Why to Leverage
M-Learning and Microlearning for Business?

Published: 2021-03-10 14:07:11

Incorporating EdTech software solutions for business can give a really hard time to middle- and large-scale companies that already have corporate e-learning platforms and infrastructure. The older edtech software solutions usually fall short of today’s ever-growing technology requirements. This makes companies modernize their current digital learning software and applications to keep the professional training process up to par.

**Why e-learning for business is so popular nowadays**

With this, the increasing need for workforce development and lockdown times have given rise to the high number of new software solutions for business e-learning. The size of the global e-learning market is projected to be over $240 billion by 2022. There have appeared many corporate e-learning trends for 2021 showing businesses how to revamp their workforce training efficiencies.
It is also worth mentioning that the younger generation of employees are highly motivated to get robust professional training services. Comprising the major share of the US workforce, 87 percent of millennials consider development opportunities to be very important for job excellence. Millennials are tech-savvy, good at using smartphones with various home and business mobile applications, and open to new ways of virtual learning.
Statista revealed the popularity of modern corporate learning technologies among employees worldwide. The report shows that no matter what channel they use for e-learning, the vast majority of today’s employees find it very helpful for professional and career growth.

**What eLearning trends are all the rage for 2021**
Among the e-learning trends on the EdTech business horizon for 2021 and beyond are definitely mobile learning and microlearning. These practices for workforce training combine most of the digital amenities the employees rated in the report above, like AR/VR, video and audio materials, gamification techniques, and others. Although overlapping at times, i.e. the use of smartphones, both mLearning and microlearning can reinforce each other, if implemented right.
What’s really exciting is that medium-sized and large enterprises start rethinking their L&D strategies. Over 40% of companies are reported to thrive on continuous professional development for their employees and upskill the workforce by 2024. So, let’s have a closer look at what these eLearning methodologies are, and see how to combine them for collaborative workforce training.

**What is Mobile learning?**
As the name implies, mobile learning, usually shortened as mLearning, means a remote way of acquiring new skills and proficiency via smartphones or other mobile devices. That’s an open secret that mobile-first user experience is now prevailing in EdTech. The number of smartphone owners worldwide is very large and is still counting. According to Newzoo’s Global Mobile Market Report, the global amount of active smartphone users will be close to 4 billion in 2022.
As an easy yet meaningful way of e-learning content delivery, mobile learning attracts various cohorts of smartphone users. Both everyday and business users may differ in age, geolocation, behavior, mobile applications, and LMS (learning management system) they prefer. But the mLearning trend is here to stay.

**Benefits of mobile learning for business**
So, if you are about to improve the professional training for your workforce or your B2B customers, what do you get with mLearning?

- **Cost-efficiency.** Unlike traditional ways of employee training courses coming at a high cost, mobile learning helps your L&D activities arrive at a fair price. You need no additional spending on hiring qualified training staff, renting meeting and workshop rooms, and ordering tons of printed materials.
Instead, once you have a mobile application developed, your employees can enjoy location-agnostic learning experience at its fullest. Letting them stay at home or at the office, mobile learning can save you a lot of money.

- **Enhanced engagement.** While younger employees are highly motivated to continue their professional learning path, the elder generation may require an additional stimulus. Mobile learning provides easy-to-use training tools for business users of any age, skillset, and proficiency level.

- **Improved knowledge transfer and retention.** Conventional instructor-led classes are largely not so comprehensible as new digital e-learning ways. In fact, mLearning can convey the message in a much more interesting and better way. The most compelling forms of mobile learning provide high rates of professional knowledge acquisition and reinforcement.

- **Flexible on-demand learning flow.** The possibility to learn on the go, just at the moment of need is what brings mLearning much appreciation from business users. All the end-users of your mobile learning app are free to choose when and where they should go on with their professional training.

- **Collaborative learning and analytics.** Mobile learning allows users to gain confidence while accessing vast online content resources via mobile apps. End-users can share their eLearning achievements with their teammates, peers, and managers. It helps L&D department timely track an employee’s learning progress and check it against the set KPIs.

- **Device-agnostic or BYOD approach.** The principle of bringing your own device (BYOD) enable business users to leverage mLearning app solutions on preferable mobile platforms, be it either iOS or Android. You can access your mobile app for mLearning while having some spare time on the job or staying at home. Backed by responsive UI design, mLearning applications can be run on any smartphone with any display size.

**What is Microlearning?**
Microlearning is another great EdTech trend for 2021. The approach is created to improve business user learning efficiency through small pieces of training data. The educational information is delivered via various digital channels, however the key principle remains the same. All the learning topics are divided into one-task-only bits of content. The microlearning strategy allows users to effectively achieve long-term professional goals while completing short problem-solving learning assignments.
Microlearning has recently gained much traction among business users due to its laser-focus on the workforce training excellence. The learning process is very accessible and time-saving. All this makes microlearning be the best option for professional growth, especially nowadays when employees have intensive workloads and shorter attention spans.

**Benefits of microlearning for business**
Adopting microlearning software solutions for corporate users can give business owners a set of competitive advantages.
- **Personalization.** Microlearning allows users to customize their professional training flow and prioritize some must-have skill development tasks. A mobile app that leverages microlearning can easily manage employee metrics, utilize their personal historical data, and streamline the curriculum to tailor it to individual learning goals.
- **Single-task learning sessions.** Microlearning tasks are designed so as to let business learners focus on separate training topics and tasks. Employees show greater learning results when they bridge their skills gaps by overcoming challenges one at a time.
- **Time-saver attitude.** To deliver better user experience, microlearning practices pay much attention to be both time- and cost-efficient learning solutions. An average user learning session takes usually no longer than ten minutes. This is the right time frame to keep your workforce engaged and motivated with the content they learn.
- **Multimedia-driven learning process.** Much like mobile learning, microlearning harnesses the potential of digital transformation in EdTech. Various technology solutions and digital formats, like videos, AR/VR mobile apps, interactive dashboards etc., are used for microlearning. These features help enhance the corporate learning process, and make it more informative and immersive.
- **Repetitive and relevant content acquisition.** Thanks to its greater flexibility and accessibility, microlearning solutions allow end-users to reach better results through the selection of the best learning content available. Repeating pieces of learning content helps improve the retention of professional knowledge, and the overall training progress
- **Quick assessment and reinforcement.** Short lessons provide business learners with blink-of-an-eye feedback on their training progress. A mobile app powered by microlearning can instantly process and come up with users’ results. It gives employees much time to think over the mistakes and improve what they have already learned.

**Bottom line**
Companies do need great software e-learning solutions to stay competitive in 2021 and further. Being an integral part of any professional e-learning system, mobile learning and microlearning are the best ways to streamline your current corporate training software solution. They are not interchangeable though, and it’s better to use them both to supplement and enhance the performance of your employees’ e-learning process.
No matter be it a desktop-based eLearning platform or a mobile application, your software solution for workforce training has to efficiently address all today’s challenges. Here at HebronSoft, we perfectly know how to optimize your existing business e-learning for internal teams and B2B customers. Contact us to get a robust custom-built software solution that boosts your workforce remote learning efficiency. Let us help you keep the wheels of your business turning.