Mobile Learning at Vodafone Ireland

W505 Mobile Learning
Stage 2 – 3: Mobile Technology for Learning and Training in Corporations

Title: Mobile Learning “Video Nuggets” at Vodafone Ireland

General information:
The large communications company Vodafone Ireland wanted to improve staff communication skills and knowledge retention in various settings. Vodafone already had already been conducting classroom based workshops for their employees as well as an e-learning program, but they wanted to expand the ease of employees to participate in these professional development activities.

Analysis

1. Learners/trainees, context, and goal
The learners in this case were employees of Vodafone Ireland. The company observed a clear need to extend learning opportunities for its employees outside of their limited exposure to live training workshops. Employees at Vodafone Ireland are often busy moving around and mobile learning seemed to offer a lot of potential for further employee training.

This training had the goal of enabling employees to take what was learned in workshops and extend it to the real working world. The company hoped employees would be able to increase retention and have more valued learning.

2. Technology
The mobile technology that most of the employees at Vodfone Ireland made use of came in the form of 3G enabled cell phones. Training videos were produced and became available for streaming or download via the company’s mobile training portal and could be accessed through employees’ phones whenever and wherever they saw a need.

3. Design solution
The videos created for this initiative were designed to act as a supplemental aid for employees who took live training workshops but who could take advantage of further independent training. These videos allowed employees the opportunity to study topics and real work simulations on the job whenever and wherever they felt the need or want to study.

Employees viewed these “Video Nuggets” for various reasons and in different situations. For example, one employee reviewed video material prior to making a sales call and others reviewed content before conducting meetings.

The company Channel Content was commissioned by Vodafone to create quality video samples and realistic video training simulations using storyboards, actors, visuals, and audio. Training videos were produced and became available for streaming or download via the company’s mobile training portal and could be accessed through employees’ phones whenever and wherever they saw a need.

4. Pedagogical underpinnings
This case employed a learning support delivery model wherein the success of the model lies in the mobility and flexibility with which learners could access material and review it on their own. Material could be watched once and then referred back to in the future whenever employees so desired it. This project also adapted the delivery of the content to not only be available on cell phones but on PCs as well via CDs and DVDs. In this way much more support was offered to employees compared to when they attended live training sessions alone.

In this case, live workshops combined with mobile access to training materials proved to be quite effective with 77% of employees stating that they felt the video content was very useful for learning and retention.