Its screen is tiny and its capacity limited, but the personal digital assistant is about to step into the limelight as a valuable member of the e-learning troupe. Vendors are scrambling to make it happen by reformatting content into compatible bite-sized chunks for handheld units.

When the conversation got too technical for Paul Armstrong at a recent business meeting, the Worldcom project manager had a solution ready. Armstrong reached for his Palm Pilot handheld computer and pulled up the precise references he needed from a classroom course on networking that he had previously taken from the learning company Global Knowledge.

The easily found references came directly from the textbook used in the course, which had been entirely reformatted by Global Knowledge for the Palm. "I was impressed with how simple it was to navigate through the material, and how large and clear the graphics were," says Armstrong.

Armstrong may not look or feel like a trendsetter, but Global Knowledge and numerous other e-learning vendors would like to think of him as a new breed of executive who is willing and able to learn on the fly. Armstrong is your true mobile learner.

And just what is mobile learning? According to software vendors, it's "the point at which mobile computing and e-learning intersect to produce an anytime, anywhere learning experience." Translation: It's the ability to enjoy an educational moment from a cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA), but almost exclusively the latter. The ubiquitous laptop computer doesn't qualify in most definitions, even though it's the lifeline of the mobile workforce.

We're talking new trend here. If the e-learning market is embryonic, m-learning is little more than a gleam in the eye. Indeed, some of the nation's largest e-learning companies, brimming with energetic plans to make m-learning a valuable player, are hard-pressed to identify a single customer like Armstrong who can actually classify his or her PDA as a learning tool.

Equity research analyst Conny Weggen with WR Hambrecht + Co., who is well known for her bullish perspective of e-learning, declines to speculate about the segment's current size and potential. But she's clearly more circumspect about its future than the vendors driving it. "We're not as enthusiastic as others in the industry about mobile learning," she says tersely.

"Speed of adoption is the issue," insists Weggen, who acknowledges the PDA's potential in certain endeavors, such as supporting a sales force in the field or for just-in-time learning for technicians. She says it's also impossible to project revenues for the market segment. "Lots of people say it will be huge, but we believe growth will be slower than most people think."

Her skepticism is understandable. Despite the strides made by Palm and other handheld device makers, PDAs have obvious limitations as learning tools. Screens are tiny, the processing is slow, and storage is limited. In short, they don't provide a robust learning experience. Also, there's no standardized e-learning platform. And while 13 million Palm handheld computers are in use worldwide--they represent the largest share of the PDA market--their owners are apt to be in middle and senior management positions.

"People are taking a wait-and-see attitude on a lot of this," agrees Mel Megarity, program manager for content design with SmartForce. "As devices get cheaper and ability increases, people will move toward it. But in the interim, since we can't provide the rich experience, there's limited interest." He says the marketplace potential of m-learning will be dictated ultimately by the corporate base.

SmartForce and other vendors strongly believe the PDA will become a valuable addition to the arsenal of e-learning tools, but that they must be viewed within the total learning context. Derek Hardiman, director of client technologies for SmartForce, says the busy executive or student can download valuable content onto a PDA, such as an assessment from the SmartForce homepage, work on it offline when convenient, and then send back the results. SmartForce makes it especially easy and convenient for clients to perform operations offline, including AICC tracking, he says. The lack of a standardized platform that can hinder m-learning "is not a problem for us," says Hardiman.

SmartForce has unveiled a standards-based module for the MySmartForce platform that allows mobile users to access e-learning when not connected to the Internet. The module allows companies to deploy e-learning to their mobile workforce in a usable and effective manner. It's an integrated module within SmartForce's e3 object-based e-learning application architecture.

Other e-learning vendors also are making themselves PDA friendly. For example, Docent Mobile allows learners to download content to a PC from the Docent Content Delivery Server and complete a self-paced learning activity while disconnected from the network. Such results as test scores and course completion status are automatically tracked and returned to the Docent LMS upon reconnection. Docent's thin-client architecture enables learners and managers to access the Docent LMS and CDS via any wireless, browser-based device, including handheld PDAs. Content requires no extra "packaging" for delivery via Mobile.

ISOPIA-Sun stresses flexibility

One e-learning company that is aggressively going mobile is Toronto-based ISOPIA, currently being acquired by Sun Microsystems. Earlier this year, ISOPIA launched wireless access to its Web-based learning management software, ILMS and its hosted ASP service, LearnTone. ISOPIA enables users to access the system through cell phones, handheld wireless devices, and PDA handsets to check on their learning activities, course information, or training status. Bell Nexxia is the first of ISOPIA's clients to implement the prototype wireless feature. A trial program will emphasize development of mobile companion courses rather than stand-alone courses, with ISOPIA furnishing content for nine of them.

"We want to discover the best way technology will serve the public's learning needs before anybody else does," says company CEO Omid Hodaie, perhaps echoing the mantra of this highly competitive industry. "We want to be the first to tackle this in a meaningful way." Prospering in the fast-growing world of e-learning means being more flexible than the competition, just what the company's Java-based software package is designed to do, he says.

"Mobile learning is nothing new," claims Michael Wenger, worldwide senior director of e-learning with Sun Microsystems. After all, he says, the most ubiquitous mobile learning instrument is the book. "The difference is that a book isn't connected. M-learning offers the advantages of a book, but it's also connected," he says. And that's the point. "Many people believe the display of information is the most critical factor in m-learning," says Wenger. "Not so. The key is its interconnectivity." The challenge for e-learning companies is how to deliver a learning experience wherever the learner needs it, he says. "Mobility is a natural extension of where we need to go, but it must be viewed within the larger learning context that includes the basic components, including classroom training." The ability to refresh that content with small snippets from a PDA, tied together with a process that tracks it, is a valuable component of learning.

Hodaie predicts that within the next 18 months, the principal advances in m-learning will shift from infrastructure-related areas to content. "The content equation for m-learning is the more difficult puzzle. It's how to chunk content in a granular way and develop it so it can be deployed in different forms. Doing this requires a whole new perspective. There has been no work done in that area."

Global Knowledge's mobile content

Another vendor clearly excited about the PDA's potential as a support and reference tool is Global Knowledge, a privately held IT training company based in Carey, North Carolina. With help from Ibrite, a provider of authoring tools and handheld computer products for business, Global Knowledge has taken three of its most popular courses and converted them for Palm handheld devices. The reformatting of instructor-led content offers a robust learning experience, assures David Mantica, director of networking and network operating systems. For example, "a rich display of graphics have been totally redrawn to the Palm environment," he says.

Global Knowledge's Palm-based courses are networking and telecommunications fundamentals and a Cisco Certified Network Associate study guide. Just like GK student Paul Armstrong, learners can download exactly what they need, including learning objectives and assessments, before heading to the airport or some remote location.

Mantica agrees that the current student in this scenario is typically in upper management, where handhelds are most prevalent. But he says the future will be linked to reference needs and the just-in-time market. For example, a field tech could be working on a Cisco router and discover that the router has the wrong password. "The tech could find the password recovery information from the Palm learning materials, read it on the fly, and then perform the function," he says. "The tech would not have to carry around a couple of books which would add more weight to what he already carries."

Similarly, a DSL tech in the field might be installing DSL at someone's home and run into a PC, DSL modem configuration problem. The tech could pull out his Palm, read the information on DSL troubleshooting, and correct the problem on the fly.

M-learning via PDAs can be a valuable ingredient in any curriculum, but there are obvious limitations, concedes Global Knowledge's Kelly Bitar, who is in charge of mobile learning products. The two-inch screen doesn't make an interactive interface a realistic option, he says. Student Armstrong agrees that he benefited from having previously taken the networking course in the classroom before scrolling through the textbook on his Palm's tiny screen.

PDAs in the classroom

Meanwhile, efforts to experiment with m-learning appear to be boundless, particularly within the academic community. At the University of South Dakota, incoming freshmen and first-year law and medical students will find a new Palm Pilot in their orientation packet when they report next fall. The university says it will be the first school in the country to outfit its students with PDAs, which will be employed as both an organizational and e-learning tool.

"Palm's mobile technology enables us to extend learning beyond the walls of classrooms," says university president James W. Abbott. "Another benefit is that Palm handhelds can be loaded with applications, such as financial calculators, reference books, literature books, coursework organizers, and word processors, so we can considerably lighten the 20-pound backpack that the typical student lugs around," Abbott said.

He said the school is working with Palm to develop new ways to enhance the educational experience of its students and the teaching experience for its faculty. Several other recent developments will promote the use of handhelds for learning. For example,

• Palm has joined West Group, a provider of e-information for attorneys, to work with Stanford University Law School on a six-month initiative that will enable students to communicate, research, prepare for exams, and manage their studies remotely. West Group is providing wireless access to its Westlaw research service and six e-book titles that will give students remote access to frequently used legal information. "We expect that this initiative will serve as a model for universities that want to provide their students with simple, quick, fun, and smart ways to communicate and learn remotely," says Mike Lorion, Palm's vice president of education markets.
• To increase the versatility of its PDAs, Palm has unveiled a Bluetooth card that will enable quick, easy, and secure local communication between Palm handhelds and other Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, printers, network hubs, and other handhelds.
• Clarinet Systems, a provider of wireless connectivity for handheld applications, says it will provide students and teachers the opportunity to obtain any and all class-related material on their Palm handheld computers through a simple process of point and connect using infrared.

As hardware, software and content providers explore the emerging m-learning market, they will surely want to solicit feedback from students. For his part, Worldcom's Armstrong agrees that the PDA will become a valuable niche player. "It will never substitute for a classroom setting," he contends. "But it is a great reference tool, especially when it follows the familiar format of the textbook used in the classroom."

Published: July 2001