Scott McCormick (@scottfloat) from Float Learning, took session 401 at mLearnCon which covered “The First 10 Questions Your Company Needs to Ask Before You Adopt mLearning”. So yes, there were ten questions, but look out because then there are all the sub-questions!

Here are my session notes:

1. Why the heck are we doing this? (i.e. know your end goal)
   • Because everything’s going mobile
   • Build a business case
   • Identify learning gaps
   • The investment must = benefits (time saving, cost saving)
2. Do you have a champion?
   • Do you have someone with a passion?
   • Do you have someone who will be an evangelist?
   • Do you have someone who can assemble a team?
   • Do you have someone who knows and understands your culture?
   • Bonus: have someone who will take a thought leadership role and start a blog or other initiative
3. Are you prepared to not be prepared?
   • Do you have the technical architecture – network, mobile devices, support team
   • Do you have development capabilities? The skill sets?
   • You will have to look at learning in a whole new way.
   • What makes a rich mobile experience?
     *Ubiquity
     *Access
     *Richness
     *Efficiency
     *Flexibility
     *Security
     *Reliability
     *Integrity
     *Interactivity (collaboration, geolocation, gyroscope, mediated reality)
4. What is the current state of your learning?
   • Can you take a complete inventory of your curriculum?
   • Can you assess it objectively?
   • Can you determine what is successful and effective?
   • Can you re-design it so it can be delivered in a mobile context?
5. Do you know your audience?
   • Do you know their needs?
   • Do you know what they want? Use surveys.
   • Can you anticipate their reactions? Spend time in their world and identify ways mobile can help.
   • Can you ask the tough questions ahead of time?
6. Do you have a process?
   • Define – establish objectives, understand learner requirements
   • Design – functional, technical, GUI design, script / storyboard
   • Develop – creation, programming, prepare assets, testing
   • Deliver – implement solution, gather feedback, measure results
7. How do you and your company handle disruptive change?
   • Can you deal with disruptive change in your culture?
   • Can your learners handle disruptive change in their daily lives?
   • Have you had a recent big change and what can you learn from it?
   • Expect some resistance
8. What is the context for the use of mobile?
   Examine and understand the 3 levels of context for your audience (see picture above):
   • Activity (hand) – device, connection, interface, tasks, goals
   • Environment (head) – sound, light, space, privacy
   • Culture (heart) – economics, religion, social structure, law

9. Who are the stakeholders?
   • Can you identify all of the silos?
   • Why do they have an interest?
   • Do you know what their interests (their ‘hot buttons’)?
   • Learners / IT / Legal / Leadership / Marketing / Stockholders / Unions: You’re going to raise a lot of interest and you need to know how to win hearts and know the answers before the questions are asked

10. What does success look like?
    • Have you established metrics?
    • Have you made any gains / savings in productivity, costs, scope, etc?
    • Set up analytics for usage and audience activity
    • Finally, you have to know how to celebrate!

The best idea is to keep replicating and refining the process as you move forward and hopefully, now that you’ve answered these questions, you will be much better prepared for what lies ahead!

Thanks Scott, this definitely gave everyone in the session a lot to think about.

@Schnicker