The Fundamentals And Advantages Of Cellular Studying
The how and why of mobile learning
What you are about to read is a fable. AshCom is a fictional company, but the mobile learning challenges that Kathryn, AshCom’s CLO, and their team face are real and are often shared by learning teams across corporations, nonprofits, associations and educational institutions. We hope you can connect with the characters, their challenges, and the solutions they discover. We also invite you to read the first eBook in the series.
eBook publication
How L&D Executives Use Custom Mobile Apps to Drive Performance and Sales
Use mobile apps to increase the performance of your employees and to close organizational gaps!
The business bond
Kathryn looked at the framed photo on her desk. The snapshot, taken at the summer company picnic, showed the relaxed, smiling faces of their team and reflected the warm bond between them. Kathryn was proud of the learning team she had put together over the past five years in her role as AshCom’s Chief Learning Officer.
Maggie, her Senior Instructional Designer, was 15 years ahead of Kathryn and had worked in Human Resources before becoming the first full-time employee devoted to learning. Alishia recently graduated from college and was working on a masters degree in educational design with a heavy emphasis on technology. Michael, a retired college professor, had spent more than a decade in administration, focused on curriculum development. Kathryn had learned to rely on him as her trusted advisor.
When AshCom first embarked on digital learning, Kathryn brought in Amy as a consultant. Amy worked with other clients and was able to give Kathryn an instant benchmark against what other companies were doing. In a pinch, Amy could take on the role of educational designer, and had done just that at various points on AshCom’s journey.
The new team members
When AshCom acquired Globex, Kathryn interviewed Globex’s four-person learning team and posted three of the four vacancies. Mainly, she wanted more educational design expertise, and she got it. Martina, Darryl and Adeena had been together at Globex for more than five years. Martina was not only a solid teaching designer, but also an artist in her own right. Two of her pictures had been exhibited in the Globex office and were now hanging in the AshCom offices.
Darryl had a strong background in graphic design in addition to his degree in educational design and often spent time with Martina to focus on the appearance of the learning experiences.
As a system thinker, Adeena’s strengths lay in project management. She worked closely with Kathryn to drive the creative process forward, but also did her fair share of designing the lessons.
Kathryn’s team has adapted well to their new members and Marina, Darryl and Adeena seemed comfortable in their new roles. It was only six months ago, but so far, so good.
Stay positive
Kathryn has set up a meeting with her team for Wednesday morning. She believes in shorter meetings that are held more often and told her team that it would take them 45 minutes to discuss sales training.
When everyone arrived at 10 a.m., Kathryn immediately started the meeting. “Let me start by saying that I appreciate how much progress we have made as a team over the past six months. Not that we haven’t had a bump on the road once or twice … “, she paused and everyone smiled before continuing,” … but we drove directly over it and drove on. “
Kathryn continued, “Adeena, Martina and Darryl, it occurred to me this morning that you didn’t see me doing what I was going to do. I’ll tell you about a conversation I had with Ronda, our VP of Sales, about mobile learning and then we’ll discuss what mobile learning means for each of us. There is a caveat: at this meeting we can only mention the positives. I want us to get to the heart of all the benefits of mobile learning experiences. “
At that, Kathryn’s original team nodded their heads knowingly. They had seen her do this before. The new team members looked amazed. Kathryn stated, “Don’t worry, you will have another meeting to discuss the disadvantages of mobile learning. I’ve found that weighing the pros and cons in a meeting usually results in the cons outweigh the pros and cons, or making people take one side or the other. Maybe it’s because it’s easier to think of disadvantages. It helps us focus on one thing at a time and prevents some people from being professionals and others from being scammers. We will do both together. Either way, you will get used to it. I usually do this when we’re thinking about a really big idea. And mobile is a really big idea. “
The challenge
Kathryn then guided her through Ronda’s challenges in building learning opportunities for AshCom’s joint sales team. AshCom’s sales system and software were different from what Globex used. In addition, Ronda intended to implement its own sales system that was different from both. She was brought to AshCom eight months before her system was rolled out, but worried about reversing previous habits and getting her team to take over her system. There would be serious barriers to creating a new sales culture, approach and structure.
The second challenge was the geographical diversity of Ronda’s account managers. All 286 of them were spread across the United States and Canada. Only a handful were near Minneapolis, AshCom’s headquarters.
The sales force was already on the road a lot, but Ronda wanted to increase this even further. She was a firm believer in building relationships with her customers and, in her opinion, the best way to do it was through face-to-face contact.
The learning solution should be easily accessible and easily searchable. Without these functions, the account managers would revert to their old patterns and Ronda’s system would not be adopted and practiced.
Any time. Anywhere, on any device: the benefits of mobile learning
With that, Kathryn got up, went to the whiteboard and wrote, “Anytime. Somewhere. Every device. “” That, “said Kathryn,” is what Ronda has to deliver from us. And that is only possible on mobile devices. to give them everything they need. “
With that she sat down and gave those in the room a moment to process.
Adeena was the first to answer. “So we want to think through all the advantages and not disadvantages of mobile learning in connection with the new sales training, or as we now call it, the learning experience?”
Amy answered before Kathryn could say anything. “Yes. I think you will find this one
worthwhile exercise. I thought it was a little strange when Kathryn did it for the first time, but I have come to appreciate the results. “
“Okay,” said Martina. “How do we start? Do you raise our hands? ”Everyone laughed.
“Not exactly,” said Michael. “This is where the sticky notes come in.
Kathryn handed ten different colored sticky notes to each person in the room. “The job is simple. Given what each of you know about mobile learning, please share with us ten benefits of using mobile as a delivery system for learning experiences. This shouldn’t take more than three or four minutes. Pens are on the table when you need them. When you’re done, just hang them on the wall. Oh, and one more thing, Ronda from sales has already reported on “Anytime”. Somewhere. Any device. ‘ So you cannot include them. “
A difficult situation
The room was silent for two minutes. Alishia got up first and pasted her notes on the wall. The others soon followed. They spent the next five minutes grouping the sticky notes on general topics. Eight people, each with ten tones in different shades, formed a colorful wall.
- User friendly
- Already used to it – no new technology
- Better memory – learn the moment you need it
- Collaboration and social learning
- Better performance
- Delivered in real time
- Connects better with younger learners
- The way of the future
- Convenience
- Leisure opportunity
- Perfect for micro-learning
- Saves time
The 45 minutes that Kathryn had planned had expired. She thanked everyone and told them if they could think of anything else, feel free to add more thoughts. She also told them that they would meet again on Friday – same topic, different point of view. You would focus on the disadvantages of mobile learning. She encouraged her team to read and reflect in preparation for the meeting, and everyone went back to their desks.
graduation
To read the remaining chapters in this series on mobile learning and see how Kathryn and her team solve their challenges, please download the eBook on How L&D Executives Use Custom Mobile Apps to Drive Performance and Revenue. It can help you determine whether custom mobile learning is the right approach for your business and uncover best practices.
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