Mobile Apps For Corporate Learning – What And Why
Mobile phones have become a ubiquitous part of our lives. From entertainment to fitness, mobile devices are pervading all activities of our lives and learning is not far behind. In fact, given their ease of access and portability, mobiles are the perfect way to boost self-paced learning.
Corporate organizations are slowly but steadily implementing mobile learning solutions to increase the reach of their training and support employees with access to learning resources at the point of need. Are you contemplating joining the mLearning bandwagon? One of the ways you can harness the full “training” potential of smartphones and tablets is using mobile apps.
What Are Mobile Apps?
A mobile app is a software application, created exclusively for use on smartphones and tablets. There are two types of mobile apps – native and web.
A native app is built essentially for a particular mobile device and its operating system. For instance, a native app built for the Android platform does not run on devices using other operating systems such as iOS. Native apps are downloaded from app stores or web stores online. Examples of native apps are Contacts, Calculator, Camera, and Games.
On the other hand, a web app runs via the mobile device’s web browser. These apps can be accessed from any connected mobile device. To know more about the differences between the two types of mobile apps, check the insightful post Web Apps and Native Apps for Mobile Learning.
Why You Should Use Mobile Apps For Corporate Learning
How do mobile apps facilitate effective learning?
1. Mobile Apps Are Used Extensively By Millennial Learners
Millennial employees (those born after 1980) are tech-savvy and attuned to technology in all spheres of life. They have a mobile app on their mobiles for everything – listening to songs, checking heartbeat, ordering food, booking a cab – and more. This penchant makes mobile apps the preferred choice of companies to deliver mLearning content to today’s learners.
2. Ideal For Providing Just-In-Time (JIT) Learning Support
We all know that providing information support at the point of need goes a long way in enhancing the performance of employees. Mobile apps are the ideal tools to deliver good JIT learning support to your staff members. Consider the following scenario.
A pharmaceutical sales rep is interacting with a dermatologist, trying to convince the physician about the effectiveness of his company’s latest ointment for scabies. The doctor asks the rep to share certain details of the clinical trials of the medicine. The rep opens an app on his iPad, containing the required information, and answers the doctor’s query instantly.
3. No Internet Connectivity Is Needed To Access Learning Content
Many consumers of mLearning content such as salespeople and service technicians often travel to places where there is poor/no Internet connectivity. You can use mobile apps to facilitate learning in these areas. The learning content can be downloaded onto mobile apps, when the mobile device is connected to the Internet, and it can then be accessed anywhere, anytime, even when the device is not connected. Recent developments in the world of learning technology such as xAPI (also known as Tin Can API) can be used to track learning activities performed through mobile devices during periods of no connectivity.
4. A Wide Variety Of Content Formats Can Be Used
Mobile apps enable you to deliver learning content in a wide variety of formats such as videos, podcasts, infographics, games, besides “traditional” mLearning modules. This flexibility has made mobile apps the preferred choice of the corporate world to deliver content to their learners, on their tablets and smartphones. One of our clients in the information technology space has developed a video-based online curriculum for its sales reps, which can be accessed easily on their mobile devices, and the initiative was a resounding success.
5. State-Of-The-Art Developments In Mobile Technology Can Be Harnessed
We are all aware that change is the only constant in the world of technology. Radical developments such as augmented reality are transforming the way we use smartphones and tablets. The runaway success of the augmented reality based mobile game Pokémon Go is a testament to the power of emerging mobile technologies.
Mobile apps are ideal tools to harness the full potential of cutting-edge technologies to deliver learning content. For instance, the German automaker Volkswagen has developed mobile apps based on Augmented Reality for its service technicians, which can be seamlessly accessed on tablets.
mLearning is the order of the day in the corporate training world, and mobile apps are the ideal tools to deliver learning content on smartphones and tablets of your learners. So, unleash the power of mLearning by developing good mobile learning apps.
