Book Review: Designing mLearning, by Clark N. Quinn

On the Website that supports Designing mLearning: Tappinginto the mobile revolution for organizational performance, authorClark N. Quinn says his book is intended to provide “acomprehensive basis for you to take advantage of mobile learning.”

I believe that hehas more than achieved that aim, beyond any other book on the subjectthat I have seen to date. As an author myself, I marvel at the wayClark has captured so much practical advice and design wisdom in only256 pages. This is a great resource for instructional designers,developers, media experts, managers, and anyone else withresponsibility for supporting performance in organizations.

Performance? Isn’t mLearning about learning?

This is the question that bookstorebrowsers may ask when they see the title. Quinn’s response in theIntroduction is that, “[M]obile is not about courses, but insteadsupports a broad definition of learning, including innovation,collaboration, research, design and more, generating new products,services, and problems solved. Whether providing needed tools,augmenting learning, or connecting individuals, mobile is a powerfulnew tool for supporting performance.”

Practitioners needto, as he says several times in the ensuing pages, learn to thinkdifferently about what they are doing. Not only are organizations ofall sizes and types already applying mobile devices to improve theirresults by improving individual performance, the potential is (inClark’s words) awesome, and we are already seeing how readilydoable mLearning is.

A complete and efficient guide

Clark provides an efficient four-partstructure to deliver the comprehensive approach that he promised.After a quick (but for some readers, necessary) review of the historyof learning and a survey of devices available today, he addresses theprocess of designing, delivering, and deploying mobile solutions,along with their strategic implications and related trends. He doesnot ignore technology, but he puts it into proper perspective as hequotes Jay Cross, “INATT: It’s Not About The Technology.”

Along the way,Quinn keeps the discussion grounded and real with actual examples.Questions at the end of most chapters are meant to help readers checktheir understanding as they prepare to develop and deliver mobilelearning.

Plenty to like

There is so much in this book, and ithas so much depth, that it would be easy to write a couple ofthousand words more about it. But respecting your time, and Clark’sneed to be rewarded by sales of his book, here are some of theaspects of the work that seemed to me most valuable. (You can see hissummary of the contents and the book outline athttps://www.designingmlearning.com/.)

Addressing misconceptions

In a section that many readers willdog-ear or copy verbatim for use in the inevitable arguments aboutimplementing mobile, Clark names and counters the familiarmisconceptions, from “We can’t provide mobile learning devices”to “courses on a phone don’t seem like a good idea” to concernsabout the small screen size, cost of programming, the (assumed) needto always be connected, and more. He moves from this to theconvincing business case, based on the way that mobile devices arealready making people more effective wherever and whenever they are.

Change begins with ourselves

For the more conservative amonglearning practitioners (and we all have some cherished notions thatwe cling to), Quinn demonstrates throughout the book that we need achange in the mindset of the learning unit itself – whether it’sstyled a Training Department or a Learning Group. He shows how andwhy we must make the important strategic shift from informationprovider to performance facilitator. He offers the handy idea ofthinking “task by percentage improvement” to which we attachdollars or time measures. In other words, think about how we canimprove productivity, doing more with the same resources.

He supports this with plenty ofinformation about what we know today to be true about learning andcognition. This includes discussions of informal and social learning.These will be invaluable for those who are new to the learning field,or as resource material for managers, executives, and others to stopthinking in terms of classrooms and sages on stages.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

You probablyalready know that Clark Quinn has a substantial and long standingreputation for expertise. But he has done an excellent job inDesigning mLearning by citing and crediting the work ofothers, from whom he has learned and to whom he recommends thereader. He builds upon these to provide new insights into mobilelearning, elaborating to show how to think about mobile learning as alearning augment, as performance support, and as formal learning.

Practicality and application

Quinn provides concrete examples fromreal life — 38 pages, a big chunk of the book. This assortment ofexamples offers ideas that will be helpful to managers and designers.

Throughout the book, he includessidebars that explain ideas, terms, concepts, and devices, such as“Microblogging,” “Handhelds for K12,” “QR Codes,” “TheLeapster,” “mLearning as a Cognitive Augment,” “RethinkingLearning,” “The GPS as Performance Support,” “Skills”, and“Cognitive Apprenticeship.”

He provides mobile models for deliveryof full courses, for learning adjuncts, and for performance support.He provides exercises and worksheets that will help readers really“get” mobile and to “think different.”

Brass tacks for design and implementation

For actual design work, in the thirdpart of the book Quinn shows the reader the “platform approach.”This requires seeing mobile capability as an infrastructure thatsupports other initiatives, including learning and performancesupport. He develops this approach carefully, beginning with theanalysis that is so necessary (and so often left out) to good design.

His discussion usesall that he presented earlier in the book, in a search for elegantsolutions. What he offers is a process that is both elegant andpragmatic, supporting both learning and performance support. I amsure that instructional designers will be very pleased with thissection.

He also provides avery sound chapter on implementing and evaluating mobile solutions,including testing and revision. This is another necessary activitythat is often not done. He remains practical and realistic aboutthis, and addresses the issues that will come up across legal, HumanResources, and IT: social policy, accessibility, security, and whatdevices and support to provide.

The fourth sectionof the book, “Looking Forward,” presents strategic views of wherewe are headed and what we will find when we get there, as well asencouraging the reader to make the journey.

Appendices includea concise but useful bibliography, a glossary of terms that will benew to readers just getting started in mobile, worksheets foranalyzing mobile opportunities, and a checklist for development.

Summary

If you are in the learning andperformance field for the long haul, this book belongs on your shelf.Mobile is no passing fad. As a platform for many roles andinitiatives, it is already here, it is here to stay, and it willbecome more and more dominant over the coming years. You will need tobe able to design and deliver effective mobile learning andperformance support.

Clark Quinn has produced a book thatwill remain essential to practitioners for many of those years tocome, in spite of the rapid rate of change that we see in specificdevices and technologies. He can update the book to accommodate thosechanges, while the wisdom he shares about design and strategy aretimeless. I believe that is the basic secret of how he managed somuch in so few pages.

This could become a classic in ourfield, destined to guide practitioners for the next several decades.It is definitely already a keeper.

Publisher information

Quinn, Clark N. (2011) Designing mLearning: Tapping into themobile revolution for organizational performance. San Francisco:Pfeiffer. 256 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0470604489. Publisher Price: $44.00(hardcover and Kindle editions)