Getting started with mobile learning involves lot of decision making, investments in dollars, resources and a strategy for change management. Let's know in detail!
Initiating mobile learning in organizations does not happen with a single decision. It involves many levels of decision making, investments in dollars, resources and a strategy for change management.
You have to address these six factors for successfully implementing mLearning in your organization.
- Identify the need and analyze your audience
- Determine the costs
- Decide on the devices
- Design considering the small screen
- Choose the right authoring tool
- Select the delivery method
Let us see them one by one in detail
1. Identify the need and analyze your audience
Even though mLearning offers potential benefits, we cannot blindly assume that it fits in our training strategy. A proper needs analysis should be conducted to
- Identify whether this type of training is the best possible option to meet your training needs or whether there are any other better strategies.
- Have a close look at the issues that you are currently facing with your existing training methods.
In other words, identify the gaps with your training methods and see how a mobile learning method would fill these gaps effectively.
2. Determine the costs
Planning for the investment is the foremost step for any implementation, especially if you are going for a large-scale implementation.
In order to help you determine the costs, here is a table with common costs associated with the implementation of mobile learning.
| Category | Things to consider | Cost effective Option |
| Hardware costs | Purchase of mobile devices, servers devices connections etc. | BYOD policy works |
| Development Costs | Instructional designing, Development team, authoring tools | Leverage on existing content |
| LMS Integration | Tracking and reporting of learning data accessed from any device | Choose mobile compatible LMS like Moodle |
3. Decide on the devices
Organizations have two options, either to provide the devices to employees or make the courses compatible with all types of Smartphones and iPads and encourage the employees to bring mobile device they have.
It is a wise thing to adopt the BYOD policy, rather than investing upfront, since providing devices for every employee is a big expenditure. A quick survey to find out the devices that are used by the employees can help while designing the courses.
In my next blog let us see the remaining 3 factors.
