Mobile Learning Anxiety Identifying Probable Causes and Possible Cures
Elliot Rosenberg, Principle Consultant 1775 Woodstock Road, Suite 300, Roswell, GA 30075 T: (770) 874-‐1190 x236 E:
[email protected] W: rapidld.com August 2014
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CONTENTS Executive Summary
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Step 1: Understand the Industry Trends
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Step 2: Indentify the Probable Causes of Mobile Learning Anxiety
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Step 3: Consider the Possible Cures for Mobile Learning Anxiety
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Step 4: Realize the Benefits
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References
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About Elliot Rosenberg
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About Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC (rapidLD)
12
© 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
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Executive Summary Mobile Learning (mLearning) is the capability to seamlessly deliver a wide array of knowledge and performance improvement resources to users – any place, on any platform, on demand, and at the moment of need. It is not limited to just training but should include performance support, knowledge management, and social media along with other approaches and technologies. mLearning can give businesses multiple opportunities to go beyond just courses and instruction. In fact, the right mLearning strategy can provide a competitive advantage. However, that advantage can be lost when mobile learning anxiety is present. What is mobile learning anxiety and how do you recognize that it might exist within your organization? It can manifest itself in two different ways. First, organizations that have not adapted to the changing needs of their workforce might develop a perception of themselves that they are falling behind their competition. Examples would be where your competitors are deploying mobile devices to enhance the customer experience but you have not. How “In a world of fast knowledge development, none of us will have the capability to did they learn how to know much of anything at all. The most important skill we will have will be the use those devices? ability to go out to get the right knowledge for the right purpose at the right time.” How are your -‐ Jim Carroll, Innovation Expert and Consultant competitor’s field sales reps kept so current on the latest products and trends? Second, customers themselves could determine that doing business with your organization is not the experience they were seeking because you are slow at adapting to their needs. Maybe your inventory changes so frequently that, in the eyes of your customers, your sales force is not well versed in the current offerings or promotions? How are your competitors so proficient on the latest software release that makes transactions within your store so quick? Why are customers choosing your competitors as their destination for shopping when you are so much closer to your key demographics? Either way, a proper diagnosis of what might be causing this anxiety, and ways to turn it into an opportunity, are key elements of any mobile learning strategy. Ultimately, organizations must understand that the new way of learning is the new way of working. Not only is the nature of work changing but also so is the workplace. In order to compete successfully in this changing environment, organizations need to unlearn and relearn training and performance competencies. mLearning, and the identification of probable causes and possible cures of mobile learning anxiety, should be key discussion topics in any leadership conversation.
© 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
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Step 1: Understand the Industry Trends The changing workforce is defining trends in the mLearning space. More and more, employees are turning to their mobile devices to look something up or to get an answer to their questions. Let’s look at some of those trends. mLearning is projected to become a predominant method of learning for an growing, new age, mobile workforce. The strategies surrounding using the right technology for the right audience will be key components for successful mLearning implementation. These strategies should include technological integration, change management, and ongoing support for this projected large audience.
IT Will Be Increasing Its Investment And Support Of An Increasingly Mobile Workforce 1. 66 percent of employees expect IT to allow them to use any device to access the corporate network 2. 66 percent of employees would take a job with lower pay but more flexibility in device usage and online access 3. 60 percent of people don’t believe they have to be in an office to be productive Takeaway: With the anticipated growth of the mobile workforce described above, technological innovation is key. Security will remain a high concern of IT organizations, but the data reflects the need for IT to accommodate the changing environment with respect to worker expectations and customer needs.
OJT And Coaching Will Require Increased Focus Only 10 percent of learning takes place via the traditional, formal delivery method of a scheduled learning event. The balance of employee learning takes place via informal delivery methods, either during coaching and mentoring sessions (20 percent) or actual on-‐the-‐ job experiences (70 percent). © 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
% of Learning by Delivery Method 70
80 60 40 20
10
20
0
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Takeaway: Once the connection between actual on-‐the-‐job experiences and performance is solidified, workers will learn more and should perform at a higher capacity. By having the workforce learn via a mobile device, the enablers are in place to make improvements in business performance. Investment in mLearning will also impact the bottom line by reducing the infrastructure needed to deliver formal learning and reallocating that funding to support more mLearning technology and integration.
Organizations Will Continue To Struggle With A Strategy That Focuses Just On Technology
Support BYOD 41%
Provide Tablet 48%
Provide Smartphone 52%
Only 18 percent of organizations combine all three strategies (Towards Maturity, 2013). But what should concern business leaders even more is the potential heavy focus on technology alone. This would be a failed approach in that devices and hardware are simply the enablers, not the strategy. If this remains unchecked, the “click next” design practice of eLearning by could be passed off as mLearning. Taking this path could cause departments to look elsewhere to solve performance problems in new and, potentially, inconsistent ways. Consequently, this inconsistency can impact employee performance, the customer’s experience and, ultimately, the bottom line. © 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
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Takeaway: In deciding what to deploy, organizations must evaluate multiple criteria, which could include service requirements, applicable content and context, administration of the learning along with appropriate tracking, platform integration, functional infrastructure, and ongoing support. These decisions go hand-‐in-‐hand with deciding if the mLearning experience should be operating system (OS) specific or open to all platforms, determine if existing content is scalable to these devices, along with deciding on the proper authoring tools and deployment processes.
Workplace Learning Will Continue to Evolve The trends just illustrated highlight the fact that organizations must begin to accelerate the integration of technology with their learning initatives or risk missing critical opportunities to have engaged and productive workers. Here are some developments, according to Eric Harsh (2014), that reflect a growing trend in the workplace: 1. More meetings are being conducted virtually. In fact, the cost of video conferencing has decreased 10x since 1998. 2. Twenty-‐eight percent of an average worker’s time is spent sending and responding to email. 3. The need to offer shifts to accommodate workers has allowed 51 percent of organizations to offer shift flexibility. 4. Along with shift flexibility, 88 percent of organizations offered some form of teleworking. 5. The pace and volume of work has resulted in the average worker putting in seven extra hours per week. 6. Sixty-‐seven percent of workers use their personal wireless device at work. Takeaway: Whether it be in the form of a formal learning event, or some other vehicle to help improve learning and performance, opportunities exist to solidify the mLearning strategy and reduce the affects of mobile learning anxiety. Investment in mLearning appears to lag behind how the world of work is evolving and unless this gap is reduced, organizations could lose their competitive advantage.
© 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
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Step 2: Identify the Probable Causes of Mobile Learning Anxiety According to the Pew Research Internet Project (2013), with 90 percent of American adults now owning a cell phone, and 60 percent of those being a smartphone, organizations are failing to take advantage of the opportunity to use mLearning on mobile devices as a support tool for improved worker and bottom line performance. Today’s worker requires much less information to perform their jobs but the need to accesss the right content, at the right time, is skyrocketing. Conrad Gottfredson and Bob Mosher (2011) describe “Five Moments of Learning Need” that illustrate where the lack or potential of a comprehensive mobile learning strategy can be observed. Knowledge Acquisition: 1. When learning for the first time 2. When wanting to learn more Knowledge Application: 3. Trying to remember 4. When things change 5. When something goes wrong
mLearning can be a great fit to overcome these potential challenges as it largely seen as one of the ways to deliver information and support, on demand, to an increasingly mobile workforce.
Because of the need to have so much knowledge at the right time, application of this content is critical. How organizations are addressing these opportunities illustrate the four probable causes of mobile learning anxiety. Probable Cause No. 1: There is no comprehensive mLearning stratgegy. Acknowledgement of workplace trends could produce a response from many organziations that is reactionary in nature. Observing what the competition is doing, deploying the latest technology that might not be scalable, or mandating its use could lead employees to lose confidence in their ability to perform their respective jobs.
© 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
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Probable Cause No. 2: Heavy reliance on instructor-‐led trainng as the sole provider of learning. Organizations are letting the medium determine the message. Formal learning is a great way to address knowledge acquisition but to use it to address knowledge application is ineffecient and ineffective. Consequently, those workers in the field find the training unproductive and will look to other sources to get what they need. In fact, a recent survey by Jane Hart (2014) showed that company training is the least valued way to learn at work. Probable Cause No. 3: Organizations are failing to provide mentoring and coaching reinforcement to knowledge acquisition. Employees need reinforcement of content by their managers and companies are too quick to dismiss this need and, instead, choose to have yet another training event for the same content (see No. 2 above). Probable Cause No. 4: Organizations are incorrectly re-‐purposing eLearning content to make it mobile. eLearning is not mLearning if you simply view it on a mobile device (see mLearning definition on page 3). Once users have a poor experience with this sort of medium, organizational acceptance will be hard to achieve.
© 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
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Step 3: Consider the Possible Cures for Mobile Learning Anxiety By having a defined, comprehensive mobile learning strategy, the anxiety can be “cured” by taking advantage of several opportunities to enhance learning, improve operations, and integrate technology. Consider the following: Possible Cure No. 1: Make sure the learning follows the employee. Having learning opportunities available on a mobile device makes learning access immediate and relevant. Make sure that the type of device or operating system does not restrict this access. Possible Cure No. 2: Integrate managers and leaders into the learning process so it continues beyond the initial event. Employee motivation is key if mLearning is to be successful. In additional to the availability of the content, having it aligned with the right business and performance drivers will enhance the employee’s motivation to excel. Remember that 90% of learning opportunities come after the initial, formal training event. Proper coaching and mentoring at the point of performance is a key component of any learning strategy, especially mLearning. Motivation can also be impacted by the ability to have robust and timely reporting so infrastructure and technology integration should be comprehensive. Possible Cure No. 3: Deploy the right instructional design strategies so the mLearning experience is robust, yet user-‐friendly. Difficulty in accessing content will be an inhibitor to performance success. Consider the user experience, social aspects of work, along with an integration of the work into the learning to make sure that content is accessible at any time, at any place. Don’t let device or operating system platforms inhibit content access. Possible Cure No. 4: Make the content available in digestible components that are integrated with the work itself. Keep any video content to less than two minutes and keep overall content to less than five minutes. Because so much information cannot be remembered (see “Moments of Need” above), mLearning can be perfectly positioned as a necessary tool to get the work done. If job success is critical, employees will be engaged and, therefore, intrinsically motivated to use mLearning. As such, the learning needs to be tailored to the current workforce and practices, not to a unique learning event.
© 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
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Step 4: Realize the Benefits A successful mLearning strategy will have benefits that should be realized throughout the enterprise. But there is an investment that must be made for these benefits to be appreciated. Going mobile will drive increased learning access and flexibility, increased productivity, faster responses to changing business conditions, increased learning options, and increased sharing of best practices. If, however, using a mobile platform to deliver the content seems to outweigh the need to actually “teach” anything, organizations can continue down their existing path with all of the anxiety that goes with it. However, if the goal is to create performance-‐changing training, consider these benefits:
Call to Action
Benefit
Understand the audience and how mobile devices Learning becomes integrated into the work so the are actually used in the workplace work becomes the learning Quantify the learning in terms of efficiencies gained
The mLearning strategy will be viewed as a competitive advantage via employee performance
Understand your technological and knowledge Successful deployment means you have the limits and seek out a partner if you don’t have the infrastructure in place to support the initiative in-‐house technical expertise Leverage technology that allows users to exert control
Users become content creators rather than just content consumers
Position Learning & Development (“L&D”) as a partner in the business
L&D is seen as more than just a provider of content but, rather, as an enabler to success
The culture of the organization must support this initiative, along with the technology, motivation, and user experiences. When properly combined, these variables can be a powerful force in the reduction of mobile learning anxiety and, consequently, a realization that properly prepared employees are the best advantage any organization can retain.
© 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
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References •
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The Seven Traits of Effective Digital Enterprises, May 2014, Tunde Olanrewaju, Kate Smaje, and Paul Willmott http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/the_seven_habits_of_highly_effective_digital _enterprises Five Mobile Learning Pitfalls to Avoid, July 7, 2014 www.trainingzone.co.uk/feature/mobile-‐learning-‐pitfalls-‐avoid/187153 Mobile Learning Tipping Point, August 2012, accessed July 2, 2014 Mobile Learning in the Workplace, Towards Maturity, June 2014 Mobile Management: Transform your Enterprise, Aragon Research, June 2014 Technology and Workplace Learning http://www.learndash.com/technology-and-workplace-learning/, July 23, 2014 by Justin Ferriman Gamified Learning Management System: An Upcoming Motivation Strategy http://elearningindustry.com/gamified-‐learning-‐management-‐system-‐upcoming-‐motivation-‐ strategy, July 22, 2014 by John Laskaris The Working Smarter Fieldbook, June 2010 by Jay Cross Clark Quinn, Designing mLearning, 2014, accessed July 22, 2014 The Talent Management Cookbook, Bersin by Deloitte, January 31, 2014 10 Tips for Mobile Learning Implementation http://www.im-‐c.de/demo/10tips/, accessed July 18, 2014
© 2014 Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC
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About Elliot Rosenberg Elliot is a Principle Consultant with rapidLD, specializing in mobile learning and its associated strategy and execution. He retired in 2014 from AT&T after 30 years of service. During this time, AT&T was awarded the Chief Learning Officer “Learning Elite” award for placing first in 2011 and 2013 and earned second place in 2012. His most recent assignment was supporting AT&T’s retail channel in all areas of instructional design, implementation support, and performance improvement. In this role, his work impacted more than 65,000 employees in more than 20,000 locations. Elliot has over 13 years of experience leading teams of instructional designers, primarily focusing on the retail industry and mobile learning. His extensive experience in instructional design resulted in him earning high marks within the industry as a progressive thought leader and practitioner. As a result, Elliot’s deliverables were more about incorporating learning into sustainable behaviors than memorizing facts that were soon forgotten. He focused on holistic solutions that forced engagement by all parties thereby ensuring accountability that was shared by all. Elliot earned a Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Buffalo, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Miami, and a Master of Science in Instructional and Performance Technology from Boise State University. He holds the Certified Performance Technologist certification from the International Society for Performance Improvement along with certification as a Saba Partner Sales Consultant.
About Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC (rapidLD) Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC (rapidLD) is a professional services company developed to help organizations improve their performance with complete, integrated, and flexible learning and talent management solutions. Our solutions are designed to meet the organization's immediate and evolving needs and goals. rapidLD provides Learning and Talent Management consulting to help organizations identify products and services which allow organizations to integrate and enable their training and skills management programs. Learn more about our services and how we can work with your organization to quickly implement successful Learning and Talent Management solutions.
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