Presented at DevLearn 2010, Session 711 Developing a solid mLearning strategy requires understanding your organization's goals as well as a solid knowledge of the principles of mobile learning. This presentations takes a look at how to build a mobile learning strategy using Caterpillar Customer Safety Services as a case study.

1. Developing an mLearning Strategy from the Ground Up
DevLearn 2010 – Session 711
John Feser, Managing Partner
Float Mobile Learning
floatlearning.com

2. Presentation Overview
• What is strategy?
• Today’s goal
• How the case study fits in
• Feedback

3. About Caterpillar and Cat Safety
• Caterpillar
• World’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining
equipment
• Fortune 100 Company
• Caterpillar stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial
Average
• Caterpillar Customer Safety Services
• Caterpillar Customer Safety Services’ mission is to provide
solutions that enable world-wide customers to create a jobsite
culture of safety and sustainability
• Launched SAFETY.CAT.COM in June 2007
• Recognized as a safety leader in the industries they serve

4. Ingredients for a Successful Strategy
A well defined process
• Common understanding
• Relevant information
• Thorough analysis
• Actionable plan

5. The Process

6. Understand Organizational Goals
Strategy doesn’t work in isolation
• What is your organization trying to achieve?
• What are the challenges?
• What are the opportunities?
• Are there existing strategies that can be enhanced?
What we did for Cat Safety
• Listened and learned
• Three major goals
• Maintain Caterpillar’s leadership in the area of safety
• Look for additional value added products & services
• Generate revenue

7. Educate
Understanding mobile learning is key
• Why?
• Who?
• When?
• How?
What we did for Cat Safety
• Explained mobile learning
• Compare and contrast mLearning to other forms of training
• Mobile statistics
• Tied examples to safety, construction
and mining

8. Investigate
• Examine how things are done today
• Talk to people to understand what is currently happening
• What would they change if they could?
• Where do they see opportunity?
What we did for Cat Safety
• Interviewed employees and dealers
• Asked about challenges and opportunities
• Asked what their customers were saying

9. Align mLearning Objectives with Organizational Goals
Analyze goals in the context of human performance
• Look for gaps
• Achieving goals is about changing (filling the gaps)
• Who needs to change?
• What needs to change?
• How can we encourage them to change?
What we did for Cat Safety
• Determined that customers were the target audience
• Focus was on customer centered mLearning opportunities
• Intentionally did not look internally for
mLearning possibilities

10. Creating a Plan
Developing a complete implementation plan is critical to the
success of any mobile learning strategy
• Communication
• Definition of Success / Expectations
• Roadmap for Execution
Three steps
• Identify Opportunities
• Prioritize Opportunities
• Develop Rationale

11. Identify Opportunities
• Examine identified gaps and breakdowns that are impeding
achieving goals
• Are there missed opportunities?
• How can access to information anytime and anywhere
help?
• Can the capabilities of mobile devices address some gaps?
What we did for Cat Safety
• Cat Safety – heavy focus on information delivery
• Look to change behavior through education
• Timeliness and context an issue

12. Identify Opportunities
What we did for Cat Safety (continued)
• Identified 3 major categories
• Make existing content available in a mobile format
• Produce new mobile content
• Develop new mobile services
• 26 different potential mobile learning opportunities found

13. Identify Opportunities
What we did for Cat Safety (continued)
Examples
• Make existing content available in a mobile format
• Make safety.cat.com mobile friendly
• Mobile friendly walk around inspections, toolbox talks, safety
videos
• Produce new mobile content
• Premium walk around inspections (machine specific)
• Premium checklists (machine specific)
• Service Ideas
• Mobile version of OSHA/MSHA regulations
• Warning label flashcards
• SMS safety messages
• PIP/PSP notifications
• Safety podcasts

14. Prioritize Opportunities
• Develop a way to rank your ideas
• Rankings should include link to organizational goals
• Should also include other factors
• Device dependency
• Development time
• Cost to implement
• Audience Size
• Other factors should be based on what is important to your
organization and ability to build business case
• Be careful not to over complicate the process

15. Prioritize Opportunities
What we did for Cat Safety
• Rated each opportunity based on its ability to help achieve
each of the three identified goals
• Industry leadership
• Value-added service
• Revenue producing
• This was translated into a score: “Value to Cat Safety”
• Other factors included
• Reach
• Ease of Implementation

16. Prioritize Opportunities
What we did for Cat Safety (Continued)
Project Goals Ranking
Item Description
Value‐added
Service
Revenue
Producing
Industry
Leadership
Value
to Cat Reach
Ease of
implementation Total
New Mobile Services
SMS Safety Messages A mechanism that would allow safety
managers to send important safety
bulletins/information to their team via text
message. Could also be used to alert others
about a recent incident (safety standout).
H M M 4 4 3 11
Safety Podcasts A form of thought leadership from
Caterpillar via publication of regular
podcasts on various safety topics.
H L H 3 3 4 10
PIP/PSP Notifications Send product inspection notifications and
product safety notifications via SMS. Build
a mechanism for confirming receipt.
H L M 4 3 2 9
Mobile Version of OSHA/MSHA
regulations
An app or mobile website that makes it
easy and quick to lookup or find
OSHA/MSHA regulations (searchable).
H H H 4 3 2 9
Warning Label Flashcards
(Game)
Build a game that tests knowledge of
warning labels.
L L H 2 2 3 7

17. Develop Rationale for Your Recommendations
What we did for Cat Safety
• Identified 6 opportunities to be recommended
• Wrote a 1 – 2 page summary of each recommendation
highlighting the following elements
• Recommendation overview
• Application type
• Key audience
• Magnitude of impact
• Device dependency
• Effort to develop/cost
• Speed to market
• Analysis recap

18. Proof of Concept
A proof of concept provides tangible support
• It is more than an idea or “vaporware”
• Offers a means for validating your assumptions and estimates
• Test feasibility
• Quick win
Keys to a successful proof of concept
• Keep it manageable
• Benefits don’t have to be huge
• Exemplify mobile learning
• Should be easy to understand

19. Proof of Concept
What we did for Cat Safety
• D5 Track-type Tractor Walk Around Inspection
• Convert Flash to WebKit
• Limited deployment to iOS, Android and newer WebKit
enabled Blackberries

20. Proof of Concept

21. Pulling It All Together
Keys to a successful mobile learning strategy:
• Knowledge
• Analysis
• Planning
Epilogue
• Caterpillar Customer Safety Services is moving forward
with a number of our recommendations which they plan to
have in place early 2011.

22. Q & A

23. John Feser, Managing Partner
email: jfeser@floatlearning.com
twitter: @jfeez
@floatlearning
(877) 90-FLOAT (35628)
www.floatlearning.com
Contact Information