Why Offer Mobile Learning

Higher Course Completion in Less Time!

If your CEO asked you how to get higher e-learning completion rates in a shorter amount of time, would you know the answer?

One answer: Mobile Learning. According to a case study conducted by Merrill Lynch, mobile learners had a 12% higher completion rate than courses completed on a laptop. Also cited in this study is that the learners completed the training in 30% less time. The reasons for these two great success statistics can be attributed to two interesting statistics:

1. Mobile learners study 40 minutes more each week by studying everywhere they go.
2. Students with smartphones are twice as likely to study between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.

Deliver Your 70:20:10 Strategy

If you ask most HR, Training & Development, OD and Talent Management leaders, they will be familiar with these statistics: 70:20:10 which means:

• 70% of development happens on the job – it happens by doing
• 20% of development happens through coaching and mentoring
• 10% of development happens through formal training which includes instructor led workshops and e-learning courseware.

Most companies spend the vast majority of their training budgets on formal training rather than on focusing where they can get the biggest return on their training investment – on the job. According to a study titled “Bridging the Gap – Integrating Learning & Work” conducted by Towards Maturity, they found that “94% of respondents seek to speed up the application of learning back into the workplace and only 23% feel that they achieve this”.

Clearly, the respondents in this study would like to adopt the 70:20:10 and the majority are looking for solutions to accomplish this. If you are part of the 94% that are looking to speed up the application learning back on the job, you need to consider a mobile learning strategy. When you do this, your learners can learn on the job, while they are working on a specific issue or problem and need a solution (some call this “the point of need”). They can access their mobile learning course and then implement the solution in real time. By providing learning content that can be accessed while on the job, companies are leveraging the natural way a person develops—on the job. So, to deliver on your 70:20:10 strategy, you will need to adopt a mobile learning strategy.

Engage your Millenials

It is predicted that by the end of 2014, 36% of the workforce will be made up of Millenials. These workers have grown accustomed to using their hand held devices for all their social needs, including watching You Tube videos, gaming, banking, shopping and much more. And they have come to expect the same mobile convenience with their on the job training.

Companies are responding by bringing the training to them—on their mobile device—where they are comfortable and familiar. As a result, they will be more engaged with the training. By providing your Millenials with learning where they are comfortable and familiar with the delivery method, they will be more engaged with the training.

Mobile Learning 3 Content Design Tips

So, you have decided to adopt mobile learning and you’re ready to create or purchase learning content. Can you simply take your current e-learning courseware library and ask your mobile leaners to use those courses? Probably not.

Mobile learning content needs to be designed with the audience and intended use in mind. Here are 3 tips to consider when creating or converting your learning content into mobile learning content:

1. Short, bite sized learning content. To enable your 70:20:10 strategy and to keep a learner engaged on a small screen, your mobile learning courses need to be short—2 to 4 minutes of learning content. This means one discreet learning objective at a time.
2. Videos. Not just videos, high definition HTML videos. Without getting into the technical details, HTML will work on the i-products whereas Flash videos will not. And you need high definition because your Millenials are accustomed to high definition video games and they have come to expect high definition videos in their learning courses.
3. Job Aids. Again, to enable your 70:20:10 or performance support strategy, provide Job Aids. This will help learners apply learning content on the job, as well as provide something tangible to use once they exit the course.

If you incorporate these three design principles into your mobile learning strategy, you will be delivering mobile learning courses that will meet your mobile learners’ needs, leading to higher completion rates in less time. Another benefit: while you cannot deliver your e-learning courses as m-learning courses, you can get a dual benefit and deliver your mobile learning courses to your e-learning learners, increasing your return on investment for all mobile learning courses created or purchased.

If you are looking to deliver mobile learning and experience similar results, check out Vado’s mobile ready courseware. All management development and employee soft skill development courses are optimized for the mobile learner.

Author: Cindy Pascale
Cindy Pascale is the CEO and co-founder of Vado and has 16+ years of HR, Training & Development and OD leadership experience and 12 years running talent management, development and assessment companies. Vado is the e-learning courseware provider ‘changing the face of learning’.

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