We all use our smartphones everyday for a variety of purposes. The impressive library of mobile applications helps us meet all of our requirements. There is no need to explain how much we depend on our devices. This is too obvious from the user perception. However, we decided to look at this question from the other side. What if you are a business owner providing some online services, do you actually need to build your own app or is it enough to have your website responsive?
As an example, we took the digital education field, which is experiencing too many changes in the meantime. Trying to adapt to the new environment respecting self-isolation, lots of educational institutions had to switch to the online mode, and online platforms had to improve their performance. And students, searching for the convenience switch from the desktops to the mobile screens. So the question is: will it be better if you support your online learning platform with the mobile application?
The era of mobile devices
Android smartphones of all kinds, endless versions of iPhones — the popularity of mobile devices in terms of online education has been recognized a long time ago. To support the idea of having a learning app let’s have a look at the statistics.
- Millennials are hungry for mobile learning content.
- YouTube receives daily 500 million views on learning-related content and 70% of all minutes watched take place on a mobile device.
- 70% of learners are more motivated when training on a smartphone.
- 90% of Millennials have their smartphones with them all the time
- Training available on employees’ mobile devices leads to an increase in productivity of up to 40%.
In fact, the average person looks at their phone more than 80 times a day. That’s 5 times an hour or every 12 minutes. So, yes. Establishing a mobile presence is imperative.
This just a few to list, but still showcasing us how inseparable the modern world is with smartphones. Even though this factor is one of the most important things saying mobile apps are worth the fight, we highly recommend you to define the business case first.
If you have a lot of so-called micro-learning content, then your learners will definitely benefit from having the ability to access courses on the go. Micro-learning is an approach based on the delivery of content divided into smaller bites. Getting learning materials exactly in this form is much easier through mobile devices.
There is no doubt, the easiest way to provide students a better mobile experience is by making your website responsive. With no mobile-first approach to your learning environment, it will be harder to keep your learners engaged and satisfied with the site performance. Also, if you would like to compete successfully and offer students the best you can, mobile-friendliness is the key factor.
Nonetheless, you should consider that just a mobile-friendly website only makes sure that the content displays in the proper way on any screen of any size and it’s going to be fine if the purpose of your website is just read and go. But, if you tend to bring more, including interactive quizzes, different tasks, and activities, a variety of visual content — the app is the only way to demonstrate it well.
More benefits of mobile learning app
Training apps for mobile devices provide instant access to the materials. One of the greatest things learners get from mobile applications is instant access and a possibility to open training resources at the point of need, meaning being able to access the course or lesson whenever he or she wants.
Mobile learning software is convenient. Learners want to listen to webinars while they are driving or to watch another video lesson when eating lunch in the park. Training applications give this opportunity making it as simple as possible to take courses on the go and learn.
Retain the learning content you get. Mobile learning makes it easy to repeat the learning material thus enhancing the productivity of a student. Some learning apps also implement gamification tools to diversify the educational routine.
Increase the quantity of learning. Once again, LMS apps for mobile devices allow people to access the materials at any time. That means students can learn more if they can use the app every time they have a free minute.
MasterStudy mobile LMS app
If you want to see the actual example of a mobile learning app, we would like to introduce you to the MasterStudy Mobile LMS App. StylemixThemes was so inspired by the idea of converting an educational LMS website into a mobile training application, that decided to create one.
The app was developed with the learner in mind, giving them everything they had while using the MasterStudy powered website, plus providing them the accessibility and convenience they were missing. LMS App is built with a cross-platform approach, meaning you can create two different apps for Android and iOS systems from one single code base.
In the app, learners can do the same they do when using the website version. They can easily attend their favorite courses, complete quizzes and assignments, enjoy the social learning activities, and variety of content.
MasterStudy mobile learning app builder allows creating your own app with the company branding and uploading it to Google and Apple Stores. You don’t need to hire and work with the whole group of third-party developers. Everything can be done on your own. Synchronize your app with your LMS website and delivery courses directly to students’ devices. You don’t have to manage content for the website and app separately. Control everything using your WordPress dashboard. It is simple and fast.
The application doesn’t just transmit the content to the smartphones. The mobile training app works as independent software, which still allows us to sell courses and accept payments.
The mobile learning software will practically take you to the next level, it will help you extend your target audience, improve the experience of loyal customers and offer them more value and give a boost to your educational business by bringing it to the new field of mobile learning.
With the app students get real-time experience participating in the educational work through the smartphones which they carry along with them almost 24/7.
Wrapping up
We hope that we helped to answer the main question of whether to have the mobile app along with the website or not. As you can see there are almost only positive factors phishing you to build your own app. The main pitfall that is hiding is the price and development background. However, there are tons of solutions, like MasterStudy app builder, allowing you to spend less than $50 and not requiring you to be the master of coding to create the mobile app for both Android and iPhone devices.
If the content you publish on your platform is appropriate for the application — it is interactive, it includes engaging quizzes, enables social learning and supports the idea of micro-learning, we suggest to upgrade your LMS website with the app. Just take time to analyze your business model, and rely on the fact that mobile applications should bring more value rather being just a time requirement.