Mobile learning may still be in its infancy where mass market acceptance and adoption are concerned, but no one can deny the force behind growing demand and cross-market trends in applications and devices. For product and sales training in particular, m-Learning presents unique opportunities to facilitate formal, informal and self-learning – when and where it's needed.
2. Your Presenters Julie Brink, viaLearning Director of eLearning Jason Grigsby, Cloud Four Mobile Strategist Moderator: Scott Herber, viaLanguage Executive Vice President, Sales
3. Today’s Agenda Current mobile technology and landscape Trends in mLearning Making mLearning work for you Product and sales training solutions Best practices and considerations Q&A
4. The State of Mobile Introduction to Health Literacy
5. 4.6 Billion Mobile phone for half the planet. Flickr photo by Pingnews: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/370061022/
6. 4.6 Billion in Perspective Source: http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/putting_27_bill.html http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2008/01/when-there-is-a.html http://www.communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2008/12/trillion-with-a.html
8. Android Blasting Off Outsold iPhone in U.S. Q1 RIM 36%, Android 28%, iPhone 21% 20% Smartphones in UK Q1 50,000 applications 100,000 activations a day 21 OEMs, 48 countries, 59 carriers
10. What does this mean? Mobile learning is expected to boom!
11. mLearning: What is it? Learning that happens when the learner takes advantage of the learning opportunities offered by mobile technologies
12. Poll Question #1 What type of mobile learning is your organization doing now? a) Podcasts b) Performance support c) Courseware (e-learning) d) Nothing
14. The Numbers “The US market for Mobile Learning products and services is growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 21.7% and revenues reached $538 million in 2007.” Ambient Insights, 2008
15. mLearning Trends Increased development Mobile device penetration is growing at rates much faster than desktop penetration, particularly in emerging markets Refining content (key points) HTML5 Integration with social networking
18. Types of mLearning Formal Organized, structured and planned event Informal Peer-to-peer, casual learning Self-directed Learner-initiated, generally not planned
19. mLearning & Sales Product training solutions Up-to-date product info, warranty info What they need to know when they need it Quick access to changing information Quicker delivery of training Product use tools
20. What else? Sales training solutions Sales methodology Best practice videos/learning scenarios Acceleration of training courses and follow up/reinforcement
21. What to Think About… Learning and business objectives Know Your Demographics Blackberry has 40% global enterprise mobile market. Emerging markets 80% of worldwideMMS traffic.
22. What to Think About… Learning and business objectives Devices and related technical specs
23. Device Detection Must Be Core Part of Your Mobile Strategy http://mobiforge.com/designing/story/effective-design-multiple-screen-sizes
24. What to Think About… Learning and business objectives Devices and related technical specs Content—KISS it Design Function/Interaction Measurement and tracking
25. Poll Question #2 What is your biggest obstacle to implementing an mLearning strategy? Cost Time Anticipate poor adoption Not sure what to do
32. Summary Why use mLearning? Infrastructure is available, and growing Push information out to help your sales force do a better job Acceptable form of communication People expect to send/receive information via a mobile device Efficient Learners can do it on own time Broader reach Increased productivity and revenue
34. Thank you for attending! For more information please contact us: info@vialearning.com www.vialearning.com twitter.com/vialearning http://vialearning.com/blog/ jason@cloudfour.com Follow Jason on Twitter @grigs www.cloudfour.com
Notas del editor
Scott[Julie bio][Jason bio]
Scott
JulieWith mobile technology changing and advancing so quickly, mobile learning is set up to grow—and fast. Do you agree, Jason?
JulieSimply put, mobile learning is learning that happens on a mobile device. A mobile device includes things such as netbooks, iPods, iPads, MP3 players and mobile phones. Gaming systems even fall in the mobile device category.Generally mobile learning is very collaborative because you get instantaneous delivery to your learner and generally an instantaneous response.
ScottSo, what is your organization doing in the mobile learning space now?Please take a minute to answer this poll question.
Julie
JulieAs we’ve discussed mobile devices are all over and growing rapidly and as organizations optimize their web browsers for mobile technologies, they will discover they must refine their instructional content for mobile, too, using the same principles: be simple and concise. HTML5: makes rich media playback on mobile devices more practical and compelling because it is not very processor-intensive. This demands less bandwidth and processing power which means faster performance of video and animations. offers geo-location info, good for learnersOffers offline storage (lose connectivity, you don’t lose where you were)mLearning and social networking will partner on mobile devices, providing a fully integrated experience for users. Not providing a combined experience for the learner will alienate a large part of the audience, particularly as the audience demographics change.
Many of you use texting and MMS now—now you’ll be using it to learn.Touch screen functionality will open up interactivity in mobile learning. Touch screens allow for more rich interaction than a QWERTY keyboard does. And this is leaps and bounds more engaging than the old-school traditional keypad.Location-based learning is another emerging trend in mLearning. Many devices shipped now have built-in GPS, so we can take advantage of a learner's physical location and teach in the moment.
JulieFirst, let’s review three different types of mLearning. Your organization may use any of these types. Formal: triggered notification and reminders, such as SMS messages asking employees to confirm understanding or participation in an event/completion of assignment. Informal: such as interactive messaging, fostering 2-way communication soliciting user feedback or data collection. Self-directed: consists of user-directed learning, reviewing reference/performance support materials, content and courseware, media-based content such as podcasts or videos. Location-based learning can be an example of this, or accessing learning while riding the bus home at 3am
Mlearning provides a great way to get current, up to date information pushed out to your sales force, such as: Up-to-date product info, warranty infoWhat they need to know when they need itQuick access to changing info, particularly around product launchesQuicker delivery (not relying on sales force to log in to the LMS. Push training out immediately)Product use tools (how to get something done, sales reports, on-demand info, how to use something, quick refreshers, demos)
Sales training solutions snippets can be taught through mLearning. Every organization has a sales methodology. You can have short trainings on:AwarenessPosition, Qualify and SellReinforce/ValidateBest practice videos/learning scenariosAlso, reinforce the training already completed by your learners with mLearning validation and follow up.
JulieWhen implementing an mlearning strategy, the first thing to think about are your learning and business objectives:What do you want to teach and to whom? Why? This dictates who your audience is. Global audience? Where are they located? What do you want to accomplish? What behavior do you want changed as a result of mLearning? What business goals are you expecting will be impacted by mLearning?
JulieNow that you’ve defined your learning and business objectives for mLearning, you need to do some research on your organization’s devices and related technical specs: does your company have a standard device (most enterprise users use Blackberry, for instance)? Or which is the most predominantly used device? What devices are “standard” will drive the technical specs needed to roll out a program or constraints to live within.
Instructional design and content: KISS it-- content should be short and simple. Also, relevant. Training nuggets, if you will.Design: don’t use a lot of images and only where contextually relevant, only use video if the instructional integrity warrants it (bandwidth issues), consider if the courseware will be localized and into what languages it will be localized.Function/Interaction: Consider that the user will usually scroll up and down, not across (depending on the device) so ensure that design enables easy navigation. If you are using the same website or course for desktop machine users and mobile users, you will most likely need to create two different designs – one for each platform—because they will render differently on the two devices.Measurement: what type of measurement or tracking system do you have in place? What data do you want to capture? How will you capture it?
Scott
Common challenges when creating a mobile strategy…..Tracking: what level of reporting/tracking do you want? What does your LMS enable? How do you want to measure it?Flash/no Flash: very few phones out now support flash. This can be a problem if you have existing content that you want to integrate into an mlearning course. You’d have to take your Flash content and reformat it, likely into multiple formats for viewing by your audience. Multiple devices and mobile standards not consistent, although web standards are becoming more consistent, so that’s good news for mLearning developers. HTML5 adoption: most devices shipping now support it, but not all users have a brand new device. ROI: how do you capture it? A question learning professionals try to answer daily.
So you built it, but will they come. To overcome adoption anxiety and fear, here are some tips on increasing adoption rates of mLearning.Ask your target audience what would drive them to participate: do they need an incentive? What do they do now with their mobile device? EtcBe sure expectations and goals are clear for the organization and training.Develop with the expectation that the training nugget will be viewed on a mobile device: this will help ensure content, images, etc are developed appropriatelyImplement deliveries in a way that your audience is already using mobile: is your audience using text-messaging? Do they listen to podcasts? Do they watch videos? If they do, roll out the mLearning in that format first. Since they are familiar with that technology they will be more inclined to use it.
Infrastructure is available, and growingUse the existing infrastructure your team has and push real-time information out to help your sales force do a better jobMobile is an acceptable form of communication globally and culturallyPeople expect to send/receive information via a mobile deviceLastly, it’s efficientLearners can do it on own timeBroader reach: Get to a population who don’t willingly tend to participate in trainingIncreased productivity and revenue (sell more by getting up-to-date info)