What A Mobile Learning Management System Can Do For You
Saying that mobiles are ubiquitous is quite an understatement today. Most people begin their day with their smartphones, and end with one too. And in between these two are some more (and other types of) mobile devices that are used, depending on the context and the location, at any given time of the day!
Forrester predicts tablet use for work and home to triple to 905 million units by 2017. Employees are moving toward smaller, more portable devices, and tablets, wearables, and ultrabooks are expected to be the primary work devices by 2020. These are the people that make up today’s robust workforce and are the very pulse of an organization. For a workforce that's this multi-device- and mobile-friendly, it is only natural that its learning is mobile too.
The Ambient Insight – The 2012-2017 Worldwide Mobile Learning Market Forecast states that the worldwide market for mobile learning will reach $12.2 billion by 2017. At a time like this, a mobile Learning Management System with its myriad benefits is the go-to option for most companies, yet its benefits are perhaps not completely being explored. As per a 2016 Brandon Hall Group Report, almost 75% organizations did not have a formal mobile learning strategy, though many of them were working on one.
For organizations looking to provide learning on-the-go, a mobile Learning Management System (LMS) is actually a godsend. It can help a company save valuable time while providing anytime, anywhere learning solutions to meet its Learning and Development goals and enhance knowledge of its employees. Without burning a hole in the pocket!
The time has come for organizations to appreciate the benefits of a mobile Learning Management System and adopt it. Here’s a look at the possible things that a mobile LMS can do.
1. Enable On-The-Go Learning
As per the RCR Wireless News, the global mobile workforce is set to increase to 1.87 billion people or 42.5% of the global workforce in 2022, up from 38.8% in 2016. This means that a large number of people will prefer learning opportunities that are available to them anytime, anywhere as per their convenience.
With rushed schedules, finding dedicated time to take up training modules is not something today’s workforce prefers or even has the luxury of. A mobile Learning Management System works perfectly for them as it allows them to access training 24X7 whenever they have the time and feel the need. Of course, organizations first need to fix their authorization and other security measures (Research firm Gartner predicts that by 2021, 27% of corporate data traffic will bypass perimeter security, and flow directly from mobile and portable devices to the cloud). But once these are in place, a mobile LMS provides learners access to learning. Anywhere and anytime.
2. Provide Flexibility (And Productivity)
The idea of a mobile spells comfort and convenience. And these are the very features that make mobile devices so dear to people. A mobile Learning Management System incorporates this flexibility by giving learners the choice to learn on a smartphone or a tablet on-the-go rather than being stuck to a desktop or a laptop. As per a study by Samsung, 78% of workers believe that using a single mobile device for data access helps them balance their professional and personal lives.
Flexibility leads to increase in productivity too, as for many professionals BYOD is equivalent to BYOE; Bring Your Own Efficiency. According to a study by BT Global Services, 64% of IT managers and users surveyed thought productivity would improve if employees used their own devices. Surveyed employees agreed: 42% of those who use their own devices at work say their efficiency and productivity have improved.
3. Bring About Just-In-Time Learning
An important feature of a mobile Learning Management System is that it provides 'just-in-time' support to the learners, which means it’s available to them at the time of their need rather than having them wait for the next training session.
4. Aid Learner Engagement, Retention, And Persuasion (To Come Back)
For any kind of learning experience, the learner is naturally the focal point. A training program is successful only when it has succeeded in engaging the learners in the right manner. Today’s learning programs may largely comprise of Millennials who are expected to make up half of the global workforce by 2020. These are people who are used to a fast-paced life, have grown up on a staple diet of social media, and have smaller attention spans. Millennials respond best to bite-sized learning and a mobile LMS is befitting in this regard.
Also, today learners are exposed to a variety of content in several formats and ways. A mobile Learning Management System with its support for a versatile collection of eLearning resources – videos, images, PDFs, word documents, HTML5 courses, etc. helps deliver them in an easy-to-understand format. This aids the process of self-driven learning and in turn helps to retain the knowledge better.
The easy-to-use and user-friendly interface of a mobile Learning Management System further aids in persuading the learners to return to their training.
5. Save Time And Cost
A mobile LMS is a great time and cost saver. By reducing, if not eliminating completely, the need for expensive off-site training involving logistics, infrastructure investments, trainer costs, etc., businesses can benefit from massive time—and cost—savings. The fact that learners already have a smartphone/ tablet with them (BYOD) all the time and all that is needed is a compatible LMS to provide training and performance support, makes the whole training management exercise a complete breeze!
6. Future-Proof Training
That mobile Learning is here to say is a given. The tremendous potential that mobiles present for L&D make them a great investment for organization. To this extent (and beyond!), a mobile LMS is a great way to future-proof a company’s training. In fact, m-enabled training is usually a 'build once and reuse multiple times' situation. The mLearning platform and the resulting training content produced become corporate assets, which means companies can capitalize on them in the long-term.
With the popularity of mobile devices scaling newer heights each day, the time will soon come when training is disseminated exclusively through mobile devices. With the numerous advantages of mobile Learning, it's a good idea for organizations to jump on the bandwagon and find a way to incorporate the mobile LMS into their training programs. ASAP!
