Choosing The Best Mobile Learning App in 2021
Those days of training employees through conventional (and boring, to be honest) lectures or presentations are long gone. Both companies and employees need faster and more efficient learning solutions nowadays, so that time and money don’t get wasted and work doesn’t stall. Which is why, a mobile learning app has emerged as one of the best solutions for employee onboarding, upskilling, and knowledge sharing. An efficient and effective learning management system (LMS) is one that has been developed as mobile-first. A mobile-based learning app allows you to update and upskill your employees through their smartphones.
Ever since the Covid-19 outbreak, mobile learning platforms have become more prevalent, indicating that the future of learning depends on them. The pandemic has pushed organizations to invest in learning apps to keep their learners up to date, without compromising their safety.
Mobiles apps are not just the most easily accessible and efficient mode of learning for everyone, but also offer tons of flexibility. In fact, as per the latest market research report by Technavio, a leading global technology research and advisory company, the global education app market is expected to grow by $ 46.88 billion during 2020-2024 as the demand for mobile education is growing fast.
So, read on to know why mobile learning apps are becoming a rage and what are the features to look for before choosing an app.
7 Reasons Behind the Popularity of Mobile Learning Apps
If you are looking for the most efficient way to educate your distributed workforce, mobile learning apps will surely come in handy. Currently, remote working is apt to deal with the pandemic, since most employees cannot travel to offices or have face-to-face interactions with their mentors or supervisors. Luckily, learning applications are here to save the day as they can be accessed and used anytime and from anywhere.
Here are the 7 key benefits of using a mobile learning app to educate your learners:
Better control of one’s learning: Mobile learning apps provide immense flexibility to a learner as they can take a course anytime and from anywhere. So, learners can accommodate learning sessions as per their convenience, which results in higher course completion rates. It also supports self-paced learning.
Personalized learning and attention to different needs: Generally, mobile apps are designed to provide a personalized learning experience and offer the required information just in time. A learning app is even ideal for performance support intervention.
Better communication between educators and learners: The development of learning apps has been able to establish better relationships between educators and learners. With the implementation of different microlearning methods, you can now design the best learning app for your remote employees.
Less time-consuming and cost-efficient approach: Employee training apps are both time and cost-saving approaches to address various kinds of training requirements, associated with soft skills, products, compliance, and change management. A mobile app can help you deal with training requirements, the onboarding process, upskilling, etc. without investing in any physical infrastructure or space.
Reduced paperwork and manual training efforts: The app-based learning approach reduces the amount of manual labor that traditionally goes into arranging training sessions, conducting classes, and evaluating employee progress.
Improved progress tracking: As they are automated, mobile learning platforms are better at progress tracking and indicating course completion.
Enhanced engagement through gamified learning: Mobile apps provide learning content in a way that is easy to grasp and engage with. In contrast to traditional learning methods, mobile learning apps offer content in a gamified form or bite-sized learning modules — and this makes the learning process effective, engaging, and interactive!
Essential Features of an Educational App
A good mobile learning app comes with multiple features and different capabilities that fulfil the learning needs of your employees. To choose the best mobile learning app for your organization, you need to check if it incorporates multiple features depending on the purpose of that app. Here are some basic features that are a must for any learning application:
Great UI and UX
Good quality UI and UX is crucial to make a mobile application attractive and engaging. Otherwise, it can hamper the learning experience of the user.
Log in/Sign up
For a mobile app, multiple login options are a value-added feature. Some people prefer to use email ID or phone number while others prefer to sign up through social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram etc.
User Profiles
The ability to organize user details is a vital feature for a mobile learning app. A user profile can contain basic details of a user like age, level of education, etc. and keep track of the learning progress of the user or completion status as well, so that users know where they are at.
Offline Viewing
Offline viewing facility makes a mobile learning app convenient to use, since users don’t always need to be online to access the app or view important data.
Learning materials
If your aim is to have the best learning app, make sure it contains materials that are interesting, easy to understand, interactive, and offer a complete experience. To make the content engaging, you can consider learning materials that use video, audio, visual, or a mixture of the two, gamification, interactive exercises/activities, and online courses.
Push notifications
Notification is a critical feature for any learning app. In today's busy world, most users prefer push notifications to stay aware about whatever is going on in the eLearning world, activities, tests or events. These remind learners to come back to the app and continue with it.
Search functionality
Search functionality is a crucial feature for any learning platform. It makes navigation easy and fast and allows users to access the information they need without going through unnecessary content.
Community/Social Integration
Sharing progress and achievements with other people can be exciting and motivational. Plus, many users love to share their achievements on social media sites. This app feature makes your users feel like they are part of a community, which pushes them to do better and keep using the app.
Also Read: Belagavi-based startup devises platform to make learning more engaging
Conclusion
In a nutshell, embracing eLearning is essential for employee training and upskilling in a world that is still fighting the pandemic and dealing with physical distancing. And since mobile devices are being widely used and preferred for their convenience, you must say yes to mobile learning apps.
From large corporate houses and small and medium businesses to start-ups, everyone understands the effectiveness of using mobile learning platforms and apps for training and educating their employees effectively, quickly and affordably.
So, if you are planning to design a customized mobile learning app for your remote and distributed workforce, consult Oust Labs today. Be it a workplace learning app, performance support app, knowledge repository app, or LMS app, contact our experts to get the help you need!