Going Mobile In The Public Sector

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Why? - Context Issues

There are around 198,000 people working in the social services in Scotland and this workforce continues to grow despite the recession. Most of these employees work in small to medium sized organizations - many in micro-organizations with less than 10 employees. With this comes a lack of infrastructure in terms of HR, learning and development and ICT support.

Alongside this, our sector has a qualifications based registration and regulation system where the expectation is that workers achieve a recognized qualification in order to practice.

The recession has had a negative impact on social service budgets, so operational managers have dwindling financial resources to support training provision and a reducing ability to back-fill posts when staff is released for training.

So, the logistics of addressing the learning needs of staff are becoming increasingly fraught and viable alternatives need to be identified.

Why? - Retention of Learning

Beyond the logistical and financial drivers, there are other issues driving the need for change.

By far the most common model of learning delivery in the social services sector in Scotland, is the traditional training center/classroom approach to learning: i.e. ship people in to a central location, deliver the learning and send people back to the workplace to apply what they've learned - or not!

Theory tells us that this is not an efficient or effective learning model. Herman Ebbinghaus showed in 1885, that in this model, learners typically retained only 20 percent of what they were exposed to after a period of only a day or two elapsed between learning something and having the opportunity to apply it. Therefore, the model described above is highly inefficient in learning terms.

Taking this further, the University of Waterloo, showed that by revising learning for only 5-10 minutes per day, learners retention levels remained in the area of 90 percent as opposed to 20 percent. However, in the training center approach, returning to the learning is simply not possible.

The Project (Outline)

So, what is the alternative?

We know that theory tells us that learning which takes place as close as possible to the circumstances in which it is going to be applied (i.e. "Situated Learning") is much more efficient in transferring learning to practice that traditional, classroom approaches. So, we developed a demonstration project with one of our larger employers to test the viability of delivering eLearning content on mobile devices in the workplace.

Working with our partner, we redeveloped a "Classroom" course for delivery on the PSP via the Second Sight system; deployed the materials and compared and contrast the experiences of the group using the PSP with another group working through the course in the training center.

What is Second Sight?

Second Sight is an application which runs on the Sony PSP (Playstation Portable) which enables the device to display a range of multimedia content, triggered by pre-defined 'markers' (similar in design to QR Codes). There are two main ways to use these markers - either by placing them in printed material and then using them to display content to enhance the printed matter or, by placing them in the physical environment and using them to trigger content relating to that aspect of the environment. For example, in a residential care environment, assistive technology is often used (e.g. bath lifts). In the past vendors would install the equipment and offer a one-off training of staff. With the Second Sight system, it would be possible to place markers on the equipment and create video based instructional materials which could be triggered on the PSP. This would then be available 24/7 for the life of the product in use.

What did we find?

In brief, we found that: 

• TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) approach more effective than training center approach
• Learners (and their managers) reported increased ease of application of learning to practice
• Technology was reported as beneficial/ supportive of learning: users very positive about their control of the pace of learning
• TEL approach improved retention (particularly of detailed information)
• The use of mobile technology was seen as having very positive impact on logistics of training
• TEL users also reported a strong sense of ownership of their learning and that they felt in control over the time, place and pace of learning

 Augmented Reality: Personalized, targeted and tailored Learning

Although the demonstration project took the approach of enhancing a printed document, we are now engaged in a new project where one of the streams is using the system to tag the physical environment and have that trigger the delivery of learning. So, in addition to using the system for staff training, our partner in the project intends to use the system to teach and reinforce life skills for people with learning disabilities to enable them to maintain themselves in their own homes. In essence, the system becomes a means of having their support worker with them, virtually, 24/7.

What are the benefits?

On average, approximately £198,000,000 is spent each year on in-service, informal learning in the social services sector in Scotland. If only 20 percent of this migrated to eLearning, or mobile learning this would lead to a saving of £39.5 million, per year.

Beyond the financial benefits, it's clear that using mobile devices to deliver learning in the work context, and removing the gap between knowledge acquisition and its application is much more effective than the traditional training center approach. 

So, in conclusion, if you embark on developing mobile learning, as long as you start with a clear understanding of the nature of the learning you want to encourage and identify the technology best suited to achieving that, it is possible to make a real, positive impact both financially, and in learning terms to your enterprise.

Above all, start with the learner at the center of your thinking …the technology can come later.

Contributor:   Keith Quinn

Keith has worked in Learning and Development for over 20 years and has been involved in learning technology (in one capacity or another) for 15 of those years.  In addition to working in corporate learning and development, Keith has worked in Higher Education and has experience of regulating formal certificated learning. Keith is currently working as a Senior Education & Workforce Development Adviser for the Scottish Social Services Council where he has the lead role for the development and implementation of learning technologies. His recent work in developing and testing successful approaches to mobile learning has attracted international interest and has been showcased in the EU CREANOVA project and will feature in a case study for the Adobe Corporation.

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