Mobile learning (m-learning) is shaping up as a big trend and training companies are already preparing for it. Skillsoft has a new app for Android and iOS which is set to deliver personalized on-demand experience to the learners, the company has announced.
The Skillsoft Learning App will be using the company’s own search and curation tech. The main goal of the app is to simplify the discovery of content and proactively recommend videos, books, audiobooks, summaries and other content based on the interests of each user.
“In today’s increasingly digital workplace, employees are demanding more flexibility than ever before in terms of the tools and technologies they expect and require, including the ability to access work on their mobile devices,” said Tim Hildreth, vice president of product management at Skillsoft.
According to Hilderth employers recognize the need to embrace mobile in the workplace but they are hamstrung when trying to balance security and support for multiple devices with the benefits to employees and the organization. This is where the new app comes in. It helps expanding access to content and allows learners to learn at their own pace and convenience even when on the move. So, instead of killing time on social media while they travel to a destination, they can go through a lesson or two.
The recommendation feature of the app will allow the employees to get extra content and makes it easier for them to discover new skills and knowledge they would like to attain. Learning on the go can have a long term benefit for the performance and even the careers of people, says Hilderth.
Bersin by Deloitte research shows that only 10 percent of organizations currently support mobile technology for their learning programs. According to the study, “given the proliferation of smartphones in use today, this percentage seems underwhelming. Yet in our follow-up interviews with respondents to our user survey, many of the HR leaders would indeed welcome increased mobile use – if the HR solutions they have supported mobile applications.”
Upon launching the app, users are prompted to identify topics of interest and the app actively pushes individualized content recommendations to the user. When new content is available that matches those interests, they are automatically updated in that individual’s home screen. The app can be used as a stand-alone or as a companion to an existing learning system the company has in place. This way you can have the best of both worlds – classic attendance trainings and follow-ups and refreshment-style trainings on-the-go. This will allow the effects of the trainings to stay for longer and ultimately increase their chances of being fully attained by the employees.
“As a large global organization we strive to make development a part of employees’ daily lives by providing learning content in smaller chunks of information and offering reinforcement at different intervals to transfer and preserve knowledge gain, leading to improved job performance,” said Debbie Collins, director of MyLearning and university information systems at Capgemini.
Skillsoft is already working on a optimized version of the app especially for tablets which will make better use of the extra screen real estate. Future learning app innovation will focus on hyper-personalizing the user experience, leveraging the adaptive capabilities the company has been developing with IBM Research to harness the power of big data in enterprise learning and development, the company says.