Combining Mobile Learning & Microlearning Approaches- The Need is Evident

Today, Learning & Development (L&D) departments have realized the potential of personalized learning through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The current e-learning strategy is providing the new-age workforce an edge with the flexibility to access online courses at their own pace. The demand for short and crisp content is rising and mobile learning has made it more convenient for the organizations to provide training on the go.

Mobile Learning & Microlearning- Their Key Benefits 

Before, you look at the combined benefits of microlearning and mobile learning, let us outline their individual benefits. Talking about mobile learning first, it allows the learners to access online courses anytime and from anywhere. There are different kinds of mobile learning apps which helps the learners to download the course and access it later when offline. Few benefits of mobile learning are outlined here:

• It supports multi-device support, which means that same course can be accessed on multiple devices, from desktops and laptops to tablets and smartphones.

• It proves as an effective e-learning approach to cater to the diverse corporate training needs including onboarding program, compliance training, soft skills and more.

On the other hand, microlearning is the process of delivering content in the form of short learning nuggets. The trend is fueled by the learners who want to consume bite-sized information on the go. Few benefits of microlearning are outlined here:

• Short content chunks are created to cater to specific learning needs.

• They are shorter in length (between 2-7 minutes).

Why to Choose the Combination of Microlearning & Mobile Learning?

With the broader adoption of mobile learning, microlearning also serves the following benefits:

• Formal training- A learning path can be created by combining shorter bites of content. Considering the short attention spans, learners tend to access more courses on their mobile devices, without any hassle of going anywhere.

• Performance Support Tools (PSTs)- These help to optimize the effectiveness of formal training through just-in-time aid. PSTs help enterprises to boost their performance and leave a strong impact on the entire business.

With technological advancement, organizations are adopting the blend of mobile learning and microlearning to offer a highly engaging experience. The prime reason behind this is that content nuggets can be easily accessed on the go. Several other benefits of this combination are highlighted as follows:

• Delivery of continuous learning experience rather than providing discrete forms.

• Organizations can offer personalized learning experience as per the varied needs of diversified audiences. Some learners grasp quickly, while others may take time, so this enables them to choose the time and place to undergo training.

• This also increases the number of visitors coming to the learning platform, as they can review the same courses time and again.

• Short nuggets in the form of videos, audios and images are easier to digest, thereby helping to improve learner engagement and retention levels.

Certainly, the rising scope of mobile learning and microlearning have overcome the traditional training challenges such as engagement, flexibility, real-time accessibility and retention. With this combination, organizations can witness more engaged employees with the rise in business growth and overall workplace productivity.

Delivering Effective E-learning Solutions to Optimize Sales Training Delivery

Many sales organizations have traditionally trained their employees within a classroom setting. Learners could glean best practices and learn new lessons from trainer, share ideas with their peers and interact face-to-face. But, training sales teams in a classroom has many drawbacks such as high infrastructural costs, less learner engagement and more. 

Due to the geographically spread salesforce, e-learning is adopted as an effective approach to deliver training for sales personnel at their own pace of time and convenience. While employee interaction can be better addressed in classrooms, e-learning solutions are imparted for sales employees to boost their skills and overall workplace performance. Undoubtedly, online learning is a great way to reinforce learning as it can be delivered across personalized mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, even on the go. 

With modernization, sales companies have centralized the scope of training at the workplace, thereby making e-learning to take the first place. Several use cases where various types of e-learning solutions are provided for sales training are outlined as follows:

• Game-based learning approach has been widely adopted by a majority of sales organizations. When salesforce can access online courses in the form of short games, they feel motivated to complete the game and gain expertise on an entire range of products and services. As a result, it results in better employee engagement, knowledge retention and improved business sales. 

• Sales employees fail to engage and retain what they learn during a lengthy classroom-based training session. Consequently, they fail to effectively sell the products to their customers, leading to poor sales. Therefore, Augmented Reality-based mobile-learning apps are designed to showcase various product features and benefits through interactive visuals and audios, and less of text. 

• Online training programs for sales can be customized as per the learner’s job role, their location and need. In addition, e-learning programs also support performance tracking and reporting, thereby allowing organizations to analyze how their employees are performing. 

Effective sales training solutions help to enhance employee’s skills and boost organizational performance through better profitability and workplace productivity. Highly engaging online sales courses can result in an increase in activity levels, sales volumes and product orders. E-learning solutions are delivered to benefit sales personnel looking for improving their selling skills and building new skill sets. These prepare the workforce to attain sales success by gaining knowledge expertise, confidence and seeking the necessary skills to succeed. Sales workforce training is another cost-effective way to improve the overall business uptake and employee performance. If delivered effectively, online sales training can be repaid many times over.

Gaining a Competitive Edge Using Modern LMS for Extended Enterprise

With the advent of internet technologies, organizations have set a major difference in the way they impart training to engage and retain the modern workforce. Extended enterprise learning, aims at training non-employees and impact their behavioral changes.

Organizations work to tailor the existing LMSs for specific audience needs as well as, an in-house development team to cater to the bespoke business requirements. The extended enterprise is more than technology, which requires an organization to provide e-courses beyond internal workforce, through external distribution channels. 

With ever-increasing business expectations, the scope of using extended LMS for workplace learning leads to better employee productivity, knowledge retention and greater impact on the bottom line. As the extended network of employees, work from varied locations, it becomes imperative to use an external e-learning platform which is mobile-supported, flexible and easy to access. Extended enterprise learning appears in varied forms as discussed below:

• Dealer workforce training

Automotive companies know how to address the challenges of training their extended dealer network. Therefore, ensuring consistency of training across the contingent personnel is critical for the delivery of an incredible customer service. Today, robust online learning platforms are integrated with Dealer Management Systems (DMSs) to provide training- anytime and anywhere. A significant data is utilized from DMS so that dealer employees, can trigger the LMS for an effective content delivery.

• Workforce compliance training

Industries such as transportation, oil & gas and retail, need to timely update their workforce on regulatory compliances. An extended LMS is efficient enough in delivering mobile-based compliance training to the workers and contractors based at diverse locations.

• Partner channel training

Several companies in the manufacturing, telecom and other sectors comprise of independent partners that resell their products and services on a global scale. So, it is crucial to certify the extended workforce on the entire product range and deliver just-in-time performance support. This ensures an overall improvement in organizational sales, business productivity and customer satisfaction. 

Modern organizations leverage opportunities to train their extended enterprise in an effective way. Using an extended LMS, they aim to engage, motivate and retain learners, thereby combining the business and training outcomes into one measurable program. While e-learning began as an internal workforce training program, organizations have now realized the need to provide online courses beyond and outside their four walls. So, when extended employee training begins with strategic decision-making via a powerful distribution network, the outcomes can leave a great impact on an organization’s overall reach, brand value and growth.

Themes, Badges & Scores in Gamified E-learning- Motivate, Recognize & Evaluate Individual Performances at the Workplace

In today’s digital scenario, gamified e-learning is not merely converting things from the real world into games, but also applying them to real-world situations. It is a proven tool that helps increase interaction with organizational workforce for a longer span of time. For instance, badges and rewards are given to employees on achieving a certain level, providing recognition at the workplace for their improved skills, knowledge and expertise. Due to lack of learner participation and collaboration, a number of L&D teams are incorporating games to make learning full of fun and engagement.

Gamified learning can be adopted for both classroom-based and online training sessions. Although instructor-led training provides ample opportunities for direct interaction and effective exchange of new ideas, employees do not feel encouraged to attend them. So, the fun element is introduced in the form of mini games, engaging videos or short quizzes for an effective training experience. Different kinds of gaming elements that are included during a corporate training are:

▶ Setting a specific objective for learners to reach the next level. This helps to motivate learners to win the game and effectively apply what they have learned. So, games in e-learning prove to be engaging enough for the modern workforce, with a sole aim to boost their knowledge retention and workplace competency.

▶ In a classroom setting, two views- one for the instructor and other for the learner can also be set to automate the entire training process. A team leaderboard, a progress bar and a specific challenge, boost the overall collaboration between the instructor and the learners.

▶ Different themes can also be introduced to maintain the same level of excitement until the end. For instance, if the learner chooses a theme named as Forest or Island, some action needs to be performed like searching a hidden object to save the Princess or going through a crime scene to find the criminal.

▶ Static and random themes are used to boost an individual's capability to win the game. This helps to monitor the group of participants who reach the milestone first, earn badges or scores and reach to the next level.

▶ Some sense of motivation and recognition is built by rewarding employees with badges and scores on successful completion of a certain level.

▶ When players give the correct answer, they are immediately rewarded with badges to showcase their achievement and motivate them to play and learn more. 

▶ Individual achievement reflects the performance matrix of learners who participated in the game. It is quite popular among varied industry verticals because of their inclusion in the latest game-based sessions to deliver effective learning.

Today, e-learning is undergoing unexpected changes followed by the profound advances in technology and evolving learning needs. Most of the organizations are skeptical about the viability of gamified learning to motivate and engage their new-generation workforce. Gamification has served to be a great tool for innovation, improve learners’ workplace skills, boost their collaboration with the peers and retention level.

Essential Tips to Transform PowerPoint Presentations into Effective E-learning Courses Using Rapid Authoring Tools

Today, most of the e-learning developers use rapid authoring tools to create and deliver effective training courses for diversified audiences. With ever-evolving business requirements, the delivery of authoring solutions in an interactive manner continues to evolve. Authoring tools not only help to transform the textual content, but also boost learner interaction with the courses. Attractive images, interactive videos and audios make the content media-rich, and hence improves the overall learning uptake.

PowerPoint presentations can be easily transformed into interactive e-courses using authoring tools. As authoring tools are easier to access, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can create content on their own, thereby reducing the development time and costs. Essential tips to be followed while converting a PPT presentation into an e-course are outlined here:

• Different slides in a PPT are chunked as separate modules within an e-course. This ensures the development of an e-course in a logical and structured way.
  
• While converting a PPT to an e-course, it is important to ensure that both are different in formats. An e-course is created with five or less number of chapters. For detailed information, different kinds of short and crisp courses are created to boost learner engagement and knowledge retention levels.
  
• The ‘Notes’ section in a PPT is reflected as- external links or optional exercises. By providing extra details, learners can access courses in detail or skip to the basics, as per their pertinent requirements.
  
• Rapid authoring tools can pick up graphics from the presentation and place them as per their assigned position on each slide. Animations and other interactivities are included to make the content more interactive and understandable.
  
• To improve the overall effectiveness, tests can also be included along with the course. A wide range of tests can be created including multiple-choice, true-false, text or numeric fill in the blank or even drag-drop picture images. 

With the support of authoring tools, interactive elements are embedded with online content to deliver an uniform e-learning experience. One of the essential benefits of using rapid authoring tools is that they save time and effort to develop-courses. Custom e-learning solutions are provided across mobile devices to impart training at your own pace. Authoring tools help to develop courses that are easy to download and access, even when there is no internet connection. With the increasing use of rapid authoring tools with increasing features, it is becoming an optimal way to create innovative courses which cater to the personalized needs of a globally diversified workforce.

Adopting AR & VR in E-Learning to Develop a More Capable, Engaged & Smarter Workforce of Tomorrow

Today, modern Learning Management Systems (LMSs) provides a plethora of opportunities for enterprises to foster the talent on which they have invested time and money. In the realm of using latest technologies, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have completely revolutionized the corporate training environment. As per the Dell Future Workforce Global Study, approximately 66% of the global workforce is willing to adopt AR/VR technology and tools as a trainingtool.

Paving Towards a More Competent and Engaging Workforce

Today, workforce collaboration and engagement is crucial for attaining organizational success. As per the study by Gallup, 87% of the globally dispersed employees are disengaged from their training programs. In addition, employee engagement also encourages effective communication across the enterprise- collecting their feedback and exploring individual talent. VR/AR based e-learning solution perfectly fits into these efforts. For instance, VR/AR headsets provide a variety of tools such as videos, visual data and more to perform different activities. AR is widely used by manufacturing companies to train their staff on critical processes, complicated machinery installed at the factory floor and more by providing animated instructions on the physical gear. Given below is the graph that depicts the market size of AR and VR in the future. As per the statistics, the AR and VR market is expected to reach 20.9.2 million US dollars by the year 2022.

Figure 1: Forecast AR and VR Market Size

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/591181/global-augmented-virtual-reality-market-size/

From the above data, the picture is quite clear that the AR/VR market potential iswide across different industry domains. Taking great initiatives to leverage both these technologies through LMSs, organizations can ensure seeking lucrative business opportunities in the e-learning industry.

Unlike virtual reality, where the learner is transformed into another environment, AR uses interactive digital elements to enhance real-world conditions. Advanced technology uses a camera and display, such as smartphones and tablets or wearable technology like Google Glass to display graphical information in real time. Augmented reality embraces shorter learning curves, efficient workforce and flexible workplace environment, thereby delivering a uniform experience. Thus, the future of VR and AR is very bright and their emerging use for corporate training point to a workforce that is smarter, mobile and more productive than ever before.

Suggested  for the Reading: 

http://www.workforcetransformation.com/workforcestudy/assets/report/Dell-future-workfoce-study_GLOBAL.pdf

https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/191765/organizations-going-above-beyond-engage-employees.aspx

Catering to the Bespoke Learning Needs by Delivering Optimize Content via Interactive Mobile Apps

In today’s connectivity-enabled generation, mobility is the fact of life. An increasing number of organizations seek for mobile solutions to attain long-term success and embrace digital business on a priority.

By imparting effective mobile learning solutions, organizations are able to increase their revenues and customer expectation. As per Forbes, organizations that adopt mobile-based learning strategy drive customer loyalty, employee engagement and stay ahead of the curve. Also, businesses that use mobile apps for workforce training are able to boost employee satisfaction and workplace productivity. [Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2014/11/17/heres-why-your-business-needs-its-own-mobile-app/#4db20ade327f]. 

The adoption of innovative mobile technologies is expected to go higher as infrastructure and mobile devices are getting more cost-effective and smarter. Consequently, it has encouraged organizations to deliver micro content, which is easy to access and quick to digest. This approach provides learners with lucrative opportunities to learn at their own pace, anytime and anywhere. Today, companies have started reshaping their training strategies to facilitate mobile learning on a wider scale. New-age learners are increasingly using customized mobile apps to meet their pertinent training needs.

When it comes to mobile learning, the process of development depends on varied factors such as targeted audiences, purpose, training budget and more. If organizations want to build a significant mobile presence, then an intelligent mobile app serves the purpose. For instance, it is not possible to integrate a mobile website with native hardware features of smart mobile devices. To access the GPS or Camera feature, a product can be best delivered as an app. Modern apps can deliver the best user experience through different scenarios. Consider an example, engaging games, data manipulation through calculations, charts or reports can be achieved easily through mobile Apps. While mobile web is going better with specific functions like SMS, GPS, click-to-call and others, using the mobile camera or processing power of training module is most efficiently utilized through an App. One of the key considerations when developing an App is to ensure that you are driving improved ROIs.

The bottom line is that mobile learning holds the potential to impart learning at your own pace of time and convenience. Mobile technologies make learning available on a broader scale in comparison to the traditional training approach. Need for accessible information will evolve as the use of mobile devices and continued access become more integrated into modern learners’ lives. Optimizing the delivery of training content via robust mobile apps on personalized devices is becoming a crucial part of the overall learning & development process.