Top Six BYOD Considerations: Adopting an Open (Screen) Door Policy

Our company recently completeda project for a Global 2000 enterprise to implement a mobile learning solutionwith a highly customized set of training apps for salespeople, optimized for deliveryto their company-issued Apple iPhone handsets and iPad tablets. Thirty days afterthe launch, that company’s CIO announced imminent IT support for what he termedan “open door” bring-your-own-device (“BYOD”) initiative that quickly reset expectationsfor how workers might access organizational training content on a wider varietyof devices including Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry-based devices.

That company’s T&D team hadbeen aware of the future possibility of BYOD becoming a long-term reality, buteveryone was taken aback by the overnight policy shift that unlocked thepreviously closed and dead-bolted “supported devices” door. The ramifications ofthat swing in strategy impacted the T&D teams’ efforts to deliver training.The impacts include the in-process content creation, the tools being used, theinterface design being deployed, the internal help-desk and tech-support teams’support capabilities, integration and security policies, and even procurementsince supporting personal devices would be altogether different than supportingcorporate-owned and sanctioned devices.

This and other recentcustomer examples of device policy “loosening” leads us to offer some words ofcaution for organizations seeking to announce sweeping change in a show ofmobile-device acceptance and employee devotion. Adopt what we’d refer to as a“screen door” policy for BYOD—one that, on a nice summer day, allows fresh airin but keeps all the pests out.

Theimmediate challenges

BYOD policies are beginningto transform the way many organizations distribute information and providetraining and support. The obvious benefits are a reduction in device and operationalcosts, by promoting anytime, anywhere access to business services for workersusing their trusty “daily communicators”—the phones and tablets they bought and/orprefer (or those legacy devices they have grown accustomed to relying on) versuscompany-owned devices issued by their employers. But broad, open door (read:everyone is welcome) BYOD policies introduce an array of new challenges andconsiderations for IT and T&D teams alike that a company’s leadership maynot fully appreciate or have planned for. Compounding these challenges, thesupport is really three times the effort. Knowledge workers now regularlyperform work-related tasks on an average of three unique, intelligent devices everyweek—commonly that’s a laptop or desktop computer, an app-capable smartphone,and a personal or shared tablet device or eBook reader. That is likely to onlyincrease with the newer devices like smart watches, head-mounted displays, andother cloud-enabled gadgets aimed at keeping us better connected, informed, andmotivated.

The challenge this plethoraof devices introduces is exacerbated by the notion that different communities ofworkers often carry different generations of devices. A healthy segment ofworkers are enthralled by the fancy new gadgets introduced nearly every month whilethose at the other end of the adoption spectrum view their devices merely as away to stay connected with their family and friends for essential, occasionalcommuniqués. Wherein the first group loves the new shiny objects, the lattergroup is perfectly content in carrying a three- or four-year-old device thathasn’t been updated for just as long, which often equates to them being severalgenerations behind in terms of device support, security, and functionality.

Thankfully, a variety oftools and approaches exists that T&D teams can adopt to ensure fullreadiness whenever BYOD becomes an organizational reality. And an open (screen)door policy can ensure broad support while providing necessary protections fromthose pesky outside elements.

Thetop six BYOD considerations for T&D teams

Beyond all the industry hype,there are several central themes and issues you should focus on as you prepare yourteam for broader BYOD initiatives. Our top six BYOD considerations for training& development teams in today’s enterprise learning organizations are:

1.Create flexible learning experiences

You’re going to need a consistentapproach to the way you organize, deliver, and manage your learning content. Bemindful of creating a learning experience that matches or thematically mirrorsyour traditional online learning experiences, which likely also need updating. Assuminglearners can just access your standard learning portal via their device’s webbrowser is likely a poor judgment call when considering what the mobileexperience should be.

Best practice

Implement a learning-portalarchitecture that is mobile aware and build it using tools and frameworks likejQuery Mobile using flexible CSS interfaces that can be rendered differentlyfor both your online- and mobile-learning communities. And make sure you’veverified smooth operation on as many internet-connected devices as possible (bothmodern and legacy).

2.Define your device universe

Next, it’s imperative youdetermine and document a well-defined list of mobile devices your team intendsto permit—devices you’ll allow through your screen door rather than allowing useof anything and everything. Realize that your list may be more concise than thedevices IT plans to support under their BYOD policies for tasks like accessingcorporate email or intranets. You should consider supporting what I’d term“tier one” devices, which include most of the “top- and middle-shelf” offeringsbeing sold by wireless carriers around the globe. As stated before, realchallenges come from older devices with restricted screen sizes and incapableweb browsers. Legacy devices also tend to offer poor security features andslower connection speeds, and can force content degradation due to limitedsupport for HTML5.

Best practice

Support the three most recenthandset and tablet models from Apple (iOS7), Microsoft (Windows 8.1, andWindows Phone 8.1 arriving after mid-summer) and Android (Jelly Bean & KitKat); also consider BlackBerry 10 devices if you’re in the financial services,governmental, or other highly secure markets.

3.Provide support for mixed learning approaches

Learning on a mobile deviceis a different experience compared with more traditional instructor-deliveredclasses and online-delivered courses. Mobile devices are great for short, “bursty”learning activities but also a good way to mix formal learning activities withinformal social interactions. Mobile provides easier opportunities to promotethe creation and collection of user-generated content (e.g., taking photos,capturing videos, or recording podcasts) that can turn content consumers intocontent creators. Mobile devices also use competing media formats, storagemechanisms, and encryption methods, which all introduce challenges in a BYODenvironment unless properly organized and managed.

Best practice

Look for mobile learningsolutions that allow you to combine formal training with informal learning interactionsacross highly targeted use cases. For example, leverage the always-connectedaspects of mobile to structure delivery of leadership training or onboardingcampaigns for learners who invariably have their preferred device in theirpocket or purse wherever they may roam.

4.Adopt strict mobile security policies and practices

The only devices IT reallywants to allow through their open door are the ones they feel confident theycan control. But the very nature of BYOD introduces a spectrum of lost controlthat you must properly manage so it doesn’t inflict any damage to yourorganization. Where, for years, assigned usernames and passwords sufficed torestrict access on online resources and applications, most IT organizations nowmandate a wide set of security features to manage access to business servicesfrom worker’s mobile devices. These range from PIN codes, to single sign-on methods,to two-factor authentication, to private app stores, to time-basedrestrictions. IT teams are also implementing sophisticated mobile devicemanagement (“MDM”) platforms that can control the installation of native appson company as well as personally owned devices. MDMs and advanced mobileapplication frameworks also have features to allow for scheduled content updatesand remote-wipe functions used to remove intellectual property from lostdevices or on apps still residing on the personal devices of former employees.

Best practice

The best way to secure accessthrough your BYOD screen door for personally owned devices is via a combinationof private-store native apps delivered through an MDM platform accompanied withsingle sign-on control (with preference for federated security assertion markuplanguage [SAML]).

5.Future proof your content

Scores of books, articles,and webcasts have covered the fact that yesterday’s eLearning courseware is nottoday’s mobile-friendly deliverables. Beyond the concepts of Adobe Flash not being supported, displaysbeing constricted, and seat times being shorter, instructional designers mustidentify and learn new ways to make their digital deliverables more flexibleand device agnostic to reach the learning communities at their BYOD endpoints.A variety of authoring tools and systems based on responsive web design principles are now available. Some are fromthe “old guard” authoring-tool vendors, but many more are from their morenimble challengers that can package and deliver content that dynamically adaptsto the various delivery modalities of a defined BYOD population unimpeded byvariations in screen sizes, operating systems, and browsers etc.

Best practice

Consider responsive toolswhenever creating your new content. And endeavor to make sure whatever tools youuse can output packages that support traditional SCORM-style progress trackingand bookmarking today, and can provide support for the upcoming Experience API(xAPI) activity streams soon to appear everywhere. Intelligent tracking makes themobile experience more seamless for your learners across the full array of theirconnected BYOD devices.

6.Tighten integration with L&D & HR platforms

All previous considerationsflow nicely through the screen of our sixth and final consideration—tighterconnections between mobile workers and your backend systems of record; e.g., yourlearning management system (LMS), talent management system (TMS), and humanresource information system (HRIS). Mobile workers outfitted via their owndevices want assurances that their efforts to learn and grow will count whereit matters most—in the training records and histories managed by T&D.Nothing can divert interest faster than the realization that a mobile learner isunable to use his or her device of choice to complete the required or selectedtraining.

Best practice

Make sure all mobile learningapps directly connect with your LMS/TMS platforms and ensure connections arepossible between your learners and the various document stores, media servers,and internal social networks your teams use to leverage organizationalpreparedness.

Conclusions

The weeks and months thatfollowed the example cited at the beginning of this article were interesting(to say the least), but proper planning and controls delivered all of thedesired outcomes and made “bring your own device” at that organization both practicaland approachable. If you make good choices for the devices you want to support,the tools you use, and the approaches you take, you’ll be similarly prepared toallow all the good in and keep the bad out through a well-managed open-doorpolicy for BYOD.

(Editor’s Note:Several speakers at mLearnCon 2014 (June 24 – 26 in SanDiego), including the author of this article, will present sessions directlyrelevant to readers who have an interest in learning to deal with BYOD issuesand other challenges of mLearning implementation.

Neil Lasher and Steve Howard will present Is IT GivingYou a Hard Time? It May Be About to Get Worse.

Robert Gadd will co-present a featured session withSarah Gilbert, What You Need to Know to Get Started with Mobile Learning; aconcurrent session with Mira Mendlovitz and W.W. Grainger, Getting New Sellers’Feet on the Street Using mLearning; and Next Gen mLearning: Mixing Formal andInformal for Your Mobile Workers.

Fordetails and registration, please go to the mLearnCon home page.)