Focus Magazine - Summer 2016 - (Page 40)

TECHNOLOGY Mobile-Friendly vs. Mobile-First ■ By Steven Boller 'Mobile-friendly' is just not enough. I magine you're at an industry conference attending a session on mobile learning. e speaker is talking about how quickly consumers are adopting mobile devices and how they will revolutionize learning in the workplace. Some impressive statistics flash across the screen and maybe a couple of examples or case studies are shown. If I told you this conference actually happened in 2008, would you believe me? It's true... the mobile learning hype train has been scheduled to leave the station for years now. Depending on the culture of your organization, you may be wondering if it will ever get to your stop. As consumer preferences have continued to shi toward a fully mobile experience, the eLearning world has once again had to play catch-up. e various eLearning authoring tools have been incrementally adding mobile delivery to their list of features since early 2012. Just a few years ago, most people thought that a mobile experience was really anything that worked on a tablet. But for life science and medical device commercial educators, mobile has become absolutely essential. "Make it mobile-friendly" might have seemed like a smart strategy four years ago, but today it is just not enough. Why Mobile Matters If you're reading this, the odds are high that you create training destined for sales reps or customers. Your sales reps are, by definition, highly mobile themselves and likely to access training on multiple devices. Depending on the environment where customers use your products, they probably have a mobile phone or tablet nearby, too. ese learners expect to learn how to use your product quickly and on the device of their choice. And if you do not provide that education, someone else will. Is Mobile Always a Must? ere are still situations where mobile learning (or even eLearning!) is not the right solution for an organization. is might be because the target learner is a lab technician who is not allowed to use their devices in the workplace, or because of a regulatory requirement that dictates the delivery format of the learning. ese situations are real, but they are becoming the exception. 40 FOCUS | SUMMER 2016 | www.L-TEN.org http://www.L-TEN.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Focus Magazine - Summer 2016

Focus Magazine
From the President: Training, Leaders & Collaboration
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Guest Editor: LTEN: What's in a Legacy?
Directions: Celebrating 45 Years of Enthusiasm
Front of the Room: Calling Audibles
Neuroscience: The Science of User Experience
LTEN at 45: Community, Clarity and Careers
How to Train the 'Creepy' Out of Closing
Creating the Value Proposition for Mentoring
Creating the Next Generation of Life Sciences Learning
The Power of Quiet: Debunking the Myths
Mobile-Friendly vs. Mobile-First
What Kid's Soccer Teaches You About Selling
Virtual How: Instructor-Led Virtual Classrooms
Ad Index
Focus Contacts
5 Questions with DJ Mitsch

Focus Magazine - Summer 2016