Understanding What Is M-learning and the Role of QA?

Enterprises that want to upscale their business further and enhance their employee's performance have begun to utilize m-learning to deliver training. With content flexibility, multimedia usage, instant outcomes, and continuous engagement, m-learning platforms ensure that the user’s learning experience remains enriching, dynamic, and distinctive.

What is Mobile Learning?

M-learning, also known as mobile learning, allows users to access educational content through their mobile devices, tablets, or iPads. Users can learn on the go without physically attending the classes. It makes it possible for busy professionals to learn new skills at a time and location that is most convenient for them.

The m-learning industry is expected to grow at the rate of 13% from 2022 to 2026.

Why Mobile Learning?

According to Statista, by 2022, there will be over 5 billion global internet users, which amounts to 63% of the global population. Moreover, millennials are very adept at using mobile devices across different platforms. Since they form a large part of the workforce today, m-learning platforms are advantageously geared towards being used extensively by them. Let’s take a deep dive into why mobile learning is necessary:

• Most users want to access content from digital devices that they have on hand and mobile devices are the perfect way to access educational content from anywhere and everywhere. The students do not need to travel  to gain access to education.
• User engagement has increased on platforms that provide optimized content on mobile devices. The content is more engaging than the normal textbook content.
• Gamification of content has increased the fun factor and made teaching easy. It has high user engagement and most learners spend more time on platforms that have implemented gamification of the content.
• It helps to increase the speed of learning. Moreover, the content can be updated quickly and easily accessed by multiple learners.
• Companies can use a variety of learning resources, like videos, audio, infographics, and text styling to make learning more interesting.
• Allows personalization of content as per the needs of the learners.
• Mobile learning apps offer a better user interface with easy navigation options and also personalized notifications.

Types of Mobile Learning Apps

Currently, there are over 200,000 educational apps on different app stores. Following are some of the mobile learning apps that are used across the globe:

1. Mobile Virtual Learning Environment: This is an extension of the web applications created for users who like to study and continue their current coursework from the comfort of their smartphones. It consists of the following:
   • Virtual Classes: These are the most popular of the eLearning platforms and help users in learning through virtual classes. Platforms like Udacity and Outschool are helping children to learn from the comfort of their homes.
   • Certification: These platforms are used by professionals for getting certifications. For example, Simplilearn has integrated many certifications on its platform.
   • Special Purpose Apps: These are the applications that provide single-purpose use like dictionary apps such as Wordweb, or language learning apps like Duolingo. Users use these apps to learn different languages.
2. Podcast-based: These applications are gaining popularity and allow users to learn passively. Users can listen to study materials in the form of audio files. Google Podcasts and Apple podcasts are examples of this.
3. Augmented Reality-based: These apps are designed in a way to allow users to interact with the real world based on the images captured through their mobile camera using GPS technology. Project HARP is one such example where AR technology is being used to teach science and math concepts.
4. Content delivery based: This is similar to podcasts. However, they are available in ebook format. For example, Amazon’s Audible and Kindle stores.
5. Game-based: This is one of the most effective ways of teaching and has become a part of m-learning platforms. A very simple example is adding reward points or badges on completing the milestones and creating a leaderboard for a competitive environment. Platforms that use gamification for better course completion rates include Centrical, EddApp, and Kahoot.
6. Social learning: This is also known as collaborative learning. This involves users engaging with other users or peers through social networking sites. A few examples of social learning platforms are Stack Overflow, Quora, and Reddit.

Importance of QA in M-Learning

Earlier, eLearning systems required simple quality assurance testing like cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility testing and a basic test for the application workflow. However, with the advancement in m-learning technology, the role of QA has evolved, and much more thorough quality assurance is required.

Now, QA experts have to ensure the compatibility of the system while keeping a tab on the different devices and operating systems that might have different features based on the geo location of the target audience. Formal testing and validation by QA have become so important these days for any product to get good user feedback and mass adoption.

QA experts perform the following tests to ensure the smooth functionality of m-learning apps:

1. Compliance Testing: Learning platforms must follow industry standards and specific regulations around the domain. QASource’s QA services offer specialized resources for testing the compliance of the application along with the functional and non-functional aspects of the m-learning platform.
2. Accessibility Testing: An eLearning platform should be easy to access for every user, especially, for users with special needs. Therefore thorough accessibility testing is performed by the QA teams so that they can ensure that these apps are accessible to everyone.  
3. Compatibility Testing: This involves testing the application on different types of devices having different screen sizes. It also involves testing the application on both landscape and portrait modes.
4. Performance Testing: This involves testing the application for performance, that is, whether the application can work smoothly when a large volume of users access the application at the same time.
5. Localization Testing: Almost all the major m-learning platforms are now global and provide content in regional languages to the users. The QA team performs localization testing to ensure that content is relevant across multiple languages and makes sure that no UI issues are caused by changing the language.
6. Content Testing: QA team also performs testing of the application for typos and grammatical errors and checks the spellings, labels, and alignment on the mobile devices.
7. Security Testing: M-learning platforms contain sensitive user information and also provide different content access to different users. To ensure that the user information is secure and content is displayed as per the user’s subscription, the QA team performs security testing.
8. Acceptance Testing: This involves using subject matter experts for determining the quality of the content and whether the application is able to meet the requirements of the target audience. The subject matter experts are also responsible for highlighting any functional or non-functional area of the application that needs to be optimized or fixed.

Partner With QASource

For developing a reliable and user-friendly mobile learning application, it is important to have a QA process in place. Testing teams should be involved in product development so that you have better feedback and vast test coverage. Specialized QA services are helpful in ensuring that the product is bug-free, user-friendly, engaging, and also fulfills the compliance criterion for the m-learning platform. QASource eLearning app testing experts utilize cutting-edge tools and technologies to implement state-of-the-art QA solutions. To know more, contact QASource now.