How To Keep Your Trainees Awake: Examples Of Mobile Apps For Blended Learning
With the exploding popularity of eLearning, one can’t help but wonder if face-to-face learning will be completely replaced with digital. But we are convinced: Face-to-face learning isn’t going anywhere. Human interaction is just too important to be completely taken out of the equation! We see the importance of Instructor-Led Training (ILT) among our clients who still feel the need to invest in regular live training sessions. This is in spite of the fact that they already have built massive online training systems for their employees.
Live interaction among trainees and their instructor is very beneficial in general, and it is crucial for those who work in the field most of the time. However, this doesn’t mean that the old ILT model is still effective. Oftentimes, traditional classroom sessions lack interactivity, personalization, and engagement, which you can tell by the bored faces in the audience. These problems can be solved with technology even in the case of live training. I am talking about mLearning app development as a way to enhance live training. Together with our partners, we’ve built a number of mobile blended learning apps that can breathe life into your classroom. They work so well thanks to:
- Interactivity.
- Gamification.
- Edutainment.
Let’s take a closer look at some examples of mobile apps for blended learning.
1. Serious Games
After a few hours of theory, it might be time to check what your trainees have remembered and how well they’ve understood the material.
Serious games, also called educational games, are a great way to consolidate and reinforce all the knowledge you’ve given your trainees during a training session. They come in a form of quests and/or legends united under some popular entertainment theme. We’ve tried many themes, including popular movies, TV shows, and casino games to name a few. The choice of a theme depends on what is compelling for your audience.
In a serious game, the trainees are often divided into teams that play against each other; every member uses his/her mobile device, where there is a general screen with directions and results updated in real-time. In our experience, this is one of the best type of blended learning apps: Educational games are the go-to solution for our clients, because participants become so interested, they don’t want to leave for lunch!
2. Audience Response Systems
Interactivity is key to engagement, so instructors usually try to make presentations interactive by asking their audience all kinds of questions. But how many trainees can you ask? Perhaps one or two at a time?
With Audience Response Systems (ARS) you can ask everyone at the same time and it doesn’t matter if you have 20 or 200 or 2000 people in the room. An instructor polls or questions the audience and collects answers in real-time. Trainees give answers using their tablets with a pre-installed ARS app. The answers are instantaneously analyzed and presented in a graph to every participant.
Source: Sight&Sound
In such a way you can keep in touch with your audience and be aware of their comprehension levels.
3. FAQ Cards
An FAQ Cards application is another example of how you can incorporate educational apps into blended learning. It is a simple tool that companies use during practical parts of their training sessions (workshops). In particular, these applications are very effective for practicing sales and customer service scenarios.
You can organize role playing among participants and each ‘card’ of the FAQ app will present them with a challenging situation. Such a card usually contains a buyer profile and typical questions/objections associated with it. Participants will open a card and practice interacting with a particular buyer type. What a simple and effective way to work on sales playbooks and objection handling!
4. Interactive Posters
Repetition is vital for knowledge retention. So if you want your trainees to remember what they’ve learned, it is highly recommended to repeat and revise the key parts during and after an event. And this works even better when you present your material in different formats each time.
This is the basic idea behind Interactive Poster apps. Learning and Development professionals use them for training reinforcement during live events, by reintroducing the same material in various formats (graphical, video, text, etc.).
An application like this works in the following manner: Participants scan the QR code of some print material (a poster or a brochure) and get access to complementing content that gives a more in-depth knowledge of some concept. You can assess this knowledge by asking trainees to complete short quizzes: These apps may also be enhanced with gamification elements, such as scores for participation and correct answers. In such a way, your participants will be more motivated to revise the key concepts that you want them to remember.
Key Takeaways
Although live training remains an integral part of corporate education for many companies, it doesn’t mean that you should rely solely on old ILT methods. Why not leverage technology to make training more exciting and effective? In this article, we’ve listed 4 examples of mobile blended learning apps you can use to lighten up your classroom.
Do you think any of them can help you with your challenges?
