In the eLearning Guild Research Report last year, Mobile Learning: The Time is Now, 98 percent of Guild members reported owning at least one personal mobile device. Over 70 percent reported using their personal devices to accomplish work related tasks.
The BYOD movement has grown in recent years despite some organizations’ hesitation to allow employees all the freedoms that go along with using personal devices and their associated risks. With the importance of maintaining corporate security, many employers are successfully balancing freedom and control of personal devices for work related duties.
Check out a few benefits of BYOD as they relate to m-Learning
- Positive Work Environment
Today, people are extremely attached to their personal devices. They use their smartphones and laptops to work from home, communicate with their family, exchange photos, connect with their social network, or update their calendars. Employees have invested their hard-earned money in a specific laptop or smartphone for many different reasons ranging from features to brand preference.Allowing employees to use their own devices for work and training automatically brings their enthusiasm for those devices to the office—and to their jobs. They are no longer stuck with laptops or mobile devices selected for them by IT, but can use their own preferred personal devices. Suddenly, mandatory training is just as enjoyable as Flipboard and Pinterest. - Increased Productivity
Employees’ own devices are convenient and familiar, eliminating any set-up or training time that may be associated with a company issued device. By removing the need to learn to operate an unfamiliar device, employees can immediately put all their focus and attention into job specific training. A BYOD policy also gives employees access to performance support materials, wikis or instructional videos around the clock. Having access to this information at anytime, from anywhere provides employees with additional flexibility and allows them to choose a time that is most convenient for them to complete training. - Reduced Costs
Since employees usually pay for their devices and the associated data plans, maintenance and repairs, your organization will benefit from the reduced overhead and IT support costs afforded by a BYOD policy. In addition, users typically upgrade to the latest hardware much more frequently than organizations are able, providing the added benefit to the organization of possessing the latest technologies.
With the growth of BYOD it’s important to have the means to create mobile-friendly courses that are compatible with a multitude of different devices. One authoring tool to consider is Lectora Inspire V11. This authoring tool has pre-made templates specifically for mobile devices that can help you get started creating and publishing mobile-friendly courses quickly and easily. You can also check out the mobile learning downloads in Lectora University for help getting started to create mobile-friendly courses congruent with your organization’s BYOD policy.
Embrace the BYOD movement, and take advantage of the awesome benefits that BYOD offers you and your learners! It’s a whole new way to approach m-Learning and online training at your company.