Mobile learning is gradually gaining pace in the learning industry especially in the corporate houses. With this trend becoming popular, several tools are coming into the picture which aid in mobile learning solutions. A significant benefit of mobile learning is that people can learn while waiting; in the process corporate houses do not have to invest in additional training hours. Constraints in mobile learning sometimes involve the difficulty of smaller screen and lack of certain interactivities in mobile devices. In order to fight against this challenge, constant innovations are being done in the various mobile learning tools available in the market.
The tools used for mobile learning can be broadly classified into three categories. They are:
• Enterprise application like LMS, LCMS
• Games
• Augmented Reality
Based on these categories there are several tools aiding mobile learning solutions. They are:
Claro: This tool helps in the creation of content for tablets and smart phones. It offers support across iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows phone and a lot more.
Impatica: It is the best PowerPoint solution to HTML5.
Adobe Creative Suite: This is in fact a collection of tools to create content for eLearning including Device Central which enables the author to output the content through different mobile devices.
Adrenna Mobile: This tool is known to have created revolution in the eLearning industry per se mobile learning (http://www.adlnet.gov/mobile-learning/), if said more specifically. It can bring formal, informal, social, collaborative and all other forms of learning into a single platform known as the mobile device. This tool is now available on all the major operating system like the iOS, Blackberry OS and Android.
Appulse: With the Appulse 3.0 it is possible to create content quickly and publish it across various mobile platforms.
Articulate: Articulate is another tool which has several options to publish content across various mobile devices. It is mainly done through Presenter and Screener.
Blueprint: It is an iPhone App that enables prototyping of mLearning.
Datango: With this use tool, it is possible to present documentation in small file size but in high quality and also in the desired output format for the different mobile devices.
Besides these tools, there are some specific tools for games in eLearning which has to be presented through different mobile devices. A few of them are:
Edgelib: It is the most powerful and multi-platform game engine for all those mobile devices which are written in C++. It offers high quality performance in 2D graphics as well as 3D graphics (http://helpx.adobe.com/flash/using/3d-graphics.html). Besides easy file access, and input and also network connectivity are some of the noted features of this particular tool.
Unity: is another tool which makes mobile learning solutions easier. It has been specifically designed for the beginners. Features integrated into this tool are editor, graphical power and asset importing.
On the other hand, JGame is an open source 2D game engine.
Thus, there are several tools which accelerate mobile learning solutions, but a corporate house or an educational institute need to weigh their learning needs as well as the target audience in order to determine the kind of tools which will be put to use to implement mobile learning. It is true that mobile learning is helpful for an organization in more than one way, but using the right kind of tools depending on the story based learning content is the major challenge.
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