Mobile learning for sales and service personnel : Case studies in the corporate training environment

Prasad, Ravindra and Bligh, Brett and Passey, Don (2020) Mobile learning for sales and service personnel : Case studies in the corporate training environment. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This research investigates how organisations where e-learning is already firmly established experience the adoption of mobile learning. Drawing on responses from training managers and sales and service staff, it investigates key aspects of mobile learning, as understood in organisations; how they perceive the relationship between mobile learning and e-learning provision; their key objectives for deploying mobile learning; and the dynamics of mobile learning practice as it is emerging. The project uses a multi-case study methodology with data collected from three corporate organisations in different sectors (healthcare, computing, and financial services). In each case, data is drawn from interviews with training managers and questionnaire responses from sales and service staff. Sharples’ framework for mobile learning, which focuses on the mobility of learners and learning as ‘conversations’, forms the analytical basis for the study. Three case reports are first presented, and then a cross-case analysis is conducted to draw out points of commonality and difference between the cases. My findings show that mobile learning is understood in the organisations through the lens of e-learning: while the two are not perceived as the same thing, the relationship is perceived to be close. While some barriers to adoption are technological, most concern social factors (stakeholder resistance and lack of leadership support). There is also a lack of use of collaborative aspects of mobile learning in emerging practices, even though respondents were aware that such possibilities existed. Most importantly, actual practices of mobile learning are driven more by the organisations’ business needs and how they have previously used e-learning, rather than their specific perceptions of mobile learning. The work contributes to existing research on mobile learning in the corporate sector (especially the perceived advantages and effectiveness of mobile learning, and challenges in adopting it), and in particular, the influence of context (social factors) on integrating mobile learning in organisations.