Today, outsourcing content development is a fairly well established practice for several organizations. However, what works for one organization and helps them leverage on an offshore partner may not work for another. So, how can you determine if you should evaluate eLearning content development outsourcing? The answer lies in looking at the pros of content development outsourcing and comparing them against the triggers of your outsourcing need. In this article I will outline the pros of content development outsourcing and how you can use these pointers and arrive at the right strategy to outsource and create a successful partnership that you can leverage on.
The Advantages Of eLearning Content Development Outsourcing
As head of an organization that has been a trusted offshore eLearning content development partner for several global organizations, I will dip into my own experience to outline the pros of eLearning content development outsourcing. Let me begin with an important input from my earlier article How to choose a custom eLearning company in India? where I had outlined the factors that have a bearing on your decision to outsource.
The Triggers For eLearning Content Development Outsourcing
Scaling (to handle higher volumes).
Reducing the time to market.
Reduction in cost.
Access to talent that you do not have.
Addition of more innovative solutions to your portfolio.
Having clarity on why you want to outsource and what gains you seek from each of them is vital in creating an effective outsourcing strategy.
Top 6 Benefits Of eLearning Content Development Outsourcing
1. Reduction in costs. This is certainly the first and the probably the biggest benefit of outsourcing. Through outsourcing, you can get access to large talent pools that map exactly to your requirement and yet pay a fraction of the cost that you would incur if you were to hire them in-house. 2. Flexibility to scale the team up and down. eLearning content development outsourcing offers you greater flexibility by allowing you to rapidly scale up and down the required team exactly as per your business dynamics. 3. Access to new skill sets and more varied talent in a given domain. With rapidly changing learner expectations, tools and technologies it is not possible to have all combinations of skills that you or your customers may require. Outsourcing offsets this challenge and offers you the flexibility to have more than one partner to be able to address varied solutions. 4. Reduction in development time leading to a faster turnaround time. Typically, an outsourcing partner will have a dedicated team addressing your requirement including focus on shorter development cycles. This gives you a significant edge in managing a quicker turnaround time for your projects particularly when your internal teams may not be available. 5. Access to best practices leading to optimization of your development practices. Remember your partner will be servicing needs of several organizations and therefore, is more likely to have development practices that are optimized for globally distributed development. You can use these cues to enhance your own development practices further. 6. Additionally, you will get the following business gains:
Addition of more innovative solutions to your portfolio. You can leverage on your partner’s skills to enhance your portfolio to service more varied or more complex needs.
Enhanced focus on your customers.
Leveraging on the partner’s development strengths enables you to bring higher focus on customer interfacing activities rather than day to day execution. Besides creating better customer satisfaction, this may enable you to address new opportunities. I hope this article was useful in reinforcing the pros of eLearning content development outsourcing. Remember to tie these gains back to your triggers or needs to outsource and you will arrive at the right decision. Read More
Although outsourcing of online training has significant benefits, it does have inherent risks. This article outlines how you can mitigate these risks by selecting the right partner and create a successful outsourcing strategy.
How To Select The Right Partner And De-risk Your Initiative When Outsourcing Online Training
We, at EI Design have had the privilege of being a strategic outsourcing partner for several global organizations. We have seen one-off engagements turning into long-term relationships involving multi-year contracts. We know that outsourcing custom or bespoke content development is not devoid of challenges. However, we do know by experience that these can be effectively mitigated using the right framework to evaluate the partner. If you get this right, you’re well on your way to achieve your goal of working with the partner that suits you best. In this article, I outline several pointers that can be used during the evaluation of potential partner(s) and can substantially de-risk the challenges associated with your outsourcing initiative. Furthermore, these will also help you build for success and see your outsourcing gains multiply over time.
Is Outsourcing Your Online Training (Custom Or Bespoke Content Development) Right For You?
To begin with, you need to be certain about why you want to outsource. As a first step, you need to identify if your outsourcing requirement is strategic or opportunistic. The focus then shifts to the gains that you are eyeing from the outsourcing initiative. Some of the factors that suggest you should opt for outsourcing are:
Scalability (to take up work in greater volumes).
A reduction in time to deliver/time to market.
Cutting costs.
Accessing talent that you do not have.
Enhancing your portfolio with newer, better, and more innovative solutions.
What Are The Reasons Why Outsourcing Online Training (Custom Or Bespoke Content Development) Helps Every Business?
Here is my list of 8 reasons why outsourcing custom or bespoke content development helps every business. 1. Reduction In Costs. Ask anyone why they are looking to outsource and the most obvious response would be cost-cutting. Outsourcing allows you to get your work done in lesser time, lesser price, and with the desired level of quality. 2. Flexibility To Scale The Team Up And Down. Business requirements keep varying but you can’t alter the size of your internal team every single time. With outsourcing, you can address this challenge as you get the flexibility to get more (or less) heads and hands to ensure the project sees the light of the day with minimal fuss. 3. Access To New Skill Sets And More Varied Talent In A Given Domain. Tools and technology keep changing and at the pace at which they do, it becomes difficult to possess the skills and expertise to address the varied requirements. With outsourcing, you can bridge this gap and use the skills and expertise that your partner brings to the table. 4. Reduction In Development Time Leading To A Faster Turnaround Time. One of the advantages that most outsourcing partners offer to provide is a short turnaround time to complete the work you assign them. They do this with a dedicated team aligned to work for you and take care of the minutest of details pertaining to your requirement. 5. Access To Best Practices Leading To Optimization Of Your Development Practices. If you’re in the learning business, you know that there’s a lot of learning that happens with and from others. The same applies to adopting newer, better development practices. If your outsourcing partner has worked with a variety of global organizations, they’re likely to have several effective development practices. You can also get a peek into these and adopt a few in your organization yourself. 6. Addition Of More Innovative Solutions To Your Portfolio. Working with an outsourcing partner gives you exposure to the different kinds of solutions that they offer. You can make the best of this opportunity and enrich your own solution portfolio with cues from your partner’s offerings. 7. Enhanced Focus On Your Customers. When you have a partner taking care of a portion of your work, a lot of burden is off your shoulders allowing you to focus on your customers (internal or external). This way, you can better your chances of achieving customer delight and offer better service or open up newer avenues of business and revenue. 8. Channelize Your Resources To Strategic Activities. By delegating certain portions of your work to an outsourcing partner, you can let your team spend more time and energy on the strategic side of your business.
How Should You Begin The Exercise Of Outsourcing Online Training?
Once you’re certain about why you want to outsource, you need to turn your attention to evaluating the options, wherein you need to consider whether you want to go with: 1. An Onshore Partner Or An Offshore Partner? Here too, there are advantages and disadvantages. An onshore partner will provide you with access to more talent and help you enhance your existing portfolio but you might want to keep an eye on the weighing scale in terms of the cost and profitability for your business. An offshore partner on the other hand will be comparatively lighter on your pocket and provide you with other gains but you would need to factor for challenges such as time zone differences, communication, and cultural differences. 2. Single Or Multiple Partners? Most organizations tend to play safe and opt for multiple partners rather than relying on one partner. I personally recommend going with one partner if you have a robust evaluation process in place and can test waters with your partner with pilot projects, thereby getting a complete view of what lies ahead before you get your partner to sign the dotted line. That said, there are certain risks/challenges that you need to take care of before you get down to evaluate a partner.
What Are The Challenges In Outsourcing Your eLearning Content Development?
To make sure that there are no hiccups in your outsourcing venture, you need to watch out for: 1. Hidden Costs. You may have factored for the outsourcing cost and allocated the time and budget to your Project Managers accordingly. However, if your partner doesn’t get your brief right, it may lead to reworks and multiple iterations/reviews. This can play a spoilsport in terms of cost and the project schedule. 2. Aspects That You Can Identify Only After You Begin Outsourcing. Your outsourcing partner may have put their best talent on the job during the pilot stage to grab your attention and convince you to hand over the contract to them. You will have to ensure that there are no surprises as you actually begin working with your partner and interact with a completely different team that may not live up to your expectations. 3. Inconsistency In Performance And Quality Standards. Closely linked to the challenge outlined above, you might get to see variations in the output and inconsistency in its quality. This will also have a bearing on the cost and project schedule. 4. Inability Of Your Partner To Adapt And Align Effectively To Changing Dynamics. The learning industry is very dynamic and changes are taking place at all fronts, including tools and technology. You need to make sure that your partner is in sync with the changing dynamics and aligned to your future goals. 5. Challenges Intrinsic To Globally Distributed Development. When you work with offshore partners, you have to deal with challenges such as time zone differences and interacting with team members who come from different geographies. This may have an impact on effective collaboration and if you don’t get it right, it may result in additional costs and unpleasant experiences.
How To Build For Success – What Are The Attributes Of A Partner That Will Help You Get Outsourcing Of Your Online Training Right?
Building an outsourcing strategy that works and delivers the required value needs the selection of the right partner who can understand the complexity involved in design, development and implementation of varied online training solutions. 1. The foundation. To begin with, they need to understand the business objectives, learner profiles, their proficiency, expected gains and should be able to suggest options featuring different learning strategies. Capability to consult and architect the right strategy is paramount. 2. The engagement model. Then the focus shifts to the engagement model that facilitates collaboration between distributed teams and provides an effective and transparent communication. 3. Access to the right talent pool. Finally, the development model needs to factor for processing of the brief effectively and be supported by strong Instructional Design, Visual Design, Technology, and Quality Assurance teams. 4. Building for success. Collaboration, flexibility and agility are three important aspects that make or break a successful partnership. Easier said than done? Here is my list of 10 parameters that you can use to find the right partner. Each of these parameters actually helps you de-risk or mitigate the risks inherent with outsourcing. Once you have the right partner, you will be able to to see successful outsourcing of your online training.
Expertise and relevant experience (but do verify references).
Focus on Innovation so that their solutions keep you ahead of the curve.
Maturity of processes and development methodology: The maturity of the processes has a direct bearing on quality and predictability. The development methodology needs to factor for distributed development and must provide for collaboration and ease of working across teams/across time zones.
Project management: You need to ascertain how it is aligned to collaboration, communication, and needs for globally distributed development.
Solution Architecting capability: Check whether it is aligned to meet diverse training needs and whether it encompasses new or upcoming approaches.
Talent pool: The partner you’re looking for must have the right capabilities in Account Management, Delivery (Project Management), Instructional Design, Visual Design, Technology, and Quality Assurance.
Capability to scale: At short notice, they should have access to the right profile of resources that can be scaled to meet your burst mode requirements.
Infrastructure and measures to protect your Intellectual Property (IP).
Sound understanding of Authoring Tools and Technology.
Strong Risk Management practices.
You can also take a look at this video to know how you can opt for the right outsourcing partner and get your outsourcing strategy right. Like any initiative, outsourcing of online training also has its risks. In this article, I have outlined how you can reduce or offset most of these inherent risks. Most of these aspects are from my own experience over the last 15 years and they really work. The biggest success factor is to have a focus on building a long-term partnership. Both sides must look beyond the transactions and establish a framework that will create success – blips and occasional misses notwithstanding. If you have any specific queries on this, do contact me at apandey@eidesign.net. Also read:
At EI Design, we have been crafting gamification for serious learning (corporate learning) for over two years now. We now see a maturing in corporates’ understanding of its true potential and how a well-crafted gamification solution can create the right learning impact. Today, gamification is poised to impact corporate learning. It is more than a buzz and is steadily gaining momentum on account of increase in adoption of mobile learning or mLearning and significant numbers of millennial learners in the overall learner demographics that are asking for it.
Ways In Which Gamification Impacts Corporate Learning
In this article, I will share insights on how gamification is poised to impact corporate learning through the 4 key drivers that are pushing it (hence, why you should evaluate it/adopt it).
Background
Before getting into the specifics of how gamification will impact corporate learning, let’s quickly look at the basics. I begin by using 3 questions from my article on Gamification For Serious Learning – 5 Facts That Will Impress Your Boss to set the context. Then we will look at the crucial fourth question on how exactly gamification will impact corporate learning.
Q1. What Is Gamification?
Gamification is an alternate approach to traditional eLearning to provide engaging, immersive, and effective learning experience to your learners. By using gaming principles, elements, and innovative strategies, learners can be engaged and encouraged to apply this learning at work. It provides an effective informal learning environment and helps learners practice real-life situations and challenges in a safe environment. Typical components of gamification-based learning courses are shown here.
Q2. What Are The Advantages Of Using Gamification Vis-A-Vis Traditional eLearning?
There are several aspects of learning notably its retention, and eventual application on the job that can be influenced by gamification. Specifically:
Gamification puts scientific principles of repeated retrieval and spaced repetition to good effect and brings about a remarkable change in behavior.
Games can be “fun” for the learner but still have a significant impact on learning. (The player can experience “fun” during the game and still experience “learning” during gameplay if the level of engagement is high.)
Playing games with high levels of engagement leads to an increase in retention.
Q4. How Will Gamification Impact Corporate Learning?
I am listing what I believe are the 4 key drivers that indicate how gamification will impact corporate learning.
The gain for the learners (the learner perspective).
The last 4-5 years have seen dramatic changes in the way learning is delivered. Extensive adoption of mobile learning or mLearning allows learning to be delivered on devices of learners’ choice (including tablets and smartphones). The way learning solutions are being crafted is also undergoing a significant change. The focus is now on crafting more engaging and immersive learning solutions that appeal to the changing learner demographics, which now has a significant percentage of Millennials. Increasingly, modern day solutions use micro learning and feature extensive usage of videos and social learning. Both these factors provide a clear room to provide gamification-based learning that can be deployed on mobile devices in formats that appeals to the learners. It can be crafted in a style that resonates well with the learners leading to higher retention and application.
The gain for business (the business perspective).
While gamification-based learning has always appealed to the learner community, corporates have often been hesitant to embrace this on a wider scale. Not anymore! There are several case studies that establish gamification (for serious learning) creates:
High impact training.
Effective application on the job.
Maturing of tools and technologies to support gamification-based solutions.
This is a very significant driver and today it is much easier to craft effective gamification solutions on account of:
Availability of varied gamification platforms to choose from.
Learning Management System support for gamification.
Capability to create high impact learning solutions.
With gamification, the learner engagement quotient is significantly high. It allows organizations to challenge the learners, get them to give their very best as there are rewards for the taking, bring in a sense of variety, and use the community factor and healthy competition among learner groups to good effect. Higher motivation levels and a responsive learning environment will help learners make their own contributions to the organization’s knowledge base. A well-crafted gamification solution designed with the learner preferences in mind will certainly result in higher learner engagement and knowledge retention. This in turn leads to enhanced performance, better application of learning, and fulfillment of the expectations that an organization has with its workforce and the learning initiative. Specifically, gamification can:
Support all training needs (ranging from Induction, onboarding, behavioral change, soft skills and compliance).
Enrich traditional eLearning-based training (through partial gamification).
Leverage on learning paths (with wide and varied range of learning assets).
Leverage on collaboration (social learning).
I hope this article was useful in understanding how gamification will impact corporate learning and trigger an evaluation or adoption of gamification for your learning needs. Do reach out to me if you have any queries. You can also refer to my earlier articles:
In this article, I touch upon key facets of mobile learning and how can you use it to impact your employee engagement and performance. I also share 10 examples that showcase how you can achieve this mandate.
How To Use Mobile Learning To Boost Employee Engagement And Performance
Mobile learning is acknowledged as a key training delivery format by organizations across the world. It is used extensively as a modern training approach that is learner centric and facilitates an ongoing consumption of smaller bytes of learning instead of one large chunk. Let us see how mobile learning can be used to drive higher employee engagement and performance. 1. Learn, Recall, and Retain. As the learning bytes are delivered in interesting and engaging formats and made available to learners within their workflow, they work more effectively in helping them learn, recall, and retain. 2. Apply the learning on the job. Over a period of time, this leads to the required application at work (and the anticipated behavioral change). All these factors are driving the usage of mobile learning to engage learners and boost their performance.
What Is Mobile Learning And Why Is It Gaining Momentum?
Mobile learning is the next-gen eLearning that can be offered across multiple devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and so on). It is an “anytime, anywhere” learning that they can assimilate at their own pace and on devices of their choice. Mobile learning can be used to offer formal training as well as Performance Support or PSTs (just-in-time learning aids that are part of the learners’ workflow and are readily available to them precisely at the moment of their need). It can also be used to supplement traditional Instructor Led Training (ILT). This is not all. The adoption of mobile learning across organizations is increasing on the account of:
Changing learner profiles.
Worldwide, the Millennials are a significant part of the workforce. They need access to training that works on the device of their choice (read smartphone).
How learners want to learn.
Learners today do not have the time to log in to a Learning Management System and browse through to identify what they need. With a lot of pressure on time, they want precise bytes of learning that they can use to solve a problem or practice. It goes without saying; this needs to be available in their workflow (read smartphone again).
Changing learning device preferences.
Learners want this control to be with them. Depending on the nature of training, whether formal or informal, lengthy or micro nuggets, they want to exercise the right to choose the device they should learn on.
Maturing of tools and technology.
Today, mobile learning solutions can opt from a wide ranging array of authoring tools and LMS platforms and offer both adaptive (desktops, laptops, and tablets) and responsive designs (desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones).
Why Does It Make Sense To Adopt Mobile Learning To Increase Employee Engagement And Eventually Impact Their Performance?
The success of a training program hinges on several factors as shown here. These aspects influence learners’ engagement and the eventual performance gain. 1. Learners’ reaction. It begins with the crucial first connect with learners (their reaction to the online course). This has a direct bearing on how the learners respond and on the desired completion rates. Mobile learning scores a high 5 here. 2. Effectiveness of learning or stickiness of learning. Usage of immersive learning strategies increases the stickiness of learning. Similarly, usage of strategies that truly engage the learner, facilitate recall, and push them to think and apply is vital to succeed in this endeavor. Mobile learning offers a great value here as it supports rich media formats and trending learning strategies like microlearning, gamification, story-based learning, complex decision making using scenario-based learning, and so on. 3. Application of learning (leading to the desired behavioral change and a positive impact on business). As I mentioned earlier, learners will not go through an LMS to seek an answer to address a problem on the job. Instead, they need this byte to be available to them when they need it. Similarly, when they need to practice a new concept or a new skill, they want the flexibility to learn on the device they access the most. Usage of mobile learning in a microlearning format that can be used for both formal training or as Performance Support is very useful in meeting this mandate. From these insights, you will note that you can positively impact each of these facets by adopting mobile learning. With this approach, you will see a more engaged learner.
Is Mobile Learning Or mLearning For Millennials Alone?
It is a misconception that mobile learning appeals only to the millennial workforce. Irrespective of age, all of us spend so much of time on our smartphones and tablets that it makes tremendous sense to extend the learning on these devices. The flexibility to use the device to learn on, the ease of learning on the go, and the usage of rich media and high impact strategies attract learners of all profiles to mobile learning adoption. As a result, you will see higher completion rates across various learner profiles and not limited to Millennials. Additionally:
When mobile learning is used for Performance Support (just-in-time learning aids that are available to the learners within their workflow and precisely at the moment of their need), you can see increased application of learning on the job. As I have already highlighted, this is a crucial aspect in getting the desired impact that the business seeks.
Eventually, the combination of completion of training on time, higher retention and successful application has a positive impact on the ROI.
What Learning Strategies Adapt Well To Mobile Learning Or mLearning?
While most traditional eLearning strategies can be well adapted for mobile learning or mLearning, you can see added gains as you use the following approaches:
Microlearning.
Gamification.
Story or scenario-based learning (the impact is even higher when we use videos and interactive videos).
Mobile apps for learning.
Millennial-centric designs.
Social learning.
New trends that can further increase the learner engagement include:
Learning path-based approach to encourage “learning as a continuum”.
Personalization to make the learning experience more meaningful to the learner.
Content Curation to support formal training as well as to ensure that learners contribute to enrich the knowledge base.
Given the wide ranging corporate training needs, can mobile learning or mLearning be used to offer all of them? Absolutely! A report drafted by SailPoint in 2013 suggests that by the year 2018, approximately 70% of the mobile workforce worldwide will manage their business-related tasks on their preferred mobile devices. If we look at the typical range of corporate training needs, the list is likely to look like this and each of these can be offered through mobile learning or mLearning:
Induction and onboarding (now this often includes pre-onboarding).
Compliance training.
Product training.
Sales training.
Leadership training.
Application tools’ training.
Soft skills training.
Specific professional skills training.
HR/HCM initiatives.
Significant corporate initiatives: Ranging from Quality and Innovation to supporting Change Management initiatives.
10 Killer Examples
At EI Design, our mobile learning practice began in 2011. Over the last six years, we have created over 1000 hours of mobile learning solutions for both formal training as well as Performance Support, including all the trainings highlighted above. While the initial adoption of mobile learning was limited to access till tablets (adaptive designs), over the last two years, most of our solutions support smartphones (responsive designs). I have shortlisted the following 10 examples to show the impact of mobile learning that would map to your varied corporate training needs. These examples reflect the usage of mobile learning for formal training as well as Performance Support. I showcase strategies including:
Microlearning.
Gamification.
Scenario-based learning.
Learning paths.
Social learning.
Personalization.
I showcase high impact delivery formats including:
Apps for learning.
Videos.
Interactive videos.
Our award winning Interactive Parallax design nugget.
Click here to view and download the interactive PDF containing the 10 examples. I hope this article provides the required pointers that enable you to adopt mobile learning (if you are new to this) or scale its usage. The supporting 10 examples show you how you can achieve your mandate. If you have any other queries, do contact me. Read More
Mobile apps are increasingly being seen as the future of learning. Popularity of mobile devices and widespread adoption of mLearning or mobile learning is providing them the required push. In this article, I outline 10 reasons why your learning strategy must include mobile apps for learning.
Why You Need To Use Mobile Apps For Learning In Your Learning Strategy
Before deep-diving into the reasons why you should integrate mobile learning trends such as mobile apps for learning in your learning strategy, let’s take a quick look at 3 important, basic aspects (What, Why, and How):
What: What are mobile apps for learning?
Why: Why you should invest on them?
How: How exactly can they be integrated into your learning strategy?
What Are Mobile Apps For Learning?
Mobile apps are a type of delivery format designed for offline viewing of Learning material for learners on mobile devices. Although the course needs to be downloaded to the device first using internet connection, it can be accessed without internet access from the mobile device for subsequent visits once the course has been downloaded to the device. Internet access is also necessary when it comes to tracking of learners’ progress via Learning Management Systems. People are increasingly taking to mobile apps and the number of mobile app downloads that take place every year justifies that. According to a report, the number of mobile apps forecasted to be downloaded worldwide in 2017 stands at a whopping 2.6 million! It comes as no surprise that mobile apps for learning are an area you must invest on.
What Are The Advantages Of Using Mobile Apps For learning?
There’s a reason why more and more companies are pumping money into mobile learning technology and mobile app development year after year. Mobile apps are one of the hottest mobile learning trends driving the market today. According to reports, the global annual revenue generated by mobile apps will be $70 billion by 2017. The format comes with a host of benefits after all. Some of the benefits of mobile apps are:
Ideal for people looking for information on the move.
Suited for online as well as offline viewing.
Immensely popular with Millennials.
Facilitate higher completion rates.
Provide access to just-in-time information.
Ideal for performance support.
How Can You Use Mobile Apps For Learning To Uplift Your Existing Learning Strategy?
Mobile apps are a good fit for both formal as well as informal training. They can be used to offer bite-sized formal training or supplement formal training. When it comes to informal training needs, they are an ideal platform to offer Performance Support. They can be used as Performance Support Tools (PSTs) and embedded in the learners’ workflow. If they are made available to learners on their mobile devices, there will be greater chances of them using them for just-in-time information and on-the-job support. There are many ways to integrate mobile apps for learning into your learning strategy. Specifically: 1. For primary learning (formal training). Mobile apps can be used for formal training in the form of short learning nuggets and the nuggets could be part of a learning path 2. As a supplement to formal training.
They can be used as pre- and post- assessments for formal training (online or blended).
They can also be used to showcase videos, examples, and scenarios to reinforce learning.
At EI Design, we have used mobile learning technology and mobile apps for learning for both formal learning as well as a Performance Support Tool. You can gain further insights on these through my previous articles:
How to boost your workforce performance with mobile apps.
How can you use mobile apps for microlearning-based training.
Now, let’s see why it makes business sense to invest in mobile learning trends and integrate mobile apps for learning to enhance your current learning strategy.
Why Are Mobile Apps For Learning The Right Fit For Your Learning Strategy?
Here is my list of 10 reasons why mobile apps are the right fit for your learning strategy: 1. Flexibility Of Usage (For Learners). According to a survey, people spend 30 hours a month on average on mobile apps. They have become part and parcel of people’s lives because of the flexibility and ease of looking up information that they offer. The power of mobile apps can be leveraged to offer training to learners even when they are not connected to internet. 2. High Completion Rates. The anytime, anywhere flexibility that mobile learning technology and mobile apps offer help learners take the training when they “want to” rather than “have to”; thereby resulting in higher completion rates. 3. Engaging. If you’re a smartphone user, you’d know that pretty much everything you do –dropping in a message to someone, hunting for a restaurant nearby, getting your daily scoop of news, and so on– is through apps. You’ve ditched your traditional SMS and switched to WhatsApp messaging for a simple reason that it’s far more lively and engaging and comes with a host of features. The formats of mobile apps and mobile learning technology for learning are remarkably different from traditional eLearning. They provide very high engagement to learners thereby increasing recall and retention manifold. 4. Appeal To Millennials. We spoke about people spending 30 hours every month on mobile apps. When it comes to millennials, the number of hours spent on mobile apps shoots up to 90. Millennials love mobile apps and these survey figures second that. If you’re looking at creating engaging learning experiences for millennials and mobile apps aren’t on your list yet, you’re missing out on something big time! 5. Easy To Push Updates. Mobile apps are extremely user-friendly and offer organizations the flexibility to easily push updates. 6. Enable You To Further Leverage Trending Approaches. From the social media platform you visit most frequently to your favorite game on your mobile device, they all come packaged as mobile apps. Here’s a huge cue you can take to enhance the impact of your training using mobile apps. You can leverage further on trends like microlearning, social learning, and gamification. 7. Can Be Adapted To Varied Training Needs. You can craft mobile apps for learning to address varied training needs including compliance, soft skills, products, and change management. 8. Can Be Used For Performance Support. Mobile apps are designed to offer “just-in-time” information. They are ideal for Performance Support intervention and can directly influence the organizational mandate to push the learning acquisition to its application on the job. 9. Can Be Used As A Supplement To ILT/Blended Training. You can support ILT or blended delivery through assets (pre/post work-shop) or Performance Support Tools. An intervention like this will show a drastic gain in application of gained knowledge on the job. 10. Positive Impact On ROI On Your Training Spend. By improving the learner reaction, learning gain, and finally its application on the job, mobile apps for learning will provide a demonstrable gain on ROI. You can also take a look at this video to see why mobile apps are the right fit for your learning strategy:
I hope this article triggers a re-evaluation of your existing learning strategy and helps you leverage on mobile learning trends such as mobile apps for learning. If you have any queries or need support on integrating mobile apps for learning into your learning strategy, do contact me. You can also refer to my previous articles:
We all indulge in some form of Social Learning or other. According to Richard Walters and Albert Bandura who proposed the Social Learning Theory, we learn from each other through observation, imitation and modelling. The Social Learning Theory that Walters and Bandura came up with is regarded as a bridge between the cognitive and behaviourist learning theories as it touches upon aspects such as memory, motivation and attention.
Walters and Bandura have made some interesting observations. According to the Social Learning Theory first outlined by them in 1963 and then discussed in further detail in 1977:
We learn when we observe other people’s attitudes, behaviours and the outcomes of those behaviours.
The learning that takes place is not purely behavioural; it is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context.
Our learning involves observation, extraction of information from those observations and making decisions about the performance of the behaviour. Thus, learning can occur without an observable change in behaviour.
Mere reinforcement is not entirely responsible for learning although it does play a major role.
We are not passive recipients of information. Aspects such as cognition, environment and behaviour all mutually influence each other for our learning to take place.
The social media phenomenon that we see today justifies a lot of these observations they made with their Social Learning Theory. Almost everything has gone “social” today and if this phenomenon is not leveraged for learning, you’re missing out on something that a majority of your learner population relates to. Want more insights on how Social Learning can turn things around for Corporate Training initiatives? Check out our Online Portfolio or schedule a call with our Solution Architecting Team. Check out these resources:
In this article, I will outline what mobile learning apps are and the benefits they offer. Using a case study featuring Gamified Assessments in the Mobile App format, I will showcase the impact they can create.
Using Mobile Learning Apps For Microlearning-Based Training: Introduction
The modern-day population is swiping its way to pretty much everything –shopping, banking, music, movies– you name it! Besides, the fact that people do it all on their own devices gives it that personal “touch” as well. Learning and Development (L&D) departments the world over recognize the power of this medium and are looking to “tap” (or “double tap” if you like) into the potential it has on offer. We have used mobile learning apps for varied requirements from microlearning to supplementing primary eLearning or ILT programs (learning aids or Performance Support Tools) as well as for assessments. In this article, I will outline what mobile learning apps are and the benefits they offer. Using a case study featuring gamified assessments in the mobile app format, I will showcase the impact they can create.
What Are Mobile Learning Apps?
As the name suggests, mobile learning apps are a delivery format that provides learners with the flexibility to learn anywhere, anytime, even without internet connection. A mobile learning app lets you view your learning content offline from your mobile device. You do need internet access to download the course though and so is the case with tracking the progress of learners through the Learning Management System. Given this flexibility, they are fast emerging as an important training delivery format, particularly for microlearning.
What Are The Advantages Of Using Mobile Learning Apps?
The benefits range from its suitability for people on the move for offline and online viewing, popularity with millennials, and high completion rates it commands. Probably the most significant advantage is that mobile apps provide access to just-in-time information within the learners’ work-flow dramatically increasing its usage at the time of need. Also, the possibility to push new content on the go makes it an effective tool for performance enhancement.
Where Do Mobile Learning Applications Find The Right Fit In Today’s Learning Strategy?
Mobile learning apps can serve as your double cheeseburger as well as the little beverage pack that goes with it – you can use it to offer bite-sized formal training or as a supplement to formal training. They are also an ideal fit when it comes to just-in-time learning aids and Performance Support Tools or PSTs (such as Ready Reckoners, Checklists, Tips, and so on). These PSTs are designed keeping mobile-compatibility in mind and making them available on mobile devices to learners when they need them the most just makes performance enhancement on the job that much better. 1. For primary learning (formal training). They can be used as microlearning nuggets considering the short attention spans learners tend to have when using mobile devices. 2. As a supplement to formal training. 1. Mobile apps are a good fit to provide pre and post assessments for formal training (online or blended). 2. They can be effectively used as practice sessions or reinforcements of formal training through videos/examples/scenarios. I will now share a case study that features an assessment-based microlearning nugget that we delivered as a mobile app. Background: eLearning solution at EI Design is targeted at users who are always on the move and depend on their mobile devices for their digital learning needs specifically when it comes to engaging and interactive content.
Our mobile app features an assessment game which serves as an assessment module for the learners as part of a larger learning program.
The design is very flexible and the facilitator can push various quizzes and assessment games into the app to check the proficiency gained in various topics/modules covered in the program.
The app is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows, and BlackBerry devices.
Solution Highlights While the app format uses a set of questions and challenges that play out as a game, it is designed to teach a definitive learning outcome. It enables learners to understand the power of a service quality model (RATER model). To provide the perspective, here is an overview of the model: 1. Responsiveness. Your ability to provide a quick and high quality service to your customer. 2. Assurance. Your ability to use your knowledge, skills, and credibility to inspire trust and confidence in your customer. 3. Tangibles. The quality of physical evidence of the service you provide, such as infrastructure, staff, marketing materials, and so on to attract the customer. 4. Empathy. Your ability to understand your customers and the quality of relationship you share with them. 5. Reliability. Your ability to provide the service you have promised consistently, accurately, and on time.
Game Dynamics
The game has five phases mapping to the five ways to measure service quality using the RATER model.
The learners have the chance to earn a star in each phase (5 phases = 5 Stars = Winner).
The learners need to score 100% to get a star and move to the next phase.
At the end of each phase (irrespective of whether they get the star or not), they are given reference material to read through about the particular phase. If they confirm downloading the material, they earn bonus points which they can redeem in the later phases of the game.
The content of the RATER model is overlaid with a restaurant theme where the learners need to take up five challenges related to the RATER model and build a successful 5-star rated restaurant.
One of the key features is the leaderboard, which is linked to the database on the cloud server. This allows the learners to check their performance against their peers.
The following screenshots illustrate how the learners progress through the gamified app: The welcome screen followed by the credentials screen.
The game challenge is defined here along with instructions on how to play.
The first challenge for the learners is shown here.
On successfully attempting the first challenge, the learners get a star and points. Additionally, they get to read reference material related to the first level challenge. On clicking the button to read the reference material, they gain bonus points in the form of gold coins.
