Three years ago, the company conducted a pilot in which the learning team considered a bifurcated mobile learning platform — content for smartphone support would have been separate from desktop support, with two different access points for learners, said Steven Rath Morgan, Xerox’s manager of global learning process and solutions.
“Had we gone down that path, this approach would have been ad hoc, not planning for the broader business need,” he said.
Had Morgan and his team used a separate mobile learning platform, Xerox would have developed some e-learning content via its LMS with a separate process for smartphone-friendly content using a different platform and process.
Xerox didn’t want to put certification assessments on smartphones, for instance. Instead, Morgan and his team focused on the total learning ecosystem by extending mobile device support where it made the most sense.
Morgan said it might have been easier to create a separate mobile learning platform, but that would not have supported integration of various content services, including acquired content from the company’s e-learning vendor; custom e-learning content via Xerox’s LMS; and video via Xstream Video, a cloud-based, streaming media service.
Xerox is now integrated at many levels. For instance, by using Xstream Video, the company can embed video through embed tag functionality in e-learning courses and performance-support assets.
“People can watch the video within a certification course, but the video is also accessible when they need performance support directly from the Xstream Video interface on their mobile device,” Morgan said.
Xerox also has been able to integrate Xstream Video into its LMS and broader learning ecosystem. The company can track formal video use in e-learning courses in the LMS, enable performance support search functionality and access videos directly. These videos also can be organized into channels as needed.
“One critical thing we did learn from this pilot is how important video is to mobile learning, and just how different m-learning is from e-learning,” Morgan said. “The learners in the pilot clearly found the most benefit in the videos created for mobile access.”
With this integrated approach for mobile custom content via its learning content management system, user-generated content through Xstream Video and acquired content through Skillsoft Books24x7, Xerox integrated mobile learning into daily work practices to create an integrated learning experience for its workforce.
Xerox Corp.’s learning team saved itself one large integration headache.