What is Corporate M-Learning?
M-learning or mobile learning refers to technologies and applications installed in personal electronic devices (mobile devices) to facilitate learning and sharing of information. The concept is gaining in popularity among employees and companies worldwide as the advanced features of mobile devices support daily business activities.
Corporate m-learning has immense potential for technology service providers and mobile device manufacturers to develop apps and software for the corporate sector. Market expansion has also gained momentum, driven by factors such as cost-effectiveness of m-learning and efficiency in service delivery. Increased use of mobile apps adds to the prospects of the global corporate m-learning market.
The global corporate m-learning market is in its nascent phase, growing modestly at a CAGR of 15.05 percent from 2015-2019.
How is Cloud-Based M-Learning is Changing the Game?
Corporates worldwide are gradually adopting the m-learning concept for providing training to their employees. Most employees are well acquainted and have access to smartphones and tablets which allows corporates to train their employees through these mobile devices.
M-learning is usually delivered through a flexible environment. It is not confined to a specific environment or time wherein the trainer needs to deliver the entire content irrespective of any situation or retention capacity of the learner. It allows trainers to share training sessions and materials sparingly, suiting the competence of the employee, in text, video, or audio formats.
With uninterrupted internet connectivity in mobile devices, m-learning helps learners connect instantly to the required platform, thereby facilitating collaborative learning. Although the technology is increasingly practiced and implemented in the developed countries, the total share of companies using mobile devices for training their employees is low in the emerging countries. Most of them use mobile devices as a support system. However, organizations that already have hands-on e-learning technologies are not averse to using mobile devices for training purposes.
Companies use cloud computing to ensure seamless and easy accessibility of the stored data. The technology essentially caters to online business applications that are linked to services that can be accessed from other web browsers.
Variability of mobile devices remains a nagging issue because it restricts the deployment of m-learning among workplaces worldwide. It is difficult to develop mobile apps that are compatible with multiple features of different devices. Also, customizing mobile apps as per end-user requirements is difficult, time consuming and expensive.
Cloud-based m-learning offers an easy way to handle some such issues as it allows employees to access and download business apps at their convenient time and location. It also enables employees to choose their applications as per their learning requirements.
Through the use of cloud-based m-learning, employees can access training materials stored in the cloud from their mobile devices. This enables them to complete the training at their own pace and based on their schedules, especially in training programs requiring minimal technical guidance. Some advantages associated with cloud include high-density hosting servers, high storage capacity, ease of accessibility, and high availability of online data. These are attracting m-learning providers to offer cloud-based m-learning products and services. We expect the concept of cloud-based m-learning to gain considerable momentum in the future as it supports BYOD.
