What Can You Expect in 2013?

As organizations continue to look for ways to enable and improve employee performance, there is an increased focus on talent development. Several trends will drive performance and development in 2013, and learning leaders will need to strategize for mobility.

Imagine a baggage handler accessing a job aid on his or her bag tag scanner or a copy machine service technician connecting via the machine interface to a live, virtual mentor. With mobility, learning and work are not conducted in isolation. Chris Hardy, director of the Global Learning and Technology Center for Defense Acquisition University (DAU), said tablets can seamlessly merge learning, play and work. “This year or next at the latest, tablets will reshape our learning and development world — providing one platform on the job, on the move, for anywhere, anytime learning and performance support.”

Other organizations may look to QR codes to enable geo-specific learning. Ernst & Young has been recognized for its innovative use of QR codes accessing content via smartphones. Using personal phones, participants accessed QR codes to sign in for class attendance and to access interest polls. After the classroom event and while traveling to the airport, learners used the codes to complete evaluations and assessments.

Embracing apps: According to ABI Research, 36 billion apps were downloaded in 2012, and 136 billion will be downloaded by 2017. Despite this trend, most corporations have been slow to deploy mobile learning, and even fewer consider adopting learning apps. That may be because while apps are easy to create, they are not easy for corporations to support. There are issues related to device type, content storage, security and determining what content needs to be mobile. However, since apps are about accessing content, there is some potential value for learning if the learning leader can determine how best to use an app’s functionality to meet employee and organizational development needs.

In its 2012 underground learning report, Edudemic magazine explored college students’ use of mobile devices for learning and found “being able to do one task very well is the key to a good app. Don’t try to be a Swiss Army knife for everything in education.” Some apps connect students to study groups or link to dynamic content such as RSS feeds. According to a December 2011 issue of Business Insider, the mobile apps analytics firm Distimo said many popular apps were games such as Angry Birds, social networking such as Facebook, Skype and Twitter, and other content such as Google Maps and iBooks. These apps focus on specific content such as playing a game or buying a book. Quite often, the content is dynamic, changing based on a situation, and users can add content.