Developing a Mobile Learning Strategy

Presented by: John Ambrose, Senior Vice President - Strategy and Corporate Development

November 7, 2012

Skillsoft Highlights

Skillsoft solutions and expertise help our customers to deliver meaningful business results

• Depth & Breadth – comprehensive elearning portfolio

• Expertise – numerous and tenured client facing experts

• Market Leadership – 3,000 customers, 13+ million end-users

• Innovation – $40-50m R&D invested annually

• Flexibility – adaptable offerings and business terms

• Thought Leadership – best of breed

• Quality – repeatedly recognized and awarded

• Global Reach – present in 58 countries, support for 19 languages

• Customer Service – extremely high loyalty, year after year

• Results – proven track record for business impact and ROI

Agenda

• Mobile market trends• Mobile learning opportunities and challenges• Skillsoft’s “Five Calls” framework• Skillsoft mobile support

• Current• Forthcoming• Future

• Q&A/Discussion

What is Mobile?

The definition of mobile has been a rapidly moving target

Offline Portability Smartphone Wireless Screen + Apps Third Screen Open OS PC-Based Web Access No Flash Some Flash

Access 3G/WiFi

2002 2006 2008 2010 2012

Rapid innovation and proprietary differences have dominated the mobile industry for the past 10 years

Poll #1

Which of the following devices do YOU use either for work or personal purposes? (Choose all that apply):

A. Laptop Computer

B. Smartphone

C. Tablet (examples: iPad, Galaxy, Playbook)

D. E-Reader (examples: Kindle, Nook, Kobo)

E. MP3/MP4 device (examples: iPod, Zune)

Worldwide Mobile Workforce will Reach Nearly 50% by 2015

• Being driven by consumer adoption of devices

• 55% of workforce is using “personally liable devices”

• Employees gain flexibility in cost/funding of devices

• Support for multiple Device OS is a challenge for companies

• BYOD – “Bring Your Own Device” is gaining momentum with some IT departments

30% of the WW

Workforce

47% of the WW

Workforce

Source: IDC Directions 2012

What about Africa?

Are we here?

Source: Royce Funds, January 2012

Will Smart Devices Leave Mobile Phones in the African dust?

• Establish distribution channels• No contract options• Sub-$100 Android devices• Huawei’s IDEOS vs Galaxy Pocket• Sub-Saharan Africa much wealthier than 10 years ago

• One of the World’s 10 Fastest Growing Economies - The Economist

VS

Mobile Learning Delivery is Small but Consumption is Rising

ILT43.4%

Asynchronouse-learning21.2%

Synchronouse-learning14.1%

Virutal learning12.1%

Mobile4.0%

Other5.1%Distribution of Learning Delivery

Source: Bersin & Associates

Lost or stolen devices

Risks and Challenges

Irrational behavior

Bad judgment

Past challenges: less of an Issue?

Will 2012 be the Breakout Year for “Mobile Learning”?

Provided courtesy of Peter Ryce at Adobe© 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

What Activities L&D Wants from Mobile Devices

Source: Aberdeen Group, December 2011, Respondents n=40

Learners want access to content

and their plans

Managers want notifications and

reporting

Poll #2

Are you supporting mobile learning today as part of your organization’s learning programs?   (choose one)

A. Yes, to a great extent

B. Yes, to some extent

C. Not yet, but plan to implement this year

D. Not yet, but hope to at some point

E. No plans to ever support mobile technologies

The Five Calls to make: Developing a Mobile Strategy

1) What does mobile mean? 2) What problem are you trying to solve?3) What devices will you support?4) Do you have the necessary organizational

support?5) How does mobile fit into your existing

learning strategy and ecosystem?

The Five Calls to make: Developing a Mobile Strategy

1) What does mobile mean? 2) What problem are you trying to solve?3) What devices will you support?4) Do you have the necessary organizational

support?5) How does mobile fit into your existing

Learning strategy and ecosystem?

Mobility vs. Portability

Online

Offline

Watch/listento downloadedvideo or MP3

Search a database for urgent info

Select from many modes

Take a course

or read a chapteron an airplane

Especially where bandwidth can be expensive or unavailable

Example: Skillsoft Course Content is Portable

Example: Portable Books24x7 Chapters

Example: Portable Audio

Today: Portable Videos

Example: Skillsoft Leadership Advantage

On The Go Access to Key Resources

• Quick access to mobile-ready assets

•Download and sync to popular devices

•Includes videos, FastTrack, ExecBlueprints, ExecSummaries, Leader-led Activities, Tools, Self-assessments

•50%+ of every track

The Five Calls to make: Developing a Mobile Strategy

1) What does mobile mean? 2) What problem are you trying to solve?3) What devices will you support?4) Do you have the necessary organizational

support?5) How does mobile fit into your existing

Learning strategy and ecosystem?

Audiences

Consider audiences that are most comfortable with and/or dependent on mobile devices:

• Sales people• Executives• Field technicians

Content

• Performance support • Access to knowledge-base

• Product information

• Short refreshers or job aids after on-boarding• Text document

• Flash presentation

• Short videos

• Audio podcast

Including user-generated content!

• Reminders and notifications • Short assessments and surveys

The Five Calls to make: Developing a Mobile Strategy

1) What does mobile mean? 2) What problem are you trying to solve3) What devices will you support?4) Do you have the necessary organizational

support?5) How does mobile fit into your existing

Learning strategy and ecosystem?

Proliferation of mobile devices… …including BYOD…

Poll #3

What is your organization’s current stance on BYOD?

A. BYOD explicitly permitted

B. BYOD explicitly NOT permitted

C. BYOD tolerated (“don’t ask, don’t tell”)

D. Don’t know or no policy

The BYOD Debate

The Latest Infographics: Mobile Business Statistics For 2012

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2012/05/02/the-latest-infographics-mobile-business-statistics-for-2012/

Mark Fidelman, May 2, 2012

To App or Not to App…

Positives:

• Supports a wide range of devices for general content

• Most of the features that a PC browser would offer

• Faster to deploy and update

• Allows potential access to the same LMS environment

Negatives:

• Usually requires a live Internet connection

• Lack of support for “pushing” content directly to the learner

• Browser support for interactivity or rich media varies• Generally less secure and less control over the content once downloaded

Leveraging the mobile browser vs. a native application:

Leveraging the Mobile Browser

Source: M-Learning: Mobile Learning Is Finally GoingMainstream – And It Is Bigger ThanYou Might Think, Bersin & Associates, March 2011

To App or Not to App…

Positives:

• Supports downloading the content for offline consumption

• Push and pull

• Can use deeper set of device features and user experience

• Can be much more secure (i.e. lock or delete content remotely)

Negatives:

• Requires creating a specific, tailored program for each platform supported

• Requires a device for which a native app is even possible

• Can take longer to deploy

• Device-maker constraints

• In the case of Apple, iTunes/App store dependency

Leveraging the mobile browser vs. a native application:

Using a Native Application

Source: M-Learning: Mobile Learning Is Finally GoingMainstream – And It Is Bigger ThanYou Might Think, Bersin & Associates, March 2011

Example: Books24x7 Support for Mobile Devices

Browser-based, mobile friendly site. Optimized for any web-enabled smart phone or mobile device.

• User agent detection• Streamlined UI designed for the mobile use case• Support for many media types (audio, video, downloads)• Tablets use standard Books24x7 site

Increasing popularity of Books24x7 On the Go™ mobile site:

Skillport’s Evolving Device Support

Targeting popular and emerging platforms• iPhone (3, 4/S, 5), iPad, iPad Mini

• BlackBerry’s newest model phones (requires latest OS) and the Playbook

• Android phones and tablets (Android 3.2 or higher OS)

• Three pronged solution:• Platform

• Library content

• Custom content

Skillsoft Platform Support

• Mobile Skillport (on phones and tablets) available with Skillport 7.3 (released)

• Access Search & Learn

• MyPlan

• MyProgress

• Configure to show mobile only or all content• Supports custom mobile content

created in Design and SkillStudio*, books, video, Skillbriefs

• Mobile-compatible Skillsoft courses*,

• Skillport 8.0 (target Q4, 2012) will provide native tablet support to the full Skillport end-user environment

* Skillsoft library content as well as content created with SkillStudio will only support tablets (no smart phone support)

Skillsoft Library Content Support

HTML5 course development to support major tablet devices

• 500 1-hour English business courses by end of year

• 200+ now via Skillport 7.3

• Single course instance that will play on desktop or tablet

• Bookmarking, tracking, scoring all managed via LMS

• TPLMS deployment to follow in 2013

Custom Content Support

Options for Creating Mobile Content:

• Publish content to Skillport (using direct publish capability)

• Assign mobile learning content to learners like any other content in SkillPort (catalog, MyPlan)

• Consume content on appropriate mobile devices or on the desktop

Authoring Options Smartphones Tablets

Dialogue Design 6 Basic Basic

SkillStudio - Advanced

Custom Developer Varies Varies

Third-Party Tools Planned Planned

The Five Calls to make: Developing a Mobile Strategy

1) What does mobile mean? 2) What problem are you trying to solve3) What devices will you support?4) Do you have the necessary organizational

support?5) How does mobile fit into your existing

Learning strategy and ecosystem?

Organizational Support for Mobile Learning

• Alignment with overall organizational strategy

• Understanding of the company’s information technology approach

• Partnership between the HR/Training group and the IT department

• Technical support needs your program will create

• Devices you will and will not support

The Five Calls to make: Developing a Mobile Strategy

1) What does mobile mean? 2) What problem are you trying to solve3) What devices will you support?4) Do you have the necessary organizational

support?5) How does mobile fit into your existing

learning strategy and ecosystem?

Organizational fit for Mobile Learning

Does your organization have a strong learning culture?

Do your systems support mlearning?

What are the primary goals of your overall learning program?

Is your workforce a good fit for mobile?

Take Aways…

Mobile learning: • Supplements, but does not replace

traditional elearning• Is a component of the organizational

“learning ecosystem”• Tracking and reporting will remain key• Must be simple for user and

administrator• Boils down to the appropriate content,

for the appropriate device, at the appropriate time

Future of Mobile Learning…

A lesson from the history of movies…

Leveraging the full Functionality of Mobile Devices

Think about the learning applicability for:

•SMS/text messaging

•Location-based functionality leveraging GPS

•Camera/video features

•Audio recording

•Voice recognition

•more…

Thank you!

Q&A