Today, the concept of mobile is not reserved for a specific technology or for a select group of people. Mobility is now the norm for our work and our lives. In our business, mobile is much more than training on the go. But what role does mobile performance support play in the overall picture?

When thinking about training and performance support, it should not be an either /or proposition. The most effective mobile learning solutions should provide ways to support both! During the Mobile Training Implementation Framework (MoTIF) research project, ADL collected data and feedback from many mLearning and performance support experts. One of the tools developed as part of this effort is a new reference model for mLearning design.

The federal government faces numerous circumstances that make adopting and offering mLearning, training, and performance solutions challenging. There are also expectations that government products should be made available to the public. In light of that, the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative, a Department of Defense initiative focused on furthering distributed and remote learning, training, and performance support in government and in civil society, will provide an overview of various mLearning projects and their open source products.

It isn’t enough to build performance support solutions that are instructionally and technologically sound. Motivation and engagement are essential to ensure actual organizational impact. Engagement and creativity can be engineered and trained. They can also be incorporated into the actual design of learning and performance solutions. 

Trainers have all seen the “light come on” when participants really get a point from the training. The trainers wonder if they’ll remember it in a few days or weeks when they encounter a need for that knowledge. Over the years, trainers have all built job aids, tools, and refreshers, and provided follow-up coaching in person, online, and on the phone with varying degrees of success. Apps and mobile phones offer a new way for the participant to keep the knowledge close at hand.

Raytheon Professional Services had as a client a global company that has a distributed workforce diagnosing and repairing technical equipment at their customers’ stores. The client wanted to provide a mobile solution to its workforce to allow them to improve upon their key business metrics.