Mobile learning shouldn’t be ignored. In fact, you should ignore it at your own peril!

There is a shift occurring in the way people consume digital content.

Wherever possible it seems that micro-course content is the perfect way to communicate key messages to learners. One major reason being that people are nearly always connected to their mobile devices.

Given this shift to mobile technology it becomes critically important for instructional designers to know how to develop their course content so that it is effective on these kind of devices.

It is my personal opinion that mobile learning will soon be more widely used than traditional elearning methods.

That’s not to say elearning will no longer exist – that’s not the case at all. It will still very much have a role to play in the digital learning landscape.

But I do think that mobile learning use will outgrow the elearning model that we know today.

Evidence of this is everywhere. Consider the studies referenced in the infographic above (created by Origin Learning).

As with many infographics dedicated to mobile learning it stresses the growing use (dependency) of mobile tools like smartphones and tablets, which in turn means a general decline in desktop and laptop computers.

In fact, a whopping 80% of internet users do so by using a smartphone!

Those are numbers that simply cannot be ignored in any industry, let alone in elearning.

The question isn’t “if” mobile learning becomes huge, it’s “when”. Some would argue that it already is – and they may even be right. But it will only continue to grow.

If you’re organization doesn’t utilize some form of mobile learning then it is missing out on a great opportunity.