Mobile devices have opened up new avenues to deliver training to employees, especially those who are constantly on the go. The challenge is to provide training that is effective, engaging, and, ideally, uniquely mobile. Many organizations are introducing game elements as a way to reach learners and hold their interest. Combining game elements and game design with the training content can do just that if properly designed and delivered.

Access to relevant information in a timely manner is a growing need of people in both their professional and personal lives. Leveraging augmented reality technologies on mobile platforms provides quick and easy access of information required to complete a job at hand more efficiently or simply to enhance a learning process.

While most organization see mLearning as something new, it’s actualy been in existsnece in some form for well over a decade. Just as mobile technology has advanced and evolved during that time, so to have the strategies we use to leverge these technologues for learning and performance. Understanding where we have been, and the lessons we learned getting to this point, will help better prepare us for the continued evolution of mLearning in the future.

mLearning programming is often needlessly repetitive, which makes the work inefficient and increases project costs. In other cases, the programming leads to undesirable design tradeoffs because engaging interactions can be difficult and time consuming to develop. A cursory investigation into ways to reduce programming repetitiveness and improve engagement level might lead one to think this problem could be easily resolved through tools or templates. However, it’s not that simple.

It’s increasingly difficult for administrators and developers to cope with the speed at which technological devices enter the market and the pockets of learners. eLearning professionals are faced with the challenge of finding the best response to internal or external demands for content delivery in the latest device, while still demonstrating sound pedagogy/andragogy, learning outcomes, and fiscal responsibility. And it’s only going to get more challenging in the future.

Being able to develop learning that works on multiple devices is very relevant in the learning industry today. Organizations are under increasing amounts of pressure to meet tight deadlines and to keep budgets down. Learning professionals are going to need tools that help them keep up with the growing demands of the multi-device workplace.

The widespread adoption of mobile devices has created many opportunities to enhance learning programs, but it has also brought new challenges. 20th Century Fox, a leader in the film, television, and entertainment industry, was able to successfully meet those challenges in its combined online and offline learning solution for managing courseware and critical training data through mobile devices for its employees worldwide.

Too many guidelines for mobile eLearning are based on opinion, not empirical research. This can really derail the effectiveness of learning programs. In addition, in an environment where every budget dollar is critical, organizations can not afford to waste time and money on poor mobile instructional design. There are now examples and case studies that enable us to take a more credible and research-supported path to mobile learning.

There is a frustration on the part of many HTML designers and instructional designers. While they would love to be able to place content directly on an iPhone or iPad as a native app, they soon realize that a solid knowledge of Xcode is required. If you want a native experience without having to learn iOS, Android, and BlackBerry (soon Windows 8) native development, then Titanium is the perfect solution.

Current studies show that more than five billion people will be using mobile devices by 2017, making smartphones and tablets more prevalent and accessible than desktop or laptop computers. Mobile learning has the ability to be a truly global solution for education delivery. At the same time, organizations must develop new knowledge and skills to support this expanded scope of learning.

Sometimes you have to capture video but don’t have access to your video camera, DSLR, or point-and-shoot camera. However, you do have something in your pocket, backpack, or purse that can capture exceptional video: your smartphone. These days, almost all smartphones are capable of recording high quality video. The trick is understanding how to use your smartphone camera effectively.

There’s a growing interest in creating interactive digital books for learning. The challenge is that there are several publication formats and many different vendor applications to use to build an interactive book. Knowing which format and/or tool to use, when to use it, and what’s involved in creating your content in the format provided by the vendor can seem overwhelming.