18.2%, this is the annual growth rate of Mobile Learning over the last 5 years; if you look up during your next training session and look at the number of your colleagues who tap discreetly on their smartphones, you will immediately understand the potential of Mobile Learning in your business.
By Mobile Learning we mean the encounter between ICT, e-learning and smartphone technology. Beyond simply adapting content to the mobile format, Mobile Learning is creating a real new way of thinking about corporate training. While the United States is already well advanced in this area (according to a study by Brandon Hall Group, 100% of the most successful companies in the United States frequently use Mobile Learning), France is still in its infancy.
After a quick look, you are convinced of the need to introduce Mobile Learning in your business, but you already have several questions: first of all, how to fully grasp the specificities and strengths that these technologies open up? But also how do you solve the challenges that these new practices pose to your business? And finally, how can you glimpse the new opportunities brought by these tools to better integrate them into your business?
Strengths and specificities of Mobile Learning
Even if it is not an absolute rule, Mobile Learning is very often associated with Rapid Learning. The short format adapts naturally to smartphone technology and the use made of it by individuals. For example, news sites have already taken the step of distributing shorter and more direct content for mobile technologies.
These short formats, designed for mobile, are extremely effective for businesses.
They allow employees to train for a very short time and in a very precise manner directly on the points they need. This limited learning period fits perfectly into very active days, so they can learn in a few minutes while waiting for the start of a meeting for example or by going to a business appointment.
In this sense, care must be taken to ensure that deploying mobile training within your company is not just a simple adaptation of existing e-learning content to a smartphone or tablet screen. Too many learning platforms create a mobile version that is ultimately just a reduction of their content to a smaller screen. It is a flawed solution that is poorly adapted to the needs of employees and above all that does not exploit the potential of smartphone training at all. The Mobile Learning Solution the Business Chooses to Adopt must first be designed for the smartphone, and therefore intuitive to the extreme, as are consumer applications today. The user experience must get the employee on board from the first second and never let them go.
It is with this same concern for attractiveness that Mobile Learning uses the most effective codes of consumer applications at the service of learning with a very present gamification, very frequent fun interactions with the user, all in a tone that is closer, lighter than traditional training tools.
These short and fun formats also make Mobile Learning one of the best supports for anchoring knowledge..
In fact, following face-to-face training for example, if no reminder is given within three months, it is more than 90% of the knowledge transmitted that is forgotten. This loss follows a mathematical curve called Oblivion curve highlighted by Ebbinghaus. To counteract this loss of knowledge, Mobile Learning allows regular and fun reminders of what has been learned, in a non-restrictive format.
Finally, the strength of Mobile Learning for businesses comes from the fact that it is a great field tool..
Don't prospecting salespeople, store consultants, assembly line workers, etc. have a much easier time getting out their smartphones rather than going to a workstation? In addition, there is the theory of learning called 70/20/10 method Who explains that, when you have to learn something, especially in business, you learn 10% in face-to-face training, 20% by talking with his team and 70% by practicing directly in the field. In this case, the mobility of the smartphone makes it the perfect tool to support and measure learning during 70% of practice.
Challenges ahead
It is not a question of sweeping everything away: digital training and training courses have existed in most companies for several years. Moreover, each company has often acquired experience in this field and has adopted a way of operating specific to its identity, its employees and its sector.
Mobile Learning is a very effective complement to the company's training arsenal.
It must therefore adapt as best as possible to this existing environment. For example, a new mobile learning application in the company must be able to feed back information to the existing LMS.
By LMS, we mean “Learning Management Systems”, that is to say the learning platforms that have been provided to companies for many years by specialized providers. Moreover, LMSs are beginning to adopt new technical formats (TIN CAN) to make it easier to circulate information between external applications such as the one supporting Mobile Learning, and their system.
However, the adoption of this new format is still very marginal. For the time being, most LMSs still use an older and less open format, called SCORM. But even in this case, some Mobile Learning companies have invented processes in order to be able to interface to these LMS platforms. Remember to check that this is the case when choosing your Mobile Learning provider.
Even beyond LMS, it is important to push the compatibility of Mobile Learning formats as far as possible with intranets, corporate websites, existing tools and applications, etc. All in order to offer employees a true multi-channel learning experience.
Another important challenge for the successful integration of Mobile Learning in businesses: compatibility with the diversity of existing smartphones. Indeed, from one company to another, the parks can be very different and the models sometimes old. A lot of tests, therefore, and the implementation of a “lite” version for the oldest models, are to be expected for a good integration of Mobile Learning into your company.
The dynamic of “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device) is diversifying the smartphone model pool even more. However, it also modernizes it and allows those who were not yet equipped by their company to make the choice to use their own smartphone. Good dynamic therefore for the dissemination of Mobile Learning within companies.
Finally, Mobile Learning is very often the source of educational models such as flipped learning or Rapid Skills Acquisition that do not always seem to exist in the company. The tool must then provide step-by-step guidance to those who will manage Mobile Learning in their company, and allow them to make the most appropriate choices.
New horizons, new opportunities
The arrival of Mobile Learning is also an opportunity to give back to training in your company. Indeed, Mobile Learning, in addition to being a learning tool, can, if it is thought of as such, can also be a tool for transmitting knowledge and thus put the flow of knowledge at the heart of the success of your business. This is called Peer Learning or Social Learning.
In fact, if the short and fun formats supported by Mobile Learning are easily assimilated by your employees, they are also simpler and require less time to create. A Mobile Learning tool combined with a very simple content creation platform thus allows everyone in the company to create their educational modules and distribute them to others.
Another feature specific to mobile phones, the possible geolocation of its wearer: so why not train your employees according to where they are? When a machine that is particularly dangerous to use is triggered, a reminder module on safety rules is triggered, when approaching a client company, your salespeople receive modules on what they need to know about this company and what they should sell to them, etc.
The smartphone in the pocket of each of your employees can become a real personalized learning coach.
Thanks to the increasingly efficient processes of Machine Learning, your learning application is able to understand how you learn best, what is your pace, your availability, what you need to learn in order to progress quickly in the company. So your solution automatically delivers what you need at the most effective and most favorable time, for you and only for you. Your standard training courses are thus magically adapted to the specific needs of each of your employees.
You now know a bit more about what Mobile Learning is, why you should use it, and how to best integrate it into your business. You will thus see how it makes learning natural and easy for your employees!
