It’s common knowledge that education is important throughout adult life, even after finishing school and university. The problem is that it can be difficult to fit further education around work. That’s where the evolution of technology comes in, and in recent years, hand-held technology has launched a new phenomenon: learning on the go.

For training providers, this trend poses a number of interesting questions. For example, how do you measure progress, the return on investment for users paying for courses, and the changing and updating of courses based on drop-off rates or skipped course components?

Learning on the go is a broad term, but it means consumers are actively learning as they go about their daily lives. In other words, learning is slotted in during spare moments, like during travel.

Micro Moments

Micro moments are short bursts of time that consumers spend on a technological device, usually a smartphone. These moments can happen anywhere, at any time. Some common examples include waiting for a friend or public transport to arrive and during a break at work. During these micro moments, consumers often text, browse the internet or access an app.

Thanks to the invention of smartphones and tablets, everyone can access a learning platform at any time. However, this learning is not always easy to track if learners are using offline portals or apps. Throughout the day, people are constantly checking their phones or browsing the internet during a micro moment. If you stop and look around, you can see consumers engaging with mobile apps in every spare moment. Most consumers understand that these spare moments in the day can be used effectively. For example, if you take a subway or train to work, it’s likely you will see some reading on a tablet or e-reader, someone practicing for a test on a phone, and someone learning a new language on a mobile app.

Mobile Learning

As consumers become more reliant on their phones, it is more common for them to carry out tasks of all scale on a mobile device rather than a laptop or PC. These tasks include shopping, researching and booking events.

Learning on the go is becoming more and more common, and with internet available everywhere, either through 4G or free Wi-Fi, it’s a great opportunity for L&D platforms to offer a mobile service.

A mobile app can be an extension of a full service you offer online or in person. You don’t need to offer everything in the form of an app for it to benefit your business. Some L&D platforms have introduced apps that help learners practice for assessments through short games and/or quizzes.

Building Responsive Course Campaigns

A course’s campaign from start to finish can vary. Course materials, learning documents and tasks can come in the form of videos, text, images or even live streams.

The integration of online materials is hugely important here. Responsive optimization of course content means users who start on a laptop and decide to finish courses on the train to or from work will not see a reduction in quality and will remain engaged with the course.

If you’re running a course through a portal, you can measure the responsiveness using software such as Google Tag Manager. You can monitor interaction with course pages, videos, checklists and downloads. If there is a greater drop-off on mobile devices, then you know users may not be engaging correctly with online courses.

It’s helpful to work with a development team or SEO agency to create click classes and click IDs within events on the website. Create simple and clear tags that you can then send data to Google Analytics. You can also set them up as goals, so you can track course completion rate (based on the number of people starting the course) to determine overall course engagement.

Dripfeed Course Marketing

Dripfeed marketing is used to re-engage buyers who have fallen off at some point in the sales cycle. It can also be used when marketing training, based on the course content and the amount of time users are taking to complete each course.

For example, if a user does not complete a particular section of the course, they will receive a chain of email prompts based on their activity. You can tag emails with unique user IDs and tracking codes and add these codes to lists. Dripfeed marketing can also be used for course follow-up and upselling. Think strategically about the email process before setting it up. Then, you can automate the process.

Using Data

Combining campaign and dripfeed datasets allows for two key tasks to take place: Firstly, it allows you to monitor the course value, and secondly, it allows you to monitor course offerings and measure engagement, upsells within the course or follow up-courses.

With consumers spending so much time on their smartphones, being able to access a course anywhere can be a selling point. Learning on the go is something all training companies should, therefore, be taking full advantage of.