We’re in the age of mobile, and the ability to access tools and apps across a variety of different devices has become increasingly important.
This also applies to e-learning, a medium more and more organisations are turning to for training and instruction. The ability to deliver relevant elearning training courses to employees, team members or students, and have them consume information at their own speed and convenience not only reduces costs associated with classrooms and instructors, it can also drive up engagement and collaboration between learners.
And when it comes to developing and distributing course content, the Moodle LMS platform – an open source course management system – is an invaluable tool. It has over 78 million users, and is still growing in popularity (Moodle.org).
Here are some of the advantages of Moodle when it comes to mobile-based training.
Strong Mobile Support
In addition to the ability to set different themes for different devices, Moodle even has standard themes for smartphones and tablets. This means that mobile isn’t just an afterthought. Mobile elearning development is actually a part of Moodle’s core functionality.
If you have learners that are often on the go or can’t be in classrooms, this is an ideal solution. Moreover, if you have team members that need quick access to information outside of the office, you can provide it without any additional work using your Moodle LMS.
The Ability To Upload Media Files
Moodle allows you to upload media such as pictures, audio files, and videos from your devices. This is especially helpful for learners who want to flesh out their profiles and connect with each other. It can also come in handy for elearning developers should they have media that they want to save for later or share from their devices.
More and more people are capturing media from their devices these days. The ability to take advantage of this media in e-learning is a massive advantage.
Functionality That Supports Collaboration
One of the potential downsides of remote e-learning is that your learners don’t necessarily get to connect with each other. However, Moodle supports both collaboration and community through a variety of different means.
Course participants can:
- Send private messages to each other, online or off.
- Take personal notes on each other, online or off.
- Add other learners as phone contacts.
- Call other course participants.
- Locate other course participants using Google maps.
- View forum discussions.
- View events in the calendar.
Just because your trainees are taking courses at their own convenience doesn’t mean that they can’t connect with each other and collaborate. This can really enhance their overall learning experience too.
Tracking & Measurement
Every elearning developer understands the importance of monitoring stats related to their course material. Moodle can be used to view stats, grades, and activity on each of your courses, even from mobile devices.
Whether you need to update your manager with relevant stats, or you just want to check in on the fly, the Moodle LMS is quite flexible.
Reminders & Notifications
Moodle uses push notifications, and also integrates with the built-in calendar, which allows you to send reminders and local notifications.
Staying up-to-date with your users is an important part of keeping them engaged. By letting them in on the latest, you can ensure longer, more consistent interest. This also helps to create a sense of community among course participants.
Conclusion
47% of organisations use mobile devices like tablets and smartphones for learning and training. This stat alone should demonstrate the importance of e-learning development via mobile.
Moodle is a powerful platform with plenty of great features. Better still, it supports mobile usage. The smartphone and tablet experience is at the core of the platform’s functionality, and isn’t a mere afterthought.
With mobile-based Moodle training increasing in importance, it’s time to find a solution that works for your organisation.
If you want to take advantage of mobile learning with the Moodle LMS in your organization, give the team at eCreators a call.