Brainstorm Magazine

OPPORTUNITIES: Merryl Ford believes SA and Africa can lead in the m-learning space.

Cellphones help us keep in touch, take photos, listen to music and tell us where to go. Now they’ll educate us too.

As mobile market penetration grows across Africa and “mobile” because more ubiquitous, mobile learning is gaining ground. Mobile learning, also known as m-learning, is simply the delivery of learning over mobile platforms. Earth-shattering? No. Essential to delivering education in Africa? Yes.

Says Elliott Masie, visionary for the Masie Institute: “Mobile devices will evolve to be the primary computing device in the Third World, as well as in the Second and First Worlds, over the next four years.”

Merryl Ford, research manager: Emerging Innovations Group at the Meraka Institute feels strongly that, “[South Africa and Africa] are very well positioned to make a huge impact and contribution with regard to new and innovative service platforms” in the cellphone-based m-learning market.

Africa “leapfrogged” the global mobile phone market in growth and innovation, and has the potential to do so in the m-learning space.

According to Dr Tom Brown, an expert in m-learning in Africa: “Africa is actually leapfrogging from an unwired, nonexistent e-learning infrastructure to a wireless e-learning infrastructure. It (m-learning) will become the learning environment of choice.”

This presents new and expanded opportunities for ICT and educational entrepreneurs in Africa who provide content, applications and services for the m-learning market. Sam Adkins, chief research officer of Ambient Insight, says the learning content market in the US will grow about 25 percent per year while services will grow about 36 percent, even during this economic downturn. In fact, the economic downturn has helped fuel the global market for m-learning because companies want to reduce travel required for learning, according to Masie.

The key is to understand what this market looks like, the opportunities available, and challenges facing it, then explore sustainable business models. The primary market in Africa is the mass consumer market, including rural and poorer populations.

Says John Traxler, director of the Learning Lab at the University of Wolverhampton: “M-learning is seen as a way to bridge the gap caused by lack of infrastructure and service delivery in areas like education and healthcare, particularly for the poor or rural populations, in Africa.” Since mobile phone market penetration has reached beyond 85 percent in South Africa, this translates to over 41m potential m-learning consumers.

Poor populations are the primary, or largest, market segment in Africa. This market segment includes the mass African consumer market, which possesses lower income levels than those in the West.

Another market identified by Brown is the mobile workforce and more broadly the mobile society. Globally, 50 percent or more of the workforce work outside the office. Both Traxler and Masie see the evolution of mobility in society as important to the growing m-learning market. Says Masie: “Mobile learning/performance will evolve at the same rate as the acceptance of the mobile device as a support tool in our lives.”

In this second market segment, the vision of m-learning, coined by Traxler as “just-in-time, just-enough, just-for-me,” begins to come to life. Says Masie: “We will see more mobile performance support applications rather than traditional e-learning. Mobile will connect people to expertise and to social learning aspects, as well as placing coaching and mentoring into the hands of the workforce.”

The type of mobile devices used by these market segments is an important factor. ResearchICTAfrica (RIA) did a survey in 2008 involving over 23 000 households across 17 countries about ICT access and usage. On average, South Africans said they were willing and able to pay $19.25 (approximately R170) for a cellphone. The highest amount respondents were willing and able to pay for a cellphone was $29.70 in the Ivory Coast.

Mobile handsets in this range are simple in design, more text-based and focus on providing basic services. This fits the first, and largest, market segment of the broader African population. On the other hand, the mobile workforce segment uses a broader range of mobile devices that offer more options, such as audio, video, and rich multimedia applications.

Commercial opportunities

Besides the education industry, the healthcare industry is leading the way in m-learning. Says Adkins: “The most sophisticated innovations in mobile learning are emerging from the healthcare industry, which will have a significant impact on mobile learning in the US and across the globe, particularly in the area of patient education.”

Converting these opportunities to successful, sustainable and profitable business models in Africa is the trick, however. That said, there are several mobile business models that can be explored for m-learning. Ford cites Mxit’s use of sponsorship, the entertainment industry’s use of micro payments (e.g. ringtones, screensavers), and pre-loaded bundle packages combining learning content and a mobile device.

Traxler says there is a dearth of profitable, m-learning business models in Africa at the moment since the industry is still in the pioneering stage. Masie thinks firms may not necessarily make huge profit margins on m-learning, which may be more like e-mail, “high functional use, but low profit margin,” he notes.

Traxler says a challenge to commercialising m-learning in Africa is a predominate mindset in Africa, which sure anticipates government will develop and use m-learning as a means to meet its commitment for service delivery. Multinationals like Nokia and MTN, involved in m-learning research in Africa, have not been great drivers of commercial development of m-learning either. Instead, they support its development for the greater good, perhaps waiting to see how commercial opportunities will develop from the research.

Ford says other challenges are “the (perceived) complexity in developing services over this platform,” as well as, “a shortage of mobile software developers in South Africa (and Africa)”.

She adds that this is why the Meraka Institute is developing “an open source, cellphone-based mobile and telephony platform with tools, sample services and applications. It will de-skill the process of providing cellphone-based products and services by individuals, SMMEs, NGOs, government and the private sector within the South African context.” An upside to the current challenges is the planned increase in broadband availability in Africa over the next five years.

This includes the quick expansion of 3G and 4G broadband networks. This will allow many Africans to tap into knowledge already available on the internet. Knowledge is a significant factor for empowerment – and, the preferred delivery platform will not be computers or laptops but mobile devices.

M-learning obviously presents opportunities for ICT firms looking for new and emerging channels. However, they will have to overcome the challenges involved in a “pioneer” sector while staying on top of business models that will be profitable and sustainable. In the end, it will come down to how well they read and reach out in this mobile revolution.