Look ma, no internet (m)Learning!

As employee skill and productivity requirements have changed over the years, digital learning has been making great in roads, especially in the corporate sector. Through the digital transformation of learning, organizations have been able to provide stellar just-in-time training solutions to their employees.

Digital learning has helped ensure when, how, and where individuals learn is no longer restricted to a specific time or place. The size of the Global Digital Education market is expected to reach $48.4 billion by 2026, rising at a market growth of 33.2% CAGR. The corporate eLearning sector, specifically, is expected to grow by $38 billion from 2020 to 2024.

There are ample reasons to justify this growth. One research has shown that every dollar invested in online training results in a $30 increase in productivity. Another showed that 42% of companies saw increased revenue after implementing e-learning.

In short, digital learning was already growing in leaps and bounds since the past few years when along came 2020 that literally skyrocketed the term ‘digital’ to another level. The global pandemic brought a massive change in the way people were working and learning. With most countries going into COVID-19 compelled lockdowns, employees moved their offices and students their learning bays into the confines of their homes. Through all of this, the focus fell majorly upon the status of internet connections around the world considering that globally people were forced to work/learn remotely.

Areas that lacked strong network connectivity made it difficult for learners to continue uninterrupted learning. This was also the time when the digital divide between countries was exposed like never before and countries that did not have the infrastructure for widespread broadband faced a hard time. According to UNESCO, globally, just over half of households (55%) have an internet connection. In the developed world, 87% of households are connected compared with 47% in developing nations, and just 19% in the least developed countries.

While the pandemic exposed the digital divide a little more starkly, we know that it has always existed. This is how the idea of Offline Learning took roots where the content can be set up ahead of time when access to internet connection is available. Learners can download the training resources on the mobile storage they have (it could be their own mobile phones) when connected to the Internet, and access the content multiple times at their own time and convenience. In other words, offline mLearning offers employees the option of any time, anywhere learning access, and more importantly at the time of need when learning is required the most.

Offline Mobile Learning

For some time now, Offline mLearningor Offline Mobile Learning has been a popular option for remote learners as well as those who do not have a strong internet connection, those who work in far-off rural areas (with patchy internet connections), or those who are required to travel frequently (especially by air or even water).

Not only this, Offline mLearning is also a great solution for learners who are on the move all the time, for instance, Sales reps who are always on the go, sometimes in locations without stable wi-fi or internet connections. Similarly, workers whose professions require them to work in far-flung corners of the globe (such as oil rig technicians or those who work in mines) can benefit immensely from offline learning content to continue their training.

Offline access also allows learners to undertake training when it is convenient for them depending upon their work responsibilities. This increases the likelihood of employees engaging more with the training content since they can focus on the learning instead of having to multitask.

Another important advantage of Offline mLearning is that it offers a higher ROI in eLearning. Since the process of learning is easier and self-paced, the dropout rate reduces greatly which means the organization can experience a better return on the invested time and money in the form of well-informed/trained employees. Greater accessibility also means every employee can get the online training resources they need to fulfill their training requirements.

With all these benefits of Offline mLearning, it is important that L&D teams in organizations seriously consider investing in an LMS that offers offline access.

Offline mLearning through an LMS is a simple and easy process where app-ready training in the form of videos, HTML5 SCORM 1.2 Courses, Documents, Images, etc is offered to learners which they can access anytime, anywhere, even when they are on-the-go. The organization can, meanwhile, keep a complete track of the learners’ offline activity through robust MIS & Reporting systems in a secured manner. There’s also a two-way synchronization of the learners’ training progress ensuring complete syncing and updating of progress once the learner is back online. An LMS with offline access also offers the provision to start from where the learner had to leave the training last and there is no need to take the training again right from the beginning.

In the age of Offline mLearning, being disconnected from the internet no longer means there has to be a pause to learning. Moreover, in a situation like this pandemic when remote working/learning is the new normal, Offline mLearning is a must-have option for organizations. With Offline mLearning, learners can continue to enjoy an uninterrupted, seamless learning experience, while organizations can continue imparting just-in-time, on-the-go training that is flexible and mobile, even in the absence of internet connection.