Mobile Roleplay is trialled by NZ’s Largest General Retailer

World First : Mobile Roleplay is trialled by New Zealand’s Largest General Merchandise Retailer

Mobile Roleplaying was a hit with learners in a recent pilot programme at The Warehouse Ltd which has eighty nine stores throughout New Zealand. The pilot used the world’s first SaaS (software as a service) scenario based development tool able to publish to mobile devices and involved a mix of participants in 7 stores in the South Island .

The scenario developed for the pilot targets leadership behaviour, in particular the need to address an issue presented to the Store Manager by talking with relevant people and asking the right questions to fully understand the context and root cause, enabling good decisions to be made and actions to be taken.

Roleplay Managing Director, Glenn Bull said it had always been the aim to take the scenario based Roleplay training software to mobile devices and they bought forward their plans when The Warehouse approached them about delivering a Roleplay scenario to their staff via mobiles. He said the devices were the perfect training device for large scale retailers such as The Warehouse and supermarkets. It meant consistent training could be provided to staff without taking them off the floor and having to sit at a computer for extended periods. Mobile devices like iPads and Android tablets could be used like a library book where staff checked one out, used it in the staff room or elsewhere with little training because of the simple touchscreens. The tablets also meant the learner could pause the training simply by flicking off the tablet and return to the exact point in their training when they turned the tablet back on.

To publish a Roleplay scenario to a mobile device the trainer just chooses the type of device they are using such as an iPad or Android tablet and the software does all the work of packaging up the scenarios into one file that can be copied onto the device. It was also possible to use a variety of mobile devices and all mobile devices can be centrally synced and updated. In 2012 BlackBerry PlayBooks will also be able to be used with the software.

In The Warehouse trial, the learners used iPads and Acer Tablets for their mobile learning and were asked to compare functionality, navigation and overall experience. They unanimously preferred the iPads to the Acer tablets because they were “sexier”, lighter, less bulky and had better sound and picture clarity. The Store Managers and Assistant Store Managers participating in the pilot said they enjoyed not having to travel for training and being able to learn when it was convenient for them. Many also commented on the benefits of providing a consistent training experience for everyone as well as the ability to apply what they learned straight away. They also said they found the delivery of the training made learning “different”, “easy” and “fun”.

The Warehouse Learning and Development Specialist, Sonia Appleby-Maine, said a number of users have commented very favourably about the quality of the training product, especially the scenario-based feedback and advice. She said even those users who were very confident with the content learned they could use a different approach with their team members to further improve the outcome of their conversations with them.
Learners were not given pre-training on the devices but were provided with a tutorial they could access prior to and throughout the scenario. They all navigated their way to the tutorial and the scenario without difficulty despite varying experience with mobile devices.

Sonia said that with the pilot they wanted to explore whether mobile devices could increase the accessibility of training for people in their stores and they wanted to make the learning experience relevant while the users were on the job. She said they also wanted to see if Roleplay on a mobile device increased learning transfer and if there were other potential benefits that could be gained across the business with this technology.

The training using mobile Roleplay was very successful and demonstrated the benefits mobile learning brought to large scale retailers.

Find out more about how you can go mobile with Roleplay Training at www.roleplaytraining.com

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The Future of Learning is Here

The world’s first SaaS scenario based development tool that can publish to mobile devices with one click has already had its first successful pilot in the commercial world.
Roleplay Managing Director, Glenn Bull said it was always the aim to take the scenario based development tool to mobile devices. They had said it was in the future but when a client asked, “When is the future?” Roleplay decided it was now.

Glenn said when mobile learning was first discussed, iPads and other tablets were not even released and it was considered by many in the e-learning industry to be a fad and a novelty which would wear off. Today with the range of smartphones and tablets available, mobile learning is the ideal way to provide consistent training across all employees, especially in the large scale retail sector where most staff are out on the floor.

He said the intuitive nature of the mobile devices means a wide variety of users can participate in the learning scenarios without any prior training on the devices. It also means staff can learn while on the job without long periods required of sitting in front of a computer. “Mobile learning will have quite an impact on the retail sector.” He said.

Roleplay is highly flexible so trainers can publish scenario based training to a company intranet, USB keys, learning management systems and mobile devices. Scenarios can be updated or modified in minutes and the updated scenario can be disseminated to all outputs. It is also possible to centrally update all mobile devices using mobile management applications such as ZenPrise, Kaseya and Apple’s Enterprise Tools.
Glenn said Roleplay is customer focussed and because trainers rather than software developers use the software, they have gone the extra distance and made it as easy as possible for clients to use any mobile device. He said while using software on Android devices was really easy, Apple iPads required clients to do a bit more work registering with Apple, however this is a one off requirement. Roleplay takes care of everything else so the process is streamlined and there are no complicated software issues for clients.
Clients can even use a variety of devices at the same time to run their scenario based learning and capability to use BlackBerry’s PlayBook™ will also be available in 2012.

Find out more about how you can go mobile with Roleplay Training at www.roleplaytraining.com

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