Trends in Distance Education and Open Learning: Policy ... - ADEA

14. Enterprise Mobile LearningEnterprises have for long derived the benefits from Learning Management Systems (LMS)generally web based intranets, whereby learning takes place within the premises of theorganization embedded in the working hours. With today’s workflow mobility, companiesneed to extend the LMS to mobile workers just as ERPs functionalities are being extendedto hand held devices. One major issue that arises in enterprise mobile learning to the CIO iswhether to supply employees with mobile devices which can be managed and controlledvia a software or allow employees to bring their personal devices within the workspace.Companies with large enterprise systems or integrated information systems are reluctantto for personal devices for legal, financial and technical motives and more and more forsecurity reasons, as with the mobile device the enterprise system boundaries are morevulnerable as intrusion within the enterprise system may happen at a mobile deviceendpoint. Therefore, they will prefer restricted access in terms of hardware and softwarefor the handheld devices, this would costs cheaper. However according to research studiesin North America, it has been found that it is not a best practice to prevent employeesfrom bringing their personal devices in the workplace. The company’s policy on mobileusage needs to address the device deployment strategy.The rapid flows of information within the enterprise enabled by mobile and wirelesstechnology add values to the services and learning takes place in an informal manner. Ifthe strategy of an organization is to capture, assess and formalize the learning or training,for example to be included in promotion exercises then an appropriate infrastructure andframework should be considered. For long public as well as private enterprises have lookedupon training as expenses rather than investments, the ROI on enterprise mobile learningis a critical success factor for any enterprise to succeed in m-learning for its corporatelifelong learning. On the other hand, employees may be reluctant to adopt supplied mobiledevices by the company, given that the latter would be able to track them outside theoffice anywhere, anytime.35