A killer app has been defined as any computer program that is so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology, such as computer hardware, a gaming console, software, or a programming language. Where is the killer app for massive open online courses (MOOCs)? Even though higher education is available for more learners now than ever before and at little or no cost, MOOCs and other innovative online formats for higher education are struggling with completion rates. Online engagement will continue to struggle unless purpose is addressed.  

Mobile devices and applications have finally worked their way into the learning landscape, enabling organizations of all sizes to leverage modern wireless wonders to deliver training, performance support, and business communications to their on-the-go workers. Great devices and rapid technology adoption don’t always outweigh the myriad challenges that hold back mLearning projects, from scaling from smaller pilots to larger implementations. Next-generation ecosystems require next-generation tools, approaches, and teams to ensure adoption, continued utilization, and success.

Developing mobile learning solutions can become complicated if you’re not careful. One wrong turn can leave you mired in extra work you didn’t anticipate. Sometimes this happens due to design decisions. In other cases, the problem stems from choosing the wrong tool, failing to set up templates properly, or any number of other issues.  

While widely used for performance support and learning outside the classroom, and increasingly within K-12 classroom-based environments, mobile devices have not been widely exploited for use in adult classrooms. Even though use cases are not always obvious, the affordances of mobile devices offer great opportunity for supplementing classroom-based learning.

A mobile device affords the ability for a personal experience, such as the apps one chooses, the way the device is organized, preferred media types, the means of communication, and more. People are used to customizing their devices to make their lives easier and to be more efficient. When it comes to training and improving performance, however, people are asking for the same customizability to personalize their learning experience to get exactly what they want/need, when they need it.

Raytheon Professional Services had as a client a global company that has a distributed workforce diagnosing and repairing technical equipment at their customers’ stores. The client wanted to provide a mobile solution to its workforce to allow them to improve upon their key business metrics.

Rent-A-Center has always prided itself on being a pioneer in the rent-to-own industry. In an effort maintain its competitive advantage and significantly increase its customer base, Rent-A-Center decided to occupy the smartphone space. This initiative would require an innovative and revolutionary training strategy to introduce this product line.

Instructional designers are constantly in the process of considering which tools to use in order to best meet the training and development needs of their clients, customers, or learners. Without carefully reviewing the affordances of technologies, instructional design professionals could negatively impact the effectiveness of their educational intervention, lose time, or create a poor design. 

You’ve made a great eLearning course designed to be delivered over your intranet or the Internet. Part of it uses Flash, and your learners use a lot of devices that won’t display Flash. You need to rebuild the Flash parts using HTML5-compliant animations. How do you build a responsive site that all devices, from desktop and laptop computers to tablets and smartphones, can use? 

Global eLearning is a growth market, driven by its benefits of cost reduction, flexibility, and operational ease of use. The creation of a truly global training strategy requires synergy between several areas of expertise. You've invested heavily in instructional design and recruited the best mobile app developers. Now you’ve created a powerful product and you want to offer it across the world in other languages.

How can you prepare for tomorrow when you spend so much of today addressing the needs of yesterday? Mobile technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Historically, the technologies themselves have always preceded L&D by two to four years. This is the time it takes for solid user trialing, new vendor products, and widespread platform adoption. Unfortunately, this lack of forward visibility makes it challenging to keep up with learner expectations and map out future learning technology strategies.

The modern learner complains that they don’t have enough time to do their job, let alone make time for formal training. Many workers are developing their skills and knowledge one problem at a time. They are untethered, empowered, and looking for on-demand access to learning—how do we get them the content they are demanding? 

Accessing learning or performance support assets when on the move is challenging to the learner as well as the expert or provider. We are all moving around the office, complex, country, or world. We need to access information or guidance exactly when needed without leaving our location or process. However, we also need to provide or push information when learners need it without even knowing they do. The speed of business dictates our learning needs, and these days the need for speed is overwhelming.

In recent mobile learning research, college-bound students initially showed a preference for learning environmental science in the classroom through lecture or reading assignments rather than through hands-on learning activities. Though students had access to mobile technologies, they used the mobile technologies for classwork the same way they could use a desktop: searching and reading electronic documents. The classroom teacher and researcher intended to leverage mobile learning technologies to break out of this mold, helping students engage the subject of environmental science first-hand through using mobile tools in the natural environment.

The use of personal mobile devices is a rapidly growing trend in clinical practice and in nursing education. Recent years have seen an increase in the use of personal digital devices (PDDs) by healthcare professionals as well as by the general public. In addition to being small and easy to carry, these technologies combine communications and computing abilities, facilitating mobility as well as information retrieval at the point of care.

More and more companies are creating mobile strategies and mobile applications to integrate with their existing businesses. Training groups are being tasked with getting users up-to-speed on mobile applications and are facing unique challenges with incorporating mobile devices and applications into the traditional classroom setting.

In the transportation industry, many pieces of outdated equipment are being replaced with new, more efficient models. Changes like this can be very disruptive to affected workers. In today’s digital world this problem is becoming ever more common as mobile technologies move processes from levers and handles to buttons and touch screens.

Although microlearning videos are often described as less boring and tedious than their longer workplace training counterparts, brevity alone does not accomplish this. The key is to begin with really good scripts that spell out precisely what you plan to produce, including visuals, narration, dialogue, action, and more. They are essentially design documents with content rolled into one. 

Two of the most popular technologies used to engage learners today are video and mobile. Videos are becoming increasingly interactive—even on mobile devices—but developing these videos can be complex. Where does an organization start?