Mobile phone learning - is there an app for that?

Brightwave's Senior Technologist Jonathan Archibald examines whether it's best to deliver mobile learning as a native application or as a browser delivered solution.

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There are two main streams of development in the mobile phone world, native or browser-based.

The world of advertising would have you believe that apps are the answer to everything - finding your car, ordering your groceries, catching a train etc. - but are they suitable for your organisation's mobile learning?

Before we go any further 'mobile learning' is a very vague term and can cover laptops, net books, tablet devices, mobile phones, PDAs, hand-held game devices, e-books, portable mp3 players and portable video players. This piece is only looking at mobile phone use.

Native Apps

Native apps have revolutionised the way mobile phones are used and the way software development companies market and generate revenue for their products. But in a corporate environment generating revenue for learning content is not really a driver; organisations are not going to charge their employees to access content. Therefore a closer examination of the benefits needs to be made.

There appear to be two major benefits to developing native apps:

• Offline use - After an app has been downloaded and installed it can be run offline. This means that a user could still consume learning content even if their connection was broken or intermittent, for example on a train journey, plane etc.
• Gesture support - Most of the new smart phones have built-in accelerometers and multi-touch interfaces which detect motion and complex touch gestures. These can be harnessed to alter the content, for example shaking the device could reveal an answer to a question. These gestures can increase the interaction levels of the user with the content and therefore help make the learning more engaging.

So what are the drawbacks to native apps? Well the main problem is that there are numerous different devices to support. In your organisation you most probably have employees with a number of devices from a mixture of the following manufacturers - Nokia, HTC (Android), HTC (Windows), iPhone and / or Blackberry. Each device runs a different operating system and connects to a different app store. This means that to cover all of your users an app would need to be developed for each platform. Bear in mind that this may not be as simple as just recompiling the app for a different environment, it could be that the device does not support gestures or the resolution is tiny so the content may need to be rewritten or graphics reproduced.

The problems don't stop in development. Getting content into each app store is tricky and not all vendors offer a corporate installation route. On some devices the app could be installed remotely, on others the user would need to install it manually from the app store. Also, when you want to make updates to the content you will need to make it in all the various forms of the app and release again. On some devices the update will be applied automatically. On others it would be up to the user to go to the app store and update the app manually.

Making learning resources available from a public app store may result in security considerations, for example you could not stop a user outside of your organisation downloading your app to their phone. This can be negated to some extent by including a sign in process but it won't stop the content from being downloaded.

Browser Web Apps

Do you remember the painful days of WAP? Well the mobile web today is a million miles from that, in some cases it's actually a better way of viewing websites than on a big screen. HTML 5, Jquery, 3G and WiFi technologies have allowed us to make rich and dynamic applications that run through a phone's browser.

What is there to gain from deploying a browser-based app?

• Instant access to content. Users simply have to tap on a URL and then they can access learning content. There are no app stores, no downloads just easy quick access
• Updating the content is easy because the app is centrally hosted on a web server and consequently there is only one place to update
• Fewer issues with cross-compatibility, although phone browsers are different they are at least trying to work to the same standards; this means there will be fewer differences in capability between devices. Also mobile browsers are getting better every day so the differences will diminish over time.

Sounds great, but what are the downsides? The main problem with web-delivered content is that it can't be run offline. That means if the user does not have a mobile signal or WiFi then the content cannot be viewed. HTML 5 does offer some offline cache however the learning content may not fit and not all mobile browsers support it. If the signal connection is intermittent the user's tracking records may also be lost. However this risk can be minimised by increasing the frequency of communication so if records are lost the user only loses their last 30 seconds of progress.

The other downside is that there is limited gesture support with browser apps, for example shaking or tilting would not be picked up by the browser. Therefore interactions would be limited to touch and button clicking.

Who wins?

Well overall the browser delivered apps come out on top; they offer better value, are easier to maintain and more secure. But, as usual, it's not that straightforward.

In terms of the user experience the native app wins hands down. Gesture support really enhances the interactions and the offline support will allow the user to use the learning when they want to not when there is mobile signal. These are key features that many organisations will not want to live without. For example, what would be the point in mobile phone learning if your employees could not access it because they work in an area with poor 3G coverage?

Luckily browser-delivered apps are not far behind on user experience and 3G and WiFi coverage is good and getting better. Also I am sure gesture support will be included in future devices. Recently I showed a web app we developed to a number of people and they all thought it was native and were genuinely shocked that it wasn't.

So what is best for your organisation?

Well the big question you need to ask is does the need for offline and gesture support outweigh the clear benefits of browser-delivered apps? Well that's up to you to decide, each organisation has different mobile devices to support, access to 3G/WiFi and content requirements.

What do you think? Do you agree that browser-delivered apps are the best choice for corporate mobile phone learning? Or is the app store king? 

Whatever your opinion one thing is certain - if you excuse the pun - the importance of mobile phone learning for generations to come isn't going away...

To find out how Brightwave can help your organisation implement mobile learning in your organisation email us or call +44 (0)1273 827676.

You might also like:

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Comments

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Destiny Brown 2011-07-02 07:37:08 I never accessed any app for mobile learning actually however, it seems a great idea to have one for the same. I would surely go for it as I think learning would be a bit easy. Thanks for the post by the way! I carry my HTC Desire and would love to incorporate such user friendly apps into it! Reply

Destiny Brown 2011-08-16 14:02:13 Yes, there is an app for elearning! The best part is you can download many apps related to your requirement and nowadays mobile phones do allow to upgrade the same depending on the needs. Thanks for the post! Nowadays people even teach in classes through mobile app! Reply

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