THE OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES OF MOBILE LEARNING

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1 THE OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES OF MOBILE LEARNING Smartphones and tablets play an increasingly large role in people s personal and professional communication. Is mobile learning right for your organization? Written by Steve Zabka (Practice Lead, Performance Technology) with Audra Zechman (Business Development Manager)

2 INTRODUCTION Mobile devices primarily smartphones and tablets are everywhere. As of mid-2013, more than nine out of ten adults in the US own a cell phone, with the majority (55%) of those being smartphones 1. Around the globe, 1.2 billion people access the internet from mobile devices 2. Tablet sales continue to rise, and are expected to surpass PC sales as early as Q4 of The tremendous growth of the mobile market throughout the past decade presents a new set of opportunities and challenges for learning professionals. Many organizations have a strong interest in finding ways to use mobile devices to deliver training or provide information to their employees and/or customers. Although many organizations see value in adopting mobile delivery, they struggle to understand the risks, rewards and key questions around mobile learning. Additionally, they often do not fully understand where to begin. The objective of this white paper is to provide information and a set of questions to consider before committing to a mobile learning implementation. What is Mobile Learning? Mobile Learning (or mlearning) is defined in a variety of ways in the marketplace today. ADL Mobile Learning Guide Leveraging ubiquitous mobile technology for the adoption or augmentation of knowledge, behaviors, or skills through education, training, or performance support while the mobility of the learner may be independent of time, location, and space. MoLeNET 5 The exploitation of ubiquitous handheld technologies, together with wireless and mobile phone networks, to facilitate, support, enhance and extend the reach of teaching and learning. elearning Guild 6 Any activity that allows individuals to be more productive when consuming, interacting with, or creating information, mediated through a compact digital portable device that the individual carries on a regular basis, has reliable connectivity, and fits in a pocket or purse. Adayana defines mobile as the following: Any web-based information, with the potential to be tracked, that is available anywhere, on any device, connected or disconnected. Although these definitions of mobile learning vary, they overlap and remain consistent with the following simple definition: Using tablets or smartphones to access and deliver learning anytime and anywhere 1. Aaron Smith. Smartphone Ownership (Pew Internet, June 2013), 2. Lance Whitney. Internet now active with 2.1 billion users (CNet, Jan 2012), 3. Tablet Shipments Forecast to Top Total PC Shipments in the Fourth Quarter of 2013 and Annually by 2015, According to IDC (ICD, Sept 2013), 4. Mobile Learning (ADL), 5. Rebecca Petley, Jill Atwell, Carol Savill-Smith Not Just Playing Around: The MoLeNET Experience of Using Games Technologies to Support Teaching and Learning (IGI Global, 2011), 6. Steve Wexler, et al. Mobile Learning (elearning Guild, 2007),

3 WHY INTEREST IN MOBILE? Companies should consider using mobile devices for training delivery for several reasons. Minimal capital investment is required. Most people already own the necessary mobile devices. Mobile learning meets people where they are with devices that they currently have. Tablets and smartphones are currently used to access other business systems. Extending this to include learning is an obvious opportunity. A Mobile Learning Pulse Survey conducted in 2012 showed that approximately 50% of survey responders reported that at least 50% of their employees already use their own smartphones or tablets to access work related sites or information, and this number is growing. 7 Mobile and social media are growing. These devices are here to stay. The longer an organization waits to adapt to them, the more difficult it will be to adapt. End users have a growing comfort level with mobile devices. Younger workers including both your employees and clients have grown up with these devices and are highly dependent on them for their day-to-day personal and work lives. BYOD policies have increase mobile interest. The rise in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies for IT departments has increased curiosity about accessing training content in addition to everyday business data. BYOD policies allow users to access business-related information on their own mobile devices eliminating the need for separate work devices. COMPONENTS OF MLEARNING The implementation of mlearning requires the following components: Mobile Device A tablet or smartphone that uses either the Apple (ios) or Android operating system. Devices based on these two platforms represent approximately 90% of global mobile market share 8. Mobile Content Content designed for delivery through the mobile device. Mobile content can include any of the following: Video Audio mcourse ebook PDF Interactive content a. Drag and drop test questions b. Hot spot interaction c. Simulations Delivery Platform The training can be launched or retrieved by means of a source platform, such as a Learning Management System (LMS), to ensure training is tracked and can be reported. There are approximately 4.5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide. This is estimated to grow to 9.1 billion by Ericsson (August 2013) 7. Elliott Masie, Bob Baker and Videhi Bhamidi Mobile Learning Pulse Survey Fall 2012 (Masie, 2012), 8. Gartner Says Worldwide PC, Tablet and Mobile Phone Shipments to Grow 4.5 Percent in 2013 as Lower-Priced Devices Drive Growth (Gartner, Oct 2013),

4 CONSIDERATIONS When thinking about implementing mobile learning and delivery methods within your organization, a thorough plan should be considered before moving directly into implementation. It s about more than just the device Content is key. Without viable, usable and appropriate content, the mobile device quickly loses its value and effective contribution to the organization. There are many factors to consider regarding the content being delivered through tablets or smartphones. For an in-depth look at the content design consideration for mlearning, review the Mobile Learning Decision Path, a thorough guide developed by Adayana in collaboration with the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative and the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO). Download a PDF of this document at mlearnpath. Instructional design of the content The design considerations for e-learning and mlearning content can be different. The visual assets you leverage are likely different and the messaging may be different. For example, a graphics-heavy course may not scale well on the smaller screen of a mobile device if the graphics are designed to be seen on a desktop computer. Additionally, Adobe Flash, although once very popular among web developers, is not supported on any ios platform and has limited support on Android. Gain an understanding of these differences and plan appropriately to accommodate them in your design. Length of the mlearning course No one wants to read a lengthy piece of text on a smartphone. Short and direct content is most impactful and practical for the user to consume and appreciate the information. The screen size of mobile devices Mobile devices have smaller screens than PCs. You have opportunities for using creative design practices, but you need to consider the following when designing for mobile: Navigating through the course. Complex menus or tiny buttons are likely going to frustrate the users. Use of images and the amount of screen space they will consume. Limit left and right scrolling. Pinching and expanding the screen in order to navigate or be able to read something can be frustrating. While this is a great feature of these devices, forcing a user to expand the content on the screen to see it is inefficient and ineffective. The time it takes to download data If your course is designed to be taken live instead downloading to the device first, the speed of the data connection must be taken into account. Your target audience may be located in an area without Wi-Fi or a quick mobile data connection. The content can be implemented in such a way to increase the use of color versus graphics to ensure faster download and less data usage. Mobile subscriptions grew 45% year-on-year from Q to Q Ericsson (August 2013)

5 TRACKING MOBILE USAGE As you plan your mlearning implementation, ask yourself what you need or want to know about the people who are using your mlearning content. If tracking usage or completions is important, then you need to consider how you do that. Many of the modern Learning Management Systems (LMSs) have apps that can be loaded on mobile devices to provide integration between the mobile device and the LMS. Integrating your mobile device and LMS does the following for users: Provides a method of seeing mobile content in the LMS catalog through the mobile device Allows mobile content to be downloaded to the mobile device, so that the user can see the content or take the course off-line or disconnected from the LMS Provides a method of synchronizing completion information from the mobile device back to the LMS to update the user s transcript on the LMS. This allows all training completions mlearning, e-learning and classroom instructions to be captured in one location. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when you consider using these apps for integration to the LMS. While it may be free to download and install the apps, it is not always free to enable them for use. You will need to contract with your LMS provider to setup the LMS to be mobile enabled. Cost can vary significantly depending on the number of mobile devices you will allow mobile access for. Setup and configuration need to occur on both the LMS as well as the mobile device. For example, the mobile device needs to know what LMS it is connecting to. This is a one-time event, meaning it does not have to been done each time someone wants to use the app. Do you want to report or run analytics on the usage or results of mobile learning? If you integrate to the LMS, you can leverage the LMS to report on usage, scores, completions, etc. If you do not connect to the LMS, you might have to rely on external surveys or follow on assessments to determine usage or impact. 55% of all mobile phones sold in Q were smartphones an increase of 15% from the previous year. - Ericsson (August 2013)

6 WHAT S MY DEVICE You need to define your audience and what devices they will be using. The broader your audience, the broader the devices you are likely needing to support. For instance, if your audience is the general public, you likely need to support many devices and many operating systems to reach your desired audience. If your audience is a department in your company, you may have more control over what devices you need to support. Doing the following will help you make the best use of your devices: Set standards for devices you will support. Identify the mobile devices you will support Identify the mobile devices operating system (ios or Android) you will support and the version number. Like browsers, mobile device operating systems change and new versions may introduce features that will impact your content playing or being tracked. As an example, consider the impact of introducing the IE10 browser. When Microsoft introduced this browser, many features on websites, LMSs and content were impacted or simply wouldn t work. Define standards for your content. If you develop content, standardize the tools you will use to develop and build mlearning content. Research the tools and try them out before you buy. Most vendors support trial licenses. Create a consistent look and feel. Use the same navigation method and the same design standards when building mobile content. Understand the limitations of the device and operating system As previously stated, it is important to know that Adobe Flash doesn t play on ios (Apple devices). Using tools such as Articulate s Storyline or Captivate that have a core base product that produces Flash based courses may generate mobile courses that have inconsistent results when used on a mobile device. Pure HTML 5 is currently the best solution for producing courses that run across mobile platforms (ios and Android) consistently. Mobile learning is a highly effective way to get your learning and training material into the hands of your audience. Implementation is not easy, but asking the right questions is the first step toward powerful learning delivery. ABOUT ADAYANA Adayana helps organizations gain increased profitability and success by improve the performance of their channel partners and workforce. For more than 30 years, we have provided integrated learning solutions, technology and strategic consulting to the world s largest and most successful organizations. Interested in learning how Adayana is helping organizations improve their performance and profitability? Contact us today. Adayana Industry Group 3500 Depauw Boulevard Suite 3080 Indianapolis, IN Steve McQueen Vice President of Sales [email protected]