Just-in-time training: with MP3 players, iPods and other mobile devices, employee training is truly on the go

HR Magazine,  May, 2006  by Elizabeth Agnvall

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Those little white earphones peeking out from sweatshirts and business suits are everywhere. From subways to treadmills to office cubicles, millions of people are plugged into MP3 players, usually iPods by Apple Computer. Users may be getting their groove on to the latest U2 download, harmonizing with Etta James or passing the time with James Patterson's newest best seller.

Or they may be sharpening their business skills.

Increasingly, users of MP3 players are listening to corporate training downloads on everything from how to close an important sales deal to optimizing organizational change to learning business Spanish.

Since emerging in the summer of 2004, MP3 technology has allowed users to create content on any subject. These "podeasts"--the word's roots are iPod and broadcast--let listeners subscribe to a show and have it automatically downloaded onto a computer (or onto an iPod or MP3 player that's plugged into a computer). A delivery system known as Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, makes it easy for users to synchronize and update audio files. (For more information on converting material to podcasts, see "Podcasting 101" on page 69.)

Corporate trainers have begun to capitalize on the ease of the technology and the enormous growth in the number of MP3 users with cost-effective multimedia files that inform and educate. According to a recent report from eMarketer, an Internet research group based in New York, the number of podcast users grew to 11.4 million last year, up from 800,000 in 2004, and could reach about 55 million by 2010. The Pew Internet and American Life Project, a research center in Washington, D.C., says 11 percent of U.S. consumers now own an iPod or other MP3 player.

As today's mobile gadget world continues to evolve at lightning speed, it behooves HR and training professionals to dream a little bit about the possibilities. One day soon, companies will be able to deliver streaming video and audio to all employees at once anywhere on the globe.

The key question is whether the technology can be useful for employee training, and companies increasingly are saying yes. They are transforming training content into podcasts and, in some instances, supplying the MP3 players as well. They say the cost is worth the investment because employees are seizing opportunities to learn whenever and wherever they want.

Expanding Trainers Arsenals

While experts agree that mobile training will never replace traditional face-to-face learning--just as e-learning has not replaced classroom instruction--mobile devices can be added to the toolkits of corporate training.

"We see this as becoming a cog in the corporate wheel," says Rob Mottola, director of operations at NightGlass Media Group, a Duluth, Ga., firm that produces podcasts and other multimedia materials for companies. Mottola says companies are just scratching the surface on applications for mobile media devices for employees.

"It's an inexpensive way to broadcast information to train employees" who are on the go, says Jenna Sweeney, president of CramerSweeney Instructional Design, a firm in Moorestown, N.J., that creates customized corporate training materials. "You can be on an airplane, you can be taking a walk or riding your bike" while you listen to training content.

Inspired by Duke University's move to provide all students with iPods, McLean, Va.-based Capital One, in a pilot program begun in September 2004, bought 50 iPods to give to a random sampling of associates and loaded the devices with material generated by Capital One University, the financial services corporation's training organization.

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Buoyed by positive feedback generated from surveys on the pilot program, the company purchased 3,000 iPods for distribution to associates who had signed up for the 20 most popular instructor-led courses offered at Capital One University.

The company partnered with Internet audio book provider Audible.com to create an audio learning site within the company firewall where employees can download material. On the web page, Capital One posts everything from quarterly earnings calls to its executive speaker series. The company also posts popular business books that fit with the company's culture.

For traditional training courses, instructors request books and other audio materials that augment their material--an option that Geoff Rubin, instructor for a corporate risk course at Capital One, calls "a terrific alternative."

Steve Arneson, senior vice president of learning and development at Capital One, stresses that the audio learning is part of the company's focus on blended learning--classroom, multimedia and written materials.

"Many of the courses that we chose to augment with audio content are traditional competency or skill courses," Arneson says. "We still believe there is a ton of value in being in the classroom with your peers. We just want to add to that experience with audio content."