You don’t have the choice anymore… Go full on Mobile Learning

Futureproof your workforce leveraging mobile devices to give your team flexibility, self-direction and meaningful learning experiences.

Mobile learning is becoming the norm of eLearning, and this makes complete sense in a world with 5.1 billion unique mobile users¹.

While just a few years ago, mobile phones were not allowed in training sessions and everyone was checking their whatsapp under the table, nowadays the paradigm has shifted and our workforce expects us to embrace the ‘always on my Smartphone’ and ‘always connected’.

When implementing a mobile learning strategy, we need to leverage the mobile-based social behaviour to create effective learning experiences that, moreover, resonate with our employees.

Let’s have a look at why:

1. Giving your team flexibility

A recent study² shows that 71% of employees want to choose where and when they are taking training; whether it is on the job because they need to access a specific knowledge at a specific time, while taking a business trip or in the field. A solid mobile learning strategy, designed to make training accessible and effective across all devices, will give your team the flexibility they want to approach learning in the workplace.

2. Empowering employees to learn

With mobile learning, you enable your workforce to self-manage their learning and development by accessing information as they need it, whether at work or during downtime, rather than you pushing it to them when you think they do. An average of approximately 38% of employees from all generations agree with fully self-directed and independent learning³. This includes both what and when they learn, as 68%⁴ say they would pick up skills faster if they had more direct control over the pace of workplace learning. With your content and training at the reach of their mobile devices, you are giving your team the kind of learning experience they want to engage with.

3. Engaging the next generation employee

39% of employees deeply value the opportunity to learn and grow in the workplace⁵. So as millennials and Gen Z become the largest groups in the working population, it’s crucial to adapt our learning strategy to make it relevant for them and increase employee retention. By cleverly using technology and a mobile approach in our L&D, we’ll cater to both the mobile-natives already in the workforce, and those who are to come.

4. Boosting microlearning

Microlearning consists of structuring learning in small units; it is proved to increase retention⁶ and creates a better sense of accomplishment. Indeed, 26% of employees say they want bite size-learning rather than big chunks of content⁷. When using mobile devices, we are already used to consuming bite-size content, so they are the optimal channel for us to give our employees short and meaningful bursts of learning as well. 

5. Encouraging collaboration and social learning

More than 50% of each generation of employees, from Baby boomers to Gen Z, value the ability to collaborate with instructors and/or other learners. At the same time, research indicates that this kind of collaboration is fundamental for effective professional learning⁸. Since nowadays we all use smartphones naturally to talk and socialise, they are also the ideal tool to collaborate when we learn. By encouraging the use of mobile devices as a learning tool, you’re providing your workforce with the ideal setting to connect with each other and with instructors while they go through courses, building a true collaborative social learning environment. 

6. Learning in the flow of work

Josh Bersin coined the concept of “Learning in the flow of work”, which refers to the need and the ability of employees to learn while they are on the job. Because, let’s be honest, the biggest issue for employees to learn is having the time – employees take less than 25 minutes of time to actually slow down and learn in a given week⁹. In addition to the lack of time for learning, employees have also developed digital behaviours to address their own skills gap – 74% of people say that they use their phone during work to find information to do their jobs. This is therefore crucial to adapt learning to these key challenges and provide meaningful mobile experiences: Bite-size learning? Video content? Short text? Every company’s culture is different, so just go and try.

Conclusion

Companies need to rethink how they design learning experiences to be more employee-centric in order to retain talent and close skill gaps. In today’s mobile-centric world, smartphones are not only an additional tool when it comes to learning and development, but they should be part of our overall L&D strategy if we want to adapt to the changing needs of companies, employees and digital behaviours. So today, having a mobile learning strategy is not a nice to have anymore, it’s a must. 

Learn more about Moodle Workplace, our corporate LMS solution that enables you to provide fully mobile experiences.

^{[1] Digital 2019: Global digital overview
[2] Kineo 2019, Learning and Development Survey by City and Guilds
[3] LinkedIn 2019 Workplace Learning Report
[4] Kineo 2019, Learning and Development Survey by City and Guilds
[5] LinkedIn Research 2018
[6] Ways Microlearning Increases Attention And Retention
[7] Learning and Development, Raconteur, 2019
[8] Mobile learning for teacher professional learning: benefits, obstacles and issues
[9] The Disruption of Digital Learning: Ten Things We Have Learned}