall business performance objectives. All three elements –mobile, L&D, and overall business– need to be aligned in order to achieve holistic performance objectives and continual improvement.

3. Assess Prospective Vendors’ Mobile Offering

There’s a wide disparity in terms of the maturity of LMS vendors’ mobile solutions presently. Some have robust offerings, some have grand ambitions and sound plans, and some have no mobile offering or vision as yet. Get a good sense of your (existing or prospective) vendors’ own mobile strategy before developing (or continuing) a relationship with them.

4. Establish Whether Offline Functionality Is Part Of The Offering

As they say, offline is the new online. In many mobile learning circumstances, learners simply can’t access their LMS and need to take information offline then have their progress synchronized with the centralized learning repository once they achieve connectivity again. Solutions today need to feature clear offline/online capabilities to ensure learner progress is properly tracked and recorded.

5. Determine Whether Company Mobile eLearning Policy Will Use A BYOD Approach Or Provide Users With Devices

The whole Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) issue has been a bit of a quandary for companies when it comes to mobility, because on the one hand it makes sense to invite users to use eLearning applications on their own devices, and on the other hand there can be privacy and ownership concerns that may drive companies to provide users with work-sanctioned devices. It’s a church-and-state dynamic, and there is no clear answer to it. But as your organization pursues a mobile eLearning strategy, it is important to answer this question out of the gates.

6. Use Data To Improve The Mobile Learning Effectiveness Over Time

Between SCORM and xAPI data capabilities and the Big Data opportunities that flow from them, we have so much potential to learn more about our learners behaviors, habits, and accomplishments than, say, course completions. Mobility presents great opportunities for us to open the floodgates of Big Data analytics and break that information down accordingly to improve our mobile learning approaches and effectiveness.

7. Assign A Champion (Or A Champion And A Mobile Team) To Own The Mobile Strategy

Going back to the mobile strategy component of this whole approach, it is important to have someone or even a leader and a team, depending on the size of your organization, drive the mobile strategy, keep it alive, monitor its performance, and ensure its continual improvement. This can be the CLO or even a dedicated role, but what’s important is that, after putting all of the pieces in place, someone or some team is there ensuring its continued survival and success.

8. Design To Counter Distractions

Finally, mobile devices, by their very nature, are designed to deliver distractions. Between notifications, texts, emails, phone calls, and other distractions, learners using mobile devices for learning can be tempted to turn away from the lesson or task at hand to shift their attention –a precious commodity in this information age– away and towards whatever else arises. Determine a plan to combat distractions as your learners engage with their mobile LMS platform in order to achieve optimal focus and learning success.

Final Word

What is becoming clear is that mobile is not only relevant and useful; it’s here to stay and only projected to grow in importance. Mobility in Learning and Development began as a nice-to-have, but has since evolved to become a virtual necessity for a best-in-class eLearning program. To know more about the mobility game, download the free eBook Embracing The Mobile Future: Aligning L&D With The Rise Of Enterprise Mobility In Corporate eLearning.