Embracing the Mobile Future

EMBRACING
THE MOBILE
FUTURE:
Aligning L&D with
the Rise of Enterprise
Mobility in Corporate
eLearning
Paul Leavoy
Senior Content Manager, Docebo
Copyright © 2017 Docebo - All rights reserved. To contact Docebo, please visit: www.docebo.com

Embracing the Mobile Future
2
Mobility. It’s practically a substratum of life and business in a post-millennial age, embedded right
into the framework of everyday existence. Did I lose you there? Maybe you’re viewing this on your
mobile device and some notification popped up. Or maybe you’re on a web browser, and your
smartphone vibrated on the side of your desk. Or maybe the leading sentence was simply too
boring to follow.
In any event, one thing is clear: mobile devices and mobility in general dominate the conversation
these days. It’s inescapable in our personal, day-to-day lives, and, increasingly, Mobility is
inescapable in our business lives.
Remember when BlackBerry (among others) launched the first versions of personal digital
assistants (PDAs) and what we now refer to as smartphones around 2002? While many believed
the devices had potentially revolutionary qualities, it was hard for us to imagine that the trend
they helped launch would radically reshape business only a decade later. That transformation has
been enormous, and it continues to take shape.
For example, over one billion smartphones ship around the globe every year, according to
Statista, and analysts at Gartner, Inc. predict that nearly 70% of working professionals will execute
work-related functions from their personal devices by next year.
In so many avenues of business, leaders and learners are learning that smartphones, tablets,
and other mobile devices will only gain increasing relevance, and this plays out considerably in
learning and development (L&D).
Introduction
SMARTPHONES
SHIP EVERY YEAR
GLOBALLY
Source:
KPCB, Zogby Analytics
1 BILLION+
PROFESSIONALS
WHO USE
PERSONAL
DEVICES FOR
WORK BY 2018
Source: Gartner Inc.
70%

3
Smartphones continue to dominate the global market. Almost everyone and their dog (as the saying
goes) has a smartphone. Just recently Gartner, Inc. estimated that global sales of smartphones the
fourth quarter of 2016 grew seven per cent over the fourth quarter of 2015, amounting to nearly
1.5 billion units sold throughout 2016.
Although growth in smartphone sales could slightly slow over the next five years according to
Business Insider Intelligence estimates, that doesn’t mean people will stop using smartphones.
It simply means fewer might purchase smartphones. That could be the result of many factors,
including economic impacts, income levels, and the fact users are happy with their existing devices.
But what’s currently a key issue is the fact users – in general, but particularly among millennials –
are rarely parted from their smartphones. These devices are always at our sides, and smart L&D
leaders have caught on to this and learned to leverage these devices in a way that encourages
self-paced, ongoing learning.
Once upon a time L&D leaders viewed learning as mutually exclusive to managing and monitoring
devices. In the old model, if employees were on their devices, they were interacting with friends
or family, browsing the web, playing games, or watching videos. And, for a while, this might have
been true.
Then, all of a sudden, learners had the capacity, through their devices, to accumulate job-related
knowledge, onsite, and at the point of need. Things changed. In this sea change -- courtesy,
in part, to the huge advancements eLearning providers managed to accomplish in delivering
learning management system (LMS) portals -- learning leaders began to understand that
handheld devices could actually be used to help learners learn more efficiently, wherever,
whenever, and at the point of need.
Learners are Already Mobile,
and That Won’t Change
LEARNERS LOVE THEIR DEVICES
Global
smartphone
sales
of smartphones
in the
4th quarter
of 2016 grew
7% over the
fourth quarter
of 2015,
amounting
to nearly
1.5 billion units
sold through
2016.
MILLENNIALS = LOVE THEIR SMARTPHONES…
87% = “Smartphone Never Leaves My Slide”
My smartphone never leaves
my side, night or day
When I wake up, the first things
I do is reach for my smartphone
I spend more than two hours
every day using my smartphone
In the next five years, I believe
averything will be done on mobile device
87%
80%
78%
60%
Source: KPCB, Zogby Analytics

4
Mobility in eLearning spent the early 2010s moving from the “nice-to-have” comfort zone to
becoming an absolutely essential quality for any company seeking a comprehensive eLearning
software vendor worth its weight. In the same way the “cloud-based” offering was an exciting idea
in the early 2000s but is now commonplace among most software vendors, a credible mobile
offering is now a must-have for any LMS software vendor under consideration.
Now, nearly half (47%) of organizations use mobile devices as part of their training and eLearning
activities, according to Towards Maturity. Also, in 2015, mobile learning was a more than five-
billion-dollar industry, a number that is expected to exceed $12 billion by the end of 2017,
according to Ambient Insight.
Further, the research firm MarketsandMarkets has forecasted that the global mobile learning
market will grow from $7.98 billion in 2015 to $37.60 billion by 2020, at a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 36.3%. North America is expected to represent the largest market in terms
of size, while Europe and Asia-Pacific are expected to experience an increase in market traction
during the forecast period.
What’s notable is that Asia is the most vibrant and unique mobile learning market on the planet.
There, mobile learning revenues reached $4.5 billion in 2014 and are expected to increase to
$7.7 billion by 2019.
Mobility: From Nice-to-Have to a Part
of Doing Business
Mobile learning
revenues
in Asia reached
$4.5 billion
in 2014 and will
increase
to $7.7 billion
by 2019
Source: Transorming learning through m Education. McKinsey
MOBILE LEARNING MARKET BY 2020
2011
0
10
20
30
40
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
$38B

5
Mobility as a use case became more apparent in other industries before it was realized effectively
in eLearning. For example, in environment, health, and safety (EHS), many realized that audits,
recordable incidents, and inspections -- all of which require checklists -- could be executed on
the spot with tablets and smartphones whenever EHS incidents and accidents occurred. After
all, it was a lot easier to have the information inputted into a system from a device at a point of
collection, as opposed to on a piece of paper, which would then be pulled into a spreadsheet,
which would then be printed out and put into a binder to collect dust. The paragon of inefficiency.
eLearning took a little longer to jump on the mobility train. But in the last few years -- especially
with the advent of microlearning -- it has become increasingly evident that mobility improves our
capacity to get the right information to learners right at the point of need. Also, it helps facilitate
what is widely deemed as the most successful mode of approaching L&D in general: the 70:20:10
approach, whereby 70 per cent of knowledge is accumulated through experiential circumstances,
20 per cent is accomplished through social interaction, and 10 per cent resides in the tried and
true approach of instructor-led, classroom-based environments. Mobility is assisting the middle
component, the 20, enabling learners and experienced folk in the workforce to interact with one
another not just at the water cooler, but across social channels as well.
THE INCEPTION OF ENTERPRISE MOBILITY IN ELEARNING

6
This is for a number of reasons, and we have discussed one of them. But the other lies simply in
the realm of efficiency. When we have an LMS that is connected not only across its cloud-based
enterprise architecture but also across mobile devices in a real-time, live context, then the potential
of an eLearning solution explodes to a whole other level.
Suddenly, learners are able to establish and report on progress in real time, and L&D leaders are
able to gain visibility into that progress in real time. And, in the right system, it is all recorded and
reportable, with real-time metrics that can be assessed and analyzed accordingly.
Leaders in L&D have also caught on, and mobile delivery of learning has become the second largest
technology priority in learning (41%), according to a recent Brandon Hall Group study.
Remember the days of paper-based systems? Remember when it would take ages to track and
report on a learner’s journey of progress? Now, through technology, we can grasp where learners
are at, and how they are doing, as they progress. That enables us to take proactive measures to
ensure not only that our L&D programs are performing optimally, but also that our learners are
comfortable, ready, and able to pursue their journey of ongoing learning with within the enterprise.
However, organizations are hungry for new solutions, as revealed in another recent Brandon
Hall Group learning technology study. Nearly 50% of organizations surveyed are looking into
new learning technologies, and many organizations are dissatisfied with their existing learning
technology -- largely due to weak user experience and administrative experience.
Why the Massive Growth in Mobile Learning?
Source: 2016 brandon hall Group Learning Technology Study (n=302)
TOP 5 LEARNING TECHNOLOGY PRIORITIES
Social/collaborative tools
Mobile delivery
Data analytics
Virtual classrooms
Content management
43%
41%
36%
29%
28%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

8
While it never hurts to start exploring mobile opportunities in eLearning that are essentially quick
wins, there’s enormous value in developing a comprehensive mobile strategy that aligns with L&D
goals and broad business goals as well. So, certainly, play around with mobile options to test the
waters, but for the long game, plan to launch a comprehensive mobile program that incorporates
some of the following elements:
Build a mobile strategy: Build out a “single-source-of-truth” mobile strategy
document that covers all aspects of the mobile plan, including a needs assessment,
implementation plan, vendor analysis, resource allocation, goals and performance
KPIs, and so on. This document will help you measure the success of your program
as it is implemented and adopted.
Align mobile strategy with L&D strategy as well as overall business
objectives: The mobile strategy cannot live in isolation. As a recent Brandon Hall
Group paper revealed, too often L&D program objectives are not mapped to overall
business performance objectives. All three elements -- mobile, L&D, and overall
business -- need to be aligned in order to achieve holistic performance objectives
and continual improvement.
Assess prospective vendors’ mobile offering: There’s a wide disparity in terms
of the maturity of LMS vendors’ mobile solutions presently. Some have robust
offerings, some have grand ambitions and sound plans, and some have no mobile
offering or vision as yet. Get a good sense of your (existing or prospective) vendors’
own mobile strategy before developing (or continuing) a relationship with them.
Establish whether offline functionality is part of the offering: As they say,
offline is the new online. In many mobile learning circumstances, learners simply
can’t access their LMS and need to take information offline then have their progress
synchronized with the centralized learning repository once they achieve connectivity
again. Solutions today need to feature clear offline/online capabilities to ensure
learner progress is properly tracked and recorded.
Determine whether company mobile eLearning policy will use a BYOD
approach or provide users with devices: The whole Bring Your Own Device
(BYOD) issue has been a bit of a quandary for companies when it comes to
mobility, because on the one hand it makes sense to invite users to use eLearning
applications on their own devices, and on the other hand there can be privacy
and ownership concerns that may drive companies to provide users with work-
sanctioned devices. It’s a church-and-state dynamic, and there is no clear answer to
it. But as your organization pursues a mobile eLearning strategy, it is important to
answer this question out of the gates.
How to Launch a Mobile Program
1
2
3
4
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Embracing the Mobile Future

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