It’s that time of the year again when love and romance are in the air. As we look for ways to woo our learning and development strategies, whilst delivering creative, cost-efficient and effective ways of engaging employees in workplace learning, many L&D professionals are turning to apps.
Before our romantic tendencies get the better and you get ‘carried away’, it is important that you assess whether or not a new piece of learning technology enhances learner experience. To help you with this, we’ve compiled five questions to help you decide if your new idea for a learning app is ‘The One’.
1. Will it help reach your organisations learning objectives?
Make a list of the learning results you would like to see in your organisation and what learning outcomes you can realistically expect to see if you manage to successfully implement an app.
2. Does it make content harder or easier to access?
It’s important to note the demographics and characteristics of your learners. Factors like age and income will affect access to mobile devices and adoption of technology. Most learners will appreciate the simplest access routes to learning.
Don’t forget to consider whether or not an app will allow you to present learning content in a way that is user-centric.
3. Should you go for HTML5 or native app development?
Opinion highly differs throughout the industry on this point. Both HTML5 and native app development contain their own problems and benefits.
Danny Brown says that for those who don’t want to be held back by Apple or Google, who have the need to constantly update information and who don’t want users to download an App, the best option is to choose HTML5 app development. However, for those with one device type in mind, who are seeking the best user experience and require secure data then going native is the best option.
4. Do you have the right skills in-house to develop an app?
If you decide to build a mobile web application, you will need a developer, designer and instructional designer and if you decide to build a native app on a number of platforms you will need the same team plus additional web developers proficient in a wide range of coding languages.
If you currently don’t have internal capability, that’s not to say that it is impossible to develop an app, just that you will need to look at the budget you have available to outsource the app or to train staff internally in the skills you are lacking.
5. Do you have a plan in place for future updates and app maintenance?
App development is not just a one-off task but a real commitment of the time and resources it takes to update and maintain both learning content and the technology that supports it. It is important to have both organisational buy-in and a group of individuals in place who will ensure that your app will continue to have relevant and up-to-date content.
This infographic is available to download here.
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