The potential for mobile learning is to engage employees on their terms and provide useful learning
in a format that they recognize and want. But we know this, because we’re
mobile users ourselves, and that realization can be the inspiration for a
better understanding of how to make mobile learning successful. Here are five
tips that will help you as you identify your mobile learning content.
Look at
yourself first
Analyze
yourself and how you use your mobile devices for learning. It’s interesting
that our mobile content consumption habits are rarely about learning but often
about finding things out, preparing to perform, and
discovery. The worst sin of corporate online learning has been creating or
sourcing eLearning that we ourselves wouldn’t choose. So, first of all, pay
attention to what you do and then ask
peers, colleagues, and friends what they do, too.
Deliver learning content in a format that people want to engage
with
YouTube is the world’s most popular content website, with “how to” searches increasing by 70 percent every year, so learn from them and use video whenever you can. Industry expert Mary Meeker predicts that by 2017, 74 percent of all internet traffic will be video. But don’t be daunted or paralyzed by the thought of not getting video right. YouTube isn’t all about high-quality production either. There’s nothing quite like getting the right people in front of a camera to share high-value messages and instruction.
YouTube is also easy and pleasing to use. The UX (user
experience) of your mobile learning platform could be even more important than
your content, as today’s users simply won’t tolerate poor UX.
Anticipate moments of need
We now know
that video is king. But what do you record? To capitalize on how we find what
we need online when we need it, think about the micro-moments that employees might be
experiencing. According to Google, micro-moments are the “I-want-to-go,
I-want-to-do, I-want-to-buy, or I-want-to-know moments when people are turning
to devices to find answers, discover new things, or make decisions.” Try to
come at this from two different angles: what do you want employees to do and to
know, and what do they want to do and to know?
Don’t feel you have to mobilize all your learning at once
It’s great
that you’ve mobilized your first initiative but your people won’t be clamoring
for all their learning to be immediately available to them on their devices.
Often, the pressure we feel comes only from within ourselves. By all means, you’ll
receive requests and recommendations, but the trick is to create more
contextually relevant content over time
and put together a schedule to deliver it. And while you’re planning...