The rise of mobile devices has given birth to a whole range of gadgets being used for different purposes. Whereas mobile phones are now seeing greater reach and growth, tablets are quickly outracing PCs and laptops in terms of sales. One implication this has is mobile learning – because people are always connected through mobile devices, learning on-the-go is made possible. This also provides a good opportunity for enterprises to impart proper learning platforms and skills through mobile devices.
The most natural areas of training where mobile devices can be used are compliance training, performance support, surveys and polls, policy updates, tests, and so on. Employees looking to complete these learning modules can also take help from co-workers, leading to improved collaboration and connectivity. The best argument in the favor of m-learning is that it imparts learning in small-sized modules, which can be accessed through different locations at one’s ease.
Challenges with m-learning
There remain many challenges within m-learning. The first and foremost is security: because mobile devices are location-independent, data security becomes a concern if the device is connected to different network or lost. Then there are issues of uniformity: mobile devices come in different screen sizes, which may not work out best when it comes to playing videos, for instance. Bandwidth is also a major issue, with most of the mobile devices in the world not ready for live streaming yet. Technology support and troubleshooting also key areas to be looked at.
However, looking at the recent trends one can confidently say that all these challenges are going to be surmounted soon, and m-learning will be utilized more and more in the corporate space.
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