Designing Digitally
07/11/2018
Mobile devices have changed our lives to a huge extent, from the way we work, shop, and communicate. In fact, mobile devices have revolutionized the way we learn. According to Cisco, the number of mobile devices already exceeded the human population by 2014. It is predicted that the US mobile learning market will grow from $7.98 billion in 2015 to $37.6 billion by 2020. Currently, approximately 47% of organizations in the US have included mobile learning solutions in training for their employees, and the number is on a rise.
If you are looking for newer and better ways to train your employees, here are few employee benefits of mobile learning that may convince you to join the trend.
Traditional corporate training includes face-to-face classroom lectures. The learners and the instructors need to be physically present in a venue to learn and teach. Then elearning entered the scene, where the learners do not have to gather in a room to receive training. But, they need to have a comfortable place where they can sit with their laptop or desktop to take the course. Mobile learning does not have any such requirement. They are bite-sized modules that can be accessed from anywhere at anytime with your mobile device. Since they are short modules, you can access them even while traveling in public transport. You need not set aside a specific time to learn. Anytime you have some free pockets of time, you can choose to go through a module.
People are bombarded with content all the time from all over. The brain is exhausted with so much data. According to the Statistic Brain Institute, the attention span of humans is decreasing gradually. So, if you want to capture modern learners, you must keep it precise and on point. In mobile learning, you have to keep the content short and smart. These short bursts of information help learners digest information better. So, when they need to apply it at their workplace, they can recall it faster.
Smartphones are the perfect medium to distribute video-based learning. Videos are an engaging and cost-effective format of learning compared to text-based modules. Forrester research believes that just a minute of video-based learning is equal to 1.8 billion written words. Research by the Aberdeen Group showed that organizations who use video-based learning have experienced a dip in employee churn by 7.7% and an increase in employee productivity by roughly 4% over a year’s time.
With mobile learning you can save a lot of learning time, approximately 60% when you compare it with traditional learning. Traditional learning requires your employees to travel to and from the venue. They spend time on ice-breaking and wrap-up sessions. Also, each individual has their own pace of learning. The speed of the group depends on the weakest learner of the group. With mobile learning, you can eliminate all of these. You need not travel anywhere. The learning is right there for you to plunge into. You decide your pace. You do not have to wait for your peers to catch up with you. You can choose to skip topics that you are already familiar with and choose only the ones you think you need information on. You can utilize the time saved for important tasks and spike your productivity.
Most of the mobile learning platforms have reminder and organization features. They send ongoing alerts to the employees about course updates and progress. They have bookmarking capabilities that help the learners pick up where they left off. They do not have to lose the content they studied previously. Also, most of this learning is easily scalable.
Instructor-led training creates a varied learning ecosystem. Each instructor has their own style of teaching. They have their own favorite topic. Also, the teaching methods may vary from one group to another. However, in mobile learning, the training content is consistent and standardized. Every employee will receive the same training.
It is critical to keep in mind that mobile learning is not the only way you can train your employees. There are other options. But, the benefits mobile learning provides are too good to ignore. Of course, you must ensure that your employees are up for it and you have the relevant infrastructure to successfully deploy it.
At Designing Digitally, we create custom mLearning modules designed for quick reference in the field, tablet and phone-friendly versions of our eLearning and serious game development courses, and custom developed phone apps for Android and iOS stores.
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