From eLearning to mLearning: An Honorable Reception

The Mobile Learning Team recently concluded their research on the effectiveness of mobile course delivery. As a result of this research, ADL published a research paper and was asked to present their findings at the 2011 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in December. The title of the paper and presentation is “From eLearning to mLearning: The Effectiveness of Mobile Course Delivery.” The paper was awarded Honorable Mention for Best Paper at the conference.

• Download the presentation.(PDF, 5.6MB)
• Download the research paper.(PDF, .8MB)

The results of this research provided some interesting insights for the training and education community! While it is not anticipated that mobile courses will replace traditional eLearning courses delivered through the desktop web browser, the main goal of this research effort was to determine whether smartphones can provide an acceptable means to deliver mandatory training content.

Our research plan was to create a mobile version of an online eLearning course, convert it to a mobile form, and have those who took the mobile course then answer some survey questions about taking the course via their smartphone compared with their previous experience with online courses. The population for the study included a wide range of DoD stakeholders with interests in mobile learning who agreed to complete the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) mobile course asynchronously at various remote locations in the U.S. In addition, forty participants at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas completed the TIP mobile course synchronously.

The satisfaction with the mobile course alternative, as revealed by the survey results, was quite impressive:

• Eighty-five percent of the participants/respondents said they would complete their annual mandatory training on mobile devices if this alternative option were provided. This response indicates there is definitely a high degree of effectiveness with mobile platforms. This positive response should also begin to help Military education and training stakeholders formulate plans for future research in using mobile devices for delivering courses or other types of learning activities.
• Seventy percent of the participants who had previously completed the eLearning course actually preferred the mobile version. Why? Their answers to this question and more can be discovered by reading the complete research paper!

One of the most exciting aspects of mobile delivery is, of course, the convenience factor of providing true self-paced opportunities for completion, anytime and anywhere. Another key factor that makes mobile learning activities such as mobile courses or performance support materials even more engaging than desktop-based eLearning is the power of touch interactivity. This is an area of research that we will look at in 2012. In the meantime, the ADL Mobile Team would like to hear about your research efforts that examine the effectiveness of mobile course delivery. Please contact us at adlmobile@adlnet[dot]gov if you have any mLearning research findings to share.