What is mobile learning (mLearning)?

What is mobile learning (mLearning)?

mleren: an overview

mlearning (mobile learning) is “learning on the go” typically used on smartphones/tablets and allows students to learn seamlessly across devices. Due to the changing dynamics in the workplace, training must be delivered to meet the needs of distance learners, and learning is the way to go.

You can use mlearning to manage the entire spectrum of your training needs, including formal training, informal learning, direct/just-in-time learning aids, self-directed learning, and social or collaborative learning.

What are mobile-friendly designs in mlleren?

The designs used for mobile-friendly learning reflect the more widely available design approach (adaptive) used to design learning courses. They provide support for multiple devices. Nevertheless, they still cater to the way students use laptops/desktops. This method extends seamlessly to tablets.

In smartphones, this method only works in landscape mode. When converted to portrait mode, there will be a lot of empty space as the design shrinks to a visible area. While the courses work on all devices, it’s important to remember that the student interactions in this method are not necessarily aligned with the way we operate our mobile devices.

What are mobile-first or responsive designs in learning?

Mobile-first designs (responsive) are optimized to be managed on smartphones. This is then extended to tablets and laptops or desktops.

Not only does this method demonstrate a fully responsive design approach (where the content is dynamically changed in a visible area), but the significant difference also lies in the learning interactions that are reflective of the way we use our mobile devices.

What is the significance of learning in the current business landscape?

Here are some factors driving the rapid adoption of mlearning:

  1. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workplace, it has become a necessity to provide m-learning solutions that can be used by remote learners who work from home.
  2. Most of us use a lot of smartphones throughout the day. Applying this for learning is a plausible extension.
  3. Increasingly, organizations are offering Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, giving students control to learn on the devices of their choice.
  4. Students want learning to be part of their workflow so they don’t have to log into the LMS all the time.
  5. Students prefer formats that are more appealing to them. These include formats such as videos, animated videos, interactive videos or podcasts that were not part of traditional eLearning but are an integral part of learning.

What are the benefits of learning?

Value for students

From a learner’s perspective, learning offers the following benefits:

  1. Workout on the go or while they work from home.
  2. On-demand, anytime, anywhere access.
  3. Gives them control over when and how they consume content.
  4. Allows them to consume at their own pace.
  5. Can be pulled (instead of pushed) by them as needed.
  6. Syncs with their lifestyle.

Value for organizations and L&D teams

These are the main benefits that mlearning offers organizations and L&D teams:

  1. Address both remote learners and a geographically dispersed audience.
  2. Higher involvement.
  3. Better completion rates.
  4. Easy to update and redeploy.
  5. Lower costs compared to classroom/ILT.

What are the benefits of learning in corporate training?

Availability

mlearning is a self-paced online training available to learners anytime and on the go on mobile devices (tablets and smartphones). Ideally, the same training would be available on desktops/laptops, allowing students to learn on the device of their choice.

usability

The technological support to create effective learning has remained the same and the suite of authoring tools offers several options. By looking at how the training will be consumed, you can choose between mobile-friendly (adaptive) or mobile-centric (responsive) designs.

Handy size

mlearning offers tremendous flexibility, even in terms of size, for learners to choose the device they want to learn on, when they want to learn, and most importantly, how quickly they can consume and process the learning.

social touch

If students need something urgent, they will likely leave a message in one of their WhatsApp groups or other chat applications (collaborative/social learning). The change in the learner’s attitude towards getting to know what they want to know clearly justifies the adoption of the ml-learning approach.

Engagement

Students prefer formats that are more appealing to them. These include formats such as videos, animated videos, interactive videos or podcasts that were not part of traditional eLearning but are an integral part of learning.

What are the disadvantages of learning in company training?

Technical differences

As an application that runs on a device according to the instructions embedded in it, software is affected by various external factors that hinder its lifespan. These factors, which change trends in IT, include frequent system crashes, failure to upgrade to new versions, compatibility issues, and so on.

Bad wireless connection

This is a major problem in rural areas where internet access and electricity supply are not yet common. Providing people in these areas with the opportunity to learn ml does not make sense, as they do not have the basic facilities needed to carry out ml learning.

diversion

Since learning is mainly conducted via mobile phones, it can be a source of distraction as students may spend time on social media websites or video game websites rather than on the learning application.

How do you distinguish learning from eLearning?

Other purpose

Unlike eLearning, which focuses on equipping the learner with specific skills or comprehensive information on a very specific topic, such as data science or quantum physics, mLearning aims to support continuous learning by delivering short, bite-sized micro-lessons that quickly deliver results. yield. dissemination of information.

Different length of a lesson

While eLearning lessons that deliver in-depth information last between 20 and 30 minutes, ml-learning lessons are much shorter and often last no longer than 10 minutes. They are suitable for employees who are short on time but need quick access to important pieces of information.

Different output method

eLearning takes place via desktop computers and laptops, leaving students confined to their desks. Learning is delivered through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets that allow the learning process to continue regardless of where the learner is.

How do you implement learning in business environments?

1. Top Tips for Succeeding in Learning

You can bid personalized training in a learning format to meet the diverse training needs of workers, in particular:

  • When it is needed (just-in-time learning or performance support tools).
  • To practice and acquire skills to succeed in the current job.
  • To improve specific skills that align with business objectives.
  • New skills or skills to nurture in the company.
  • Leadership development skills.

2. Make onboarding easy

Any corporate training initiative—including introduction and onboarding of employees– traditionally delivered in the ILT format, could benefit from a multilingual training approach.

3. Make your training program mobile-friendly

As mentioned, mobile-friendly designs reflect the more universally available adaptive approach to designing multi-learning courses. The designs support multiple devices, but they still fit the way students use the laptops/desktops.

4. Use microlearning to increase retention

Proper use of microlearning in conjunction with mLearning helps achieve learning outcomes comparable to other learning strategies and improves memory and retention.

5. Use video content

A versatile medium, videos and interactive videos are great tools to help L&D teams with corporate training, and learning is the logical way to deliver them to the learners. You can use mLearning for video-based learning or interactive video-based learning to increase the impact of learning:

  • Teaser videos to increase engagement and motivate students.
  • Conceptual videos.
  • Videos to determine the context.
  • Videos to accelerate change management initiatives.
  • Flag videos scenario-based learning (SBL) to encourage change in thinking and behaviour.

6. Integrate Gamification

With the increased adoption of gamification and microlearning in online training, mobile apps for training can use short, bite-sized, targeted learning nuggets that can be presented through a gamified learning path. This further magnifies their impact.

7. Encourage Binge Learning

mlearning enables students to access training on the go and switch between learning devices – from smartphone to tablet and then to laptop – and continue learning on the go, wherever they are (subway, cafeteria, home or airport).

Goodbye Thoughts

I hope the tips mentioned in this article about the value and importance of learning help you implement it effectively in your corporate training environment.

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