Harnessing mLearning for workforce training

Remember the days in the traditional classroom scenario when it

was all about the teacher, chalking up a storm in front of the

class, doing her best to attend to every student’s individual

learning needs?  At times, students had to compete for the

teacher’s attention, which was often difficult if the

classroom had more than 50 students. 

Now, imagine this classroom training conducted on an even

grander scale in a corporate environment. Picture a typical

training session for 1,000 employees, in one classroom sitting.

Imagine, you being one of those 1,000. Would you feel insignificant

and lost? Does being among a class of 1,000 students really add any

value to your learning curve? Will you get enough opportunities to

be able to clarify your doubts or answer any of your queries? Is

this the true organic form of learning that will make a difference

to your learning growth? How much can you take away with this one

dimensional form of training?

These are few of the many challenges elearning, and now

mLearning or mobile learning, tries to tackle and conquer.

Today’s business environment is time poor and requires

professionals to be on-the-go, making it more important than ever

to access critical information regardless of location. Flexibility

and fluidity of information dissemination is of paramount

importance.

According to the Delhi School of Business, about 500 million

students in India will need access to higher education in the next

10 years. The short term challenge is not only to provide the

much-needed infrastructure, but also enhance existing strategies to

make learning more efficient and effective. That is where mLearning

comes into the picture. By providing students with the right

mLearning tools, the growth and evolution will continue into the

workforce.

Since it is difficult to pin down busy employees and bring them

to formalized training sessions, companies are now looking toward

conducting learning opportunities on the ubiquitous technology of

mobile phones – one of the only devices accessed round the

clock. Smartphones have now become the pseudo personal blackboards

– a platform where information is accessed at their

fingertips. 

The beauty of smartphones is it gives each user an element of

personalization by the basic elements of classroom training.

Moreover, it gives the user the power of accessing information and

training modules with ease – anywhere and anytime!

It is critical for organizations to equip their employees with

innovative and contemporary resources that are readily available

from the office and on the road. Regardless of location, an

employee should be able to have full access to learning materials

to enhance their personal and professional knowledge base.

Enabling mLearning

mLearning is literally the classroom in your pocket. According

to the British Council, there are more than 700 million mobile

phone users in India and an estimated 150 million 3G users by 2014.

So it would seem logical to take advantage of the already existing

technology and put it to even greater use – with

learning.

mLearning is the quintessential method of informal learning.

Mobile as an enabler equates to on demand learning. This includes

elearning courseware, search, books, videos, podcasts, simulations

and job aids. Mobile devices can contribute to make learning more

efficient, inclusive and sustainable. However, it takes joint

efforts of governments, content producers and education

institutions to realize this potential.

Mobile learning is also seen as a transformational opportunity

that is embedded into the technology at your fingertips. This

includes performance support, reference information, quality

circles and applications.

Globally, mobile technologies have been profoundly successful in

transforming the learning sector and have proven to be one of the

best examples of technological connectivity. The drivers of mobile

technologies may be very different in India as compared to the

developed world, while the issues of introducing mobile learning

are quite similar. 

With the mobile landscape constantly evolving, many

organizations are asking themselves if now is the right time to

take the plunge, or if they should wait for more stability.

Introducing mobile learning without a structured and reliable

framework that guides our learning processes can be risky. Hence it

becomes all the more vital for organizations to focus on some basic

issues before making this important decision.

Firstly, organizations assume that mobile learning is learning

that is delivered on a mobile phone or tablet. It is important to

understand that mobile still means portability to a majority of

their audiences. While some users may be more than enthusiastic

about learning on their phone, others may prefer using their

laptops to tap into their learning regime. 

By broadening the discussion to overall portability, more

diverse and attainable devices come into play, including laptops

and media players. And there is a diverse range of learning content

types (audio, video, short text files, as well as courseware)

suitable for use on the different types of devices. It is that

diversity which truly personalizes each users learning

experience.

That diversity may create the challenge in sustaining a

consistent learning platform across all devices. Common file

formats your company uses for general elearning may not work on one

or more popular mobile devices. It may become more important for

companies to understand their audience requirements and adopt their

learning modules in the most preferred platform. This could also

mean that organizations need to ensure compatibility across

different devices. Streamlining the overall learning platform may

become a priority to simplify its output.

Harnessing mLearning for workforce training