It's a Mobile Learning Megatrend - we ain't never going back

More than 1.6 billion users experienced their first taste of digital learning in 2020... driven by Covid-19, school closures, stay-at-home mandates, and stuff we'd all rather forget. And we never went back to fulltime, in-class only learning, at least not fully.

On my life, I'm never going back

I never say die and I ain't starting, yeah

Tell no lies, I'm never going back    - 	Song by Skillet

As Mohtar et al pointed out, “The traditional way of teaching and learning has shifted into a new learning dimension, where an individual can execute learning and teaching everywhere and anytime.”

The amount of time we spend on our phones is exploding, according to eMarketer. Between 2019 and 2024, the amount of time spent on daily mobile phone use has risen from 3 hours and 45 minutes to 4 hours and 49 minutes. The mobile phone is increasingly the medium of choice for our younger generations, and any parent can testify to this as their daughter watches the small screen while eschewing the big screen TV in front of them.

Even AI-generated teenagers are glued to their phone

More than 90% of Americans own a smartphone, more than any other internet-connected device (Pew Research, 2023), and Deloitte say the stats are the same in Australia in 2024. All up, there are 3.8 billion mobile users worldwide (Asanov).

Unsurprisingly - you could have knocked me down with a feather when I read this one - The best mobile experience is one designed to be mobile-first. Now I ain't no fancy big city professor.... but Syahida Mohtar is, and her research proves this one out scientifically.

So what I''ve realised is, Education providers need to cater to learners using a mobile-first platform.

You know, a mobile-first platform. Like Quitch.

References

1.Brinker et al. (2024). Workplace Learning Report 2024.  LinkedIn

2.Mohtar et al. (2022) Mobile learning: research context, methodologies and future works towards middle-aged adults – a systematic literature review. Multimed Tools Appl (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-13698-y

3.Asanov, et al. Remote-Learning, Time-Use, and Mental Health of Ecuadorian High-School Students during the COVID-19 Quarantine. World Dev. 2021, 138, 105225