The Impact of Mobile Learning on Today’s Enterprises

Technology has accelerated the pace of change so much that traditional education and training can no longer keep up. Hiring new talent with current skills remains a challenge. The skills gap is a top concern, and few companies believe they are ready to deal with the problem.

Mobile learning is showing promise in helping to address the gap. It has made it possible for employers to deliver relevant content to employees when and where they need it. Combined with new learning modes, it helps learning and performance in many ways.

• Mobile learning provides a powerful delivery mechanism for context-sensitive performance support.
• Micro-learning provides chunks of digestible content to meet the immediate needs without content overload.
• With spaced repetition, it helps learners retain knowledge.
• It enables employees to accomplish learning on the go. It turns wait time into learning time.
• It can keep learners updated on their learning activities wherever they are, and can be used to offer feedback to improve motivation.
• Mobile-enabled gamification drives learner engagement.
• Social tools can increase collaborative learning.

Let’s explore in detail the benefits in performance support and collaborative learning. 

Performance support

Mobile learning is the best thing to happen to performance support. An employee solving a problem can summon help instantly in the form of job aids, a short video, or a mini-lesson. Mobile makes it easier to provide instantly available support at what Conrad Gottfredson calls the five moments of need:

• when learning something for the first time,
• when seeking to learn more about something,
• when trying to apply or remember something or adapt performance to a unique situation,
• when attempting to solve a problem or deal with something that has gone wrong, and
• when something changes that requires a change in how work gets done.

When mobile is combined with beacons, small devices that transmit a device’s location to an LMS, learning can be context-sensitive, delivering exactly the right content at the right moment. Providing the right information at the right time is an effective way to boost performance and productivity.

Collaborative Learning

Collaboration and engagement enhance the value of learning by building a social network that supports knowledge sharing and problem-solving. This builds learners’ collaboration skills and each person’s learning horizon. Collaborative learning enables learners to embrace a positive work culture and creates a workforce that is socially bound and professionally committed.

We need talent that adapts to change. Mobile learning provides many ways to support that talent. Consider mobile learning as a part of your organizational development strategy.

Reference

Gottfredson, Conrad, and Bob Mosher. "Are You Meeting All Five Moments of Learning Need?" Learning Solutions Magazine. June 18, 2012.

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