Mobile Platforms and mLearning: Challenges and Solutions

Sometimes you have to be patient – but while you are practicing patience, it may also be a good idea to do some preparation. Such is the case with mLearning.

Editor’s Note: Parts of this article may not format well on smartphones and smaller mobile devices. We recommend viewing on larger screens.

Many of us have noted that, although we’ve been talking about mLearning and mobile performance support for several years now, adoption has taken a bit longer than we expected, mainly due to lack of suitable platforms. Well, get ready for some fast movement!

In this article, I will address the flood of mobile platform OSs coming in the next six months (iOS, Android, webOS, Windows 7, Blackberry Tablet OS, and the devices that use them). I will review the challenges that mobile devices present to the design of Web-delivered content. Finally, I will provide links to information about available tools for developing mLearning and mobile performance support, and to the sessions that address mLearning at the upcoming DevLearn 2010 Conference in San Francisco, November 3-5 (over half of which are available to those with free Expo Only registration – yes, I said free).

How many ways can learning be mobile?

Until January 27, 2010, when someone said “mobile learning” the main focus of concern was almost always mobile phones, at least if the discussion was among those who designed and developed content.

On that landmark day in January, Apple launched the iPad, and the discussion has not been the same since. The focus of attention for mobile learning and performance support shifted substantially to include tablets. At about the same time, the Android operating system took off, adding another set of delivery channels, with some interesting similarities and differences in capability.

The diversification of platforms continues. Today, there are mobile phones running Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, and Microsoft’s Windows 7. There are two tablets available as of this writing. Within the next six months, at least three more tablets in the same screen-size range are likely to join the field. There is no way to know how many more mobile phone models running Android and Windows 7 will appear in the same period of time, and HP expects to release at least one model running WebOS.

Table 1. Current or known tablet computers, through early 2011. All specs and availability are “as announced by manufacturer” as of October 6, 2010.

In addition to the specifications in Table 1, all of these devices will have different price points and different TCO (Total Cost of Ownership, which mainly involves the cost of broadband service from telecommunication providers).

In planning for mobile adoption in 2011, there are a few factors to take into account. To begin with, the iPad adoption rate is the fastest of any electronic device in history. Current best estimates are that as of the end of September, Apple has sold just over eight million iPads. Educational institutions, including K-12 education, are investing heavily in iPads. The early money was on Apple’s iPad, but that’s not a guarantee for 2011.

Android smart phones are selling even faster than iPads; Android is now the biggest smart-phone platform in the U.S., and the third biggest worldwide. Of course, there are many models of Android phones, and there is no guarantee that all of them will be compatible with each other’s apps. It is worth noting that, just as the Apple iPad stood on the shoulders of iPhone sales, Android tablets could well gain great momentum based on the popularity of the Android phones.

And in the meantime, Blackberry still has the largest share of the mobile market in the U.S., particularly in the corporate arena. To complicate things further, Motorola and Verizon have just announced the Droid Pro for November release, a Blackberry-like phone that includes a very good keyboard, an excellent form factor, and a robust feature set. (Worldwide, Nokia is the champ – but so far is not significant for mobile learning and support.)

In other words, unless your organization has already made a decision about which platforms (tablets, mobile phones, and operating system) it will support, your guess is as good as mine which platform will most likely demand attention in your world next year. In any case, you can be sure that you will experience pressure from clients, employees, and managers to provide content in mobile format for performance support, reference materials, and learning.

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