The British Army compliance training goes mobile The British Army recognised the opportunity of leveraging the power and accessibility of mobile devices for its compliance training deployment. As the millennium learner has joined the ranks of The British Army so its traditional methods of training soldiers have seen a radical shake up. This project paved the way to change entrenched attitudes towards learning technologies to build a case for a larger scale deployment of mobile learning. E-Learning Awards 2012 Best Use of Mobile Learning Category was awarded to The British Army, in partnership with Intuition, for producing learning apps that allow its soldiers to use their own smartphones, whether in the comfort of their own homes or training in the field. The British Army was looking for learning solutions that would be within budget targets whilst maintaining high quality learning to the audiences mandated by the organisation. They needed a solution that would make the process more efficient and the training more effective. They recognised the opportunity presented by leveraging the power and accessibility of smartphone devices for training deployment. It is a significant undertaking by The British Army to ensure that all soldiers achieve compliance in their Military Annual Training Tests (MATTs) each year. MATTs is a statutory compliance course that each soldier must take on an annual basis and includes training in battlefield casualty drills, equality and diversity, law of armed conflict, security awareness and personal fitness training. Approximately 900,000 soldiers are mandated to take this every year. This accessibility and the ability to track and report on training usage made MATTs compliance training suitable subject matter. The British Army s objectives for mobile MATTs training were: Inform and establish best training practices both within the Training Directorate and across the wider British Army Develop an affordable training requirement in order to gain an effective military capability and ensure that each soldier is prepared and sustained to the requisite state of readiness
Evaluate the ease with which The British Army can deploy the learning materials via mobile devices Identify if the participants have an appetite for learning through mobile devices by undertaking quantitative and qualitative research for the duration of the project Depending on a successful outcome, build a training case for a larger scale deployment of mobile learning The barriers to success Subject Matter Experts As the training curriculum used for this mobile learning development encompasses many different subjects, there was no single, centralised subject matter expert (SME). This challenge was compounded as British Army SME personnel changed throughout the project resulting in three versions of storyboards used for the purpose of pre-visualising the mobile learning elements of the project. Battle Casualty drills Content Sensitivity and Security Due to the particular nature of The British Army training, there is a constant security theme that requires consideration. When developing a new method of training, this key consideration is further escalated. As mobile devices are portable by their nature there is always an inherent risk of loss.
Army Culture For the initial mobile deployment, there was some reluctance expressed within certain quarters of The British Army to the concept of learning using mobile devices. This was more apparent in those personnel who had served in The British Army for a considerable period of time. The traditional method of training delivery within The British Army is hands-on, via simulations, or in classrooms. The introduction of mobile learning challenged the culture of centralised classroom delivery. Overcoming the challenges Subject Matter Experts It was essential to ensure that the diverse range of SMEs based in different units of The British Army all bought into the mobile learning project by seeing value in it and providing a significant contribution. Therefore effective and thorough handovers with regular face-to-face project meetings to reinforce the strong collaborative relationship were maintained. This ensured a seamless working relationship through constant communication. Content sensitivity and security Certain content needed to be unclassified, requiring the permission of security accreditors. Army culture To make sure that soldiers and officers experienced the training first hand resulted in a greater acceptance that mobile learning provided an effective platform for the delivery of training to a geographically-dispersed audience. It was also recognised that implementation efforts also needed to focus on persuading Army trainers and MATTs stakeholders, as well as the trainees themselves, as to the merits of mobile learning. This fact is evidenced by a neat contrast in smartphone ownership data provided by two surveys via ArmyNet in 2010/11 that 77% of 8,000 soldiers surveyed stated that they owned a smartphone but only 30% of 100 Army trainers attending an Army Training Symposium stated that they owned a smartphone. The Solution One of many strengths of this project was its end-user focus the soldier. This approach helped the team avoid the common barrier of implementation to m-learning - the wide variation in learners own personal technologies. From research carried out by Towards Maturity, 50% of organisations cite this as a real barrier to implementation. Over one-third of organisations overcome this problem by providing mobile devices that they know are compatible with their IT architecture. The fact that a colossal 78% of soldiers use a mobile phone demonstrated the potential for reaching out to their learners through m-learning.
The MATTs course content was adapted from the traditional classroom-based course to one that would use interactive games, simulations, video, aide-memoire performance support apps and HTML based learning content. It was designed specifically for ios and Android devices as per the demographic results from a survey conducted prior to the build. Each element would be fully tracked using the sharable, content object reference model (SCORM) which is an advanced distributed learning tool allowing accessible, interoperable, durable and revisable content and systems. It also provides intelligence data on completion rates at the individual level (a key requirement for remote, unsupervised training). Soldiers were able to provide feedback and rate content directly through the app. Future versions of the apps will accommodate user commenting, ad-hoc networks and other social features. Law of armed conflict User evaluation to ensure engagement To reverse any preconceptions, the training was aligned to the needs of individuals who had been raised on a diet of internet, social media and working collaboratively. When the new style MATTs course was rolled out and soldiers and officers experienced the training first hand, there was a greater acceptance that mobile learning provides an effective platform for the delivery of training to a geographically-dispersed audience. A study, using three representative Army units of The British Armed Forces (first time learners, Head Quarter and Territorial Army learners and pre-deployment learners) sought to address
how the mobile earning and e-learning experience would be viewed as an effective solution. In each location, groups were divided into three sets, one group participated in the traditional classroom delivery format, another group received training via e-learning and the third group participated using the mobile learning medium. The learners were given mobile devices with the training program either preloaded or they downloaded the curriculum onto their own mobile device and were instructed to use it as frequently/infrequently as required for a period of one week. All participants completed a pre and post course questionnaire and many students took part in focus groups immediately after the learning concluded. Fitness App The results confirmed that mobile learning delivery was as effective as both e-learning and the traditional classroom delivery. The majority of participants used the mobile learning services either at home, usually in the evening after dinner, or at work when on a break or during spare time. They also used the mobile devices while travelling to work-related engagements via public transport and one participant took the device on exercise to use while travelling and during down time.
In terms of flexibility, mobile learning provided additional opportunities for training over and above that of traditional classroom training. Following a brief and highly successful pilot period in early 2012 where 425 soldiers were provided with mobile devices to engage in the training, the project was fully rolled out in the summer of 2012, with the apps available for download from the Army App store on ArmyNet. Making the business case The advantages of using mobile technology within this particular environment were clear cut: Training can be taken anytime, anywhere - while travelling, during downtime or in an operational theatre. Mobile learning enables The British Army to harness technologies that soldiers already own and are familiar with and thus no training or procurement costs. The Mobile medium facilitates easier learning and improved retention by breaking down the curriculum into smaller manageable elements. Content is delivered to soldiers in an interactive and engaging format that they are familiar with and to the high standards they expect. Mobile deployment overcomes the challenges posed by a geographically-dispersed audience and/or workforce. Within the first 2 weeks of the launch, there were 778 visits to the Apple Apps page and 225 visits to the Android Apps page. At that time the target was to have 33% of the 900,000 soldiers take one MATT module via mlearning per year. The projected savings on that basis were 300,000 per annum. We estimated the Army saves 10 per soldier taking a MATTs module via mlearning. Approximately 90,000 soldiers are mandated to take this training once a year. So assuming one in three soldiers switches to this method which after all is far more flexible for them we can save 300,000 per year per MATT. Across the seven MATTs modules that s 2.1M, representing a very significant return on investment, repeated annually Major Graham Yare, DTrg(A) Summary In summary, the results showed that m-learning was well received and regarded as a positive way forward, indicating user acceptability of the concept. M-learning is likely to have a positive impact on the way people prepare for their MATTs. Human Factors Integration, Defence Technology Centre Consortium
Implementing MATTs on mobile provided the evidence to make a compelling business case to fund an Apps store capability across wider subject matter. Moreover the benefits of mitigating skill fade; the distribution capability and the improvement in quality performance support and embedding the learning has changed the culture of learning to align to the needs of the restructured British Army. Top hints and tips Ensure that L&D teams understand the essential role learning technologies play in engaging and motivating staff. Don t let the media preferences of your L&D teams determine the solution for your staff. Be proactive in determining the media choices of your staff to avoid pre-conceived ideas as to how they learn. Use Interactive games, aide-memoire performance support apps and HTML on smartphones rather than migrating just text. Incorporate feedback tools within Smartphone apps for obtaining user feedback. Smartphone learning apps will particularly suit staff that are constantly on the move with work. When designing your m-learning, make sure the wide variety of phones used by staff is factored into your technology plan. Make sure that there is regular and effective communication between subject matter experts; the design team and sample end users. Make sure that the subject of security is incorporated at the heart of your m-learning. This case study has been independently investigated and developed by Towards Maturity as part of our Good practice Partnership with elearning Age and the elearning Awards. Written by Marnie Threapleton Head of Advisory Services Towards Maturity