Same Learning, New Experience: Kognito Simulations Now On Mobile Devices

In the classroom, more than half of teachers are using a tablet, just slightly less common than usage of a laptop or desktop computer. More than a quarter are using smartphones in a typical week. Among health professionals, four in five are using smartphones professionally. When it comes to mobile learning, or m-learning, it is not only reaching users where they are but also can also support learner engagement and performance.
As the use of handheld devices has become more ubiquitous, especially in the workplaces of our users, it was incumbent on the Kognito team to bring our simulations to users anywhere they go online. Starting this month, nearly all of Kognito’s simulations are accessible via mobile devices.

Why Mobile in 2019?

For our users who have taken a Kognito simulation before, you know that there’s a lot of technology involved. Every simulation is loading audio, motion graphics, interactivity, and more – a process that our technology team has optimized for a seamless experience on internet browsers on laptop and desktop computers.

However, we were still waiting on the capacity of mobile browsers to be able to load our complex technology without issues. In March of this year, Apple released the newest version of its iOS, 12.2. This firmware update came with a new version of the Safari browser that allowed Kognito to finally leverage mobile web browsers to play our simulations.

Even with this Safari update, a lot of work needed to be accomplished to ensure our simulations would perform optimally on this new set of devices. Our team rapidly developed strategies to reduce memory usage during loading, reducing game asset file sizes by updating our compression methods, and ensuring that your device won’t fall asleep while you are not interacting with content.

How to Access and System Requirements

Kognito’s simulations are now available through your phone or tablet’s web browser. Users simply navigate to the client portal where they would usually log in, through the Safari App on Apple devices or the Google Chrome app on Android devices, and log on with their normal credentials.

• Our simulations will run on Apple iPhones newer than the 6S series and iPads newer than 2016 models, with iOS 12.2 installed using the Safari web browser application, which comes installed on every iOS device.
• Android devices and tablets are also supported, so long as they have 2 GB of RAM or greater, with Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) installed, using the Chrome application, which is similarly installed on all Android devices.

We will continue to support the handful of mobile applications available on the Apple App Store and Google Play store. With this mobile launch, these native apps like Talk to Someone: Triple Negative Breast Cancer are also accessible to instantly access on a mobile browser.

What Mobile Learning Means for our Clients

The availability of mobile does not affect compliance tracking and survey completion for our clients. Now users simply complete survey questions through their mobile browser in addition to accessing the simulation. Since users will have the same login credentials, usage tracking remains unaffected.

For admins, your portal to retrieve utilization data will be accessible via desktop.

Looking Ahead

This spring marks the initial rollout of our platform on mobile devices. Going forward, our roadmap includes user experience upgrades for mobile clients on our user portal (Kognito Campus) portal and within simulations.

Additionally, we will be pursuing stability and performance enhancements. This will continue to ensure that we are giving our clients a seamless experience across mobile learning and online learning.

For questions and support for mobile, please visit https://support.kognito.com.

-Mike Williams is a Unity Developer at Kognito, where he has released over 30 simulations. He is also a hobbyist game developer in his spare time.