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AttensiLearnMobile learning: Knowledge on the go

INSIGHTS
Mobile learning: Knowledge on the go

Mobile learning, also known as mLearning, lets employees train on the go – on a phone, tablet, laptop or other device.

As we know, most people are glued to their devices, meaning this style of training will appeal to a diverse mix of Gen Z, millennials and baby boomers.

Here are some key stats on mobile phone usage:

  • Over 85% of the world’s population currently own a smartphone.1
  • By 2025, it’s estimated as many as 72% of all internet users will access the internet through their smartphone.1
  • Globally, the number of smartphone users increased by almost 50% between 2017-2022.1

You need to be where your people are, and they’re on their mobile devices. This means you can make your learning and development more accessible and more effective than ever. 

 

This is learning on the move

There are a range of mobile learning solutions out there, including:

  • Podcasts
  • Games
  • Quizzes
  • Videos

If you can do it on a mobile device away from the workplace, it’s mobile learning. Often paired with microlearning, mLearning is usually short, snappy and packs a punch.

Why you can’t afford to ignore mLearning

When one of the most common reasons for leaving a job is a perceived lack of progression or development, you can’t afford to ignore the increasing popularity of mLearning.

Gone are the days of being confined to a conference room wading through lengthy documents. Whether it’s on planes or trains, your people are ready and waiting for this kind of engaging and impactful learning and development, and they’re ready to do it anywhere.

Your organization has a real opportunity to develop its employees to be confident and capable through the use of mobile-based learning.

Think about how you can use mLearning as part of your wider employee enablement plans.

What’s so great about mobile learning?

Your teams will have the ability to access their training anywhere at any time. This gives them the power to play in a safe space, and repeat things as many times as they need until they’ve achieved mastery.  Another benefit is that all learners have access to the same consistent training, whether they are learning in London or Lima.

Your readily accessible, fun mLearning is a fantastic way to drive user engagement and ultimately improve your completion rates, knowledge retention and employee confidence.

Mobile learning is one of the most perfect platforms for bitesize learning. And we know that bitesize learning (modules between 2-10 minutes long) can often have a direct impact on the quality of knowledge retention in teams.

According to psychiatrist Hermann Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve, we forget as much as 90% of new information over the course of a week. However, there’s now research to suggest that mLearning can improve knowledge retention by as much as 55%.

One of the biggest benefits of mobile learning is how active it requires your participants to be. Where traditional training methods may have been more passive, mobile learning – particularly when you use game and quiz formats – encourages learners to take an active role in their development.

While the leaderboards and collaborative learning encourage your teams to get social and competitive. The more competitive, the more driven they are to repeat their modules until they come out on top. This repetition is what will have the biggest impact on both completion and knowledge retention.

Active learning vs. passive learning

Active learning

  • Will encourage more critical thinking and discussions
  • More interactive – requires decision making and actions from participants
  • Teachers and guides are there to facilitate rather than lecture
  • More ownership and responsibility is placed on the participant to learn

Passive learning

  • Information will generally be passed on without much involvement by participants
  • Knowledge retention is comparatively lower
  • Participants will usually learn through observation
  • Teacher or trainer takes more of the responsibility over training

Empowered learners

When you diversify your learning and development programs, you give your people the chance to learn in the way that suits them best. Empowering them with the right tools drives employee engagement and motivation.

When an engaged, empowered employee is three times as likely to stay in a role for longer2, you can see why it’s important to get it right.

 

Improved completion rates

Modern mobile learning platforms will often have measurement, analytics and feedback capabilities built in. This means you can have direct contact with your teams and monitor ongoing completion rates.

When you take the time to create mobile-first training with improved accessibility, the likelihood of completion increases. There’s evidence to suggest that mobile learners will complete their modules almost 50% faster than their desktop counterparts3.

 

Cost effective

While mobile learning is often a large investment in the initial term, if you’re an organization that’s constantly refreshing and adding new content, mLearning often ends up being more cost effective in the long term.

You immediately remove the cost of a training facility, an instructor and travel expenses to and from venues. You will also remove high printing costs for information that often rapidly goes out of date.

One of the most expensive components of any business is people’s time. Mobile learning allows your people more time to apply what they’ve learnt in their day-to-day real life settings.

  • Total NHS training time was reduced from 46 weeks to just 2, saving 40,000 + frontline staff hours.
  • Attensi training completed in just 3 hours vs. 60 hours of classroom-based training.

 

What does mLearning look like in the workplace?

Here are the things to think about when implementing mLearning into your organization:  

Mobile first, not just mobile ready  

When mobile technology and software has come along so far (particularly since the pandemic), your employees have higher expectations of a mobile training experience.  

These days, think mobile-first rather than mobile ready. Your teams will thank you for it. There’s nothing worse than trying to play a game that won’t display properly on a mobile device. It might be mobile compatible in that it loads and displays, but there’s a big difference between this and something that has been designed specifically to be accessed on a mobile device.  

Flexible training schedules  

‘Flexible’ working is about much more than just working from home. True flexibility means allowing your teams to make decisions about what works best for them – from fully remote to hybrid working.   

Mobile learning gives your teams the flexibility to decide when and where they learn and how regularly they participate.  

 

How to make mobile learning hit the spot

Make it quick

Like we said, microlearning is the perfect partner for mobile learning. Whether your employees are learning on the commute or during a quick coffee break, think about making your mobile learning bite-sized.

Challenge yourself to keep your modules to five minutes or less.

Make it fun

A little healthy competition goes a long way.

When you combine quick, punchy modules with gamification, you’re on to a winning combination that will have your teams coming back for more.

For modern, remote teams, mobile learning may be the missing link in your employee enablement and empowerment. Give your people the tools they need to be truly exceptional.

If you’d like to join our learning revolution and give your teams everything they need for success, talk to one of our Attensi team today.

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Sources

  1. HOW MANY SMARTPHONES ARE IN THE WORLD?, bankmycell.com
  3. Benefits of Mobile Learning, cdn.lynda.com/cms/asset/text/lyndacom-whitepaper-mobile-learning-benefits-20151245042329.pdf