A3: Geofencing in Workplace Education

August 2024

Author: Richard Derksen

A3: Forecasting Project

Geofencing in Workplace Education

06. Predicting the future

03. Mapping the problem

05. Analyzing the impact

04. A proposed solution

02. My professional context

01. What is geofencing?

Index

Geofencing creates a "virtual boundary" around a building, landmark, or other area that allows users to access specific content and activities. When a user enters into the area that has been geofenced, they can access content. When they physically leave the area, the content is no longer accessible.Marketing companies are currently the biggest proponents of geofencing. Businesses will use GPS and RFID tracking to target a specific area to promote products and services via a push notification. It gives businesses the ability to personalize content that is relevant for the end user. So where could education fit into this?

01. What is Geofencing?

An Opportunity in Education?

Listen to my introduction here

In also recognizing the opportunity of geofencing in the future of workplace education, it is also important to recognize the nature of working environments. In a Canadian HR Report release earlier this year, it was suggested that coming out of the pandemic, more and more people preferred a hybrid work environment compared to a fully remote environment (CHRR, 2024). Considering onboarding for professions where remote work is not possible, such as the hospitality industry or trades, this assignment weighs the benefits and rationale of geofencing within employee onboarding and why this a viable opportunity below.

02. My Professional Context

What is the impact?

What is causing it?

03. Mapping the problem

The landscape

While geofencing is largely absent in education, I believe this is an untapped opportunity for the market. Reasons to believe geofencing will be part of the future include:

Geofencing

04. A proposed solution

Privacy

Fluidity of where we work

In addressing the issues of when employees would receive their onbaording information, geofencing also enhances the impact of a wide array of multimodal learning. AR, eLearning modules, and audio guides are some of the delivery modes that increase in effectiveness when they are delivered in the appropriate setting.

What about unaddressed obstacles?

05. Analyzing the impact

Communication

References

What future scenarios might play out?

06. Predicting the future

A, R. (2023). Transforming Education: Harnessing Location-Based Learning and Geofencing. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transforming-education-harnessing-location-based-learning-artiga/ Admin. (2024, April 14). How Geofencing Can Revolutionize Your On-The-Ground Employee Training. Entelechy. https://entelechy.app/how-geofencing-can-revolutionize-your-on-the-ground-employee-training/ Blair, J. (2024). Into the Future: Are corporate training programs really doing what they’re supposed to?. BC Business. https://www.bcbusiness.ca/industries/general/are-corporate-training-programs-really-doing-what-theyre-supposed-to/ Bytes-to-Bites-to-Bliss (B3). (2024, July 24). How AI-Powered Geofencing Revolutionizes Last-Mile Delivery. Medium. https://generativeai.pub/how-ai-powered-geofencing-revolutionizes-last-mile-delivery-7f243ef04f26 Peck, D. (2024) Employee Onboarding Statistics: Top Trends & Insights (2024). Devlin Peck. https://www.devlinpeck.com/content/employee-onboarding-statistics ThirdEye Gen. (2023, September 23). Geo-Fencing and Beyond: Realeye’s Innovative Approach to Location-Based AI. Medium. https://medium.com/@thirdeyegen/geo-fencing-and-beyond-realeyes-innovative-approach-to-location-based-ai-45ef9eba7ec6 The Changing Landscape of Remote Work in Canada. (2024). https://www.hrreporter.com/chrr-plus/stats-data/the-changing-landscape-of-remote-work-in-canada/383168

References

Identify gaps in learning faster

Additional benefits can include employee movements within a training environment to identify gaps in the onboarding experience. Geofencing aligns with many of the current and future trends in education, such as personalization, microlearning, real-time feedback, and autonomy for the learner (Entelechy, 2024).

How does this relate to other issues?

• Onboarding is a key step in setting up employees for success. It is also the first step in translating training into performance by addressing those high level questions of how things are connected, their context, and how new employees fit into the organization. If they aren't addressed early, it impacts the performance and motivation of employees.

• Employees with a positive onboarding experience can improve employee productivity by 60% (Peck, 2024).

• Delivering learning experiences can be manageable, but the absence of authentic learning experiences makes it increasingly difficult to measure impact. This may also explain why 60% of employers do not set milestones or goals for new employees (Peck, 2024). Contextualizing the learning process and knowing when to provide it is a major challenge in onboarding experiences.

A precise learning experience

What Geofencing can do for an organization is personalize content to employees based on their physical location. Using their mobile device, this can ensure that information they are learning is relevant, timely, and support retention and compliance to organizational practices (Entelechy, 2024). As learned in the IoT Moveable Feast, one of the similar benefits with merging AI with Geofencing would be a more “precise” learning experience, leading to reduced human error, better decision-making, improved monitoring, and more.

The projection of smartphone users expected to reach nearly 7.7 billion people by 2027, the ubiquity of this technology presents a viable opportunity to enhance the learning experience within workplace education (ThirdGenEye, 2023).

Leverage existing mobile devices

Communication

Geofencing would not remove the need for departments in large organizations to communicate with one another, but what it would do it provide a framework around when they can deliever the onboarding they are responsible for. They become responsible for their content and this technology pinpoints when it would be delivered.

What is the problem?

Delivering a comprehensive onboarding experience can be challenging.

• Collaboration of multiple areas such as managers, learning specialists, human resources, and other resources to coordinate their efforts to enhance the onboarding of new employees into an organization.

• The timing of when to receive information. The risk of providing an overwhelming amount of information is a difficult balance for all those involved in mapping an onboarding plan.

One limitation would be that geofencing is based upon the assumption that the work required means employees physically go to locations where training can be prompted. Especially in situations of onboarding to a new organization and have the option for remote work, there is an assumption they would come to the physical building or work site before a more regular schedule. However, this assumption is difficult to quantify as where we work is an evolving landscape. I believe the geofencing does not negatively impact this obstacle, but it does benefit those that do physically move from one location to another.

Where we work

Situated Learning

The nature of geofencing is to personalize content. It would allow for employees to receive content in the environment they are "situated" in to immediately apply their learning in an authentic environment. An example of this would be on the job safety training for a warehouse.

Privacy

Another concern to navigate is privacy. Tracking the physical location of employees poses a risk that it can be used for other purposes other than tracking progress within an onboarding plan. Therefore, it would be the responsibility of organizations in their implementation of this technology to accompany geofencing with formal policies, best practices, and adherence to local laws and regulations. While allowing location tracking is a voluntary basis for the employee, it does not remove the need for educators and organizations to be diligent in managing privacy concerns.

• Lack of contextualization and lack of coordination. Large organizations require the input of multiple areas to achieve a successful onboarding plan, but external factors such as employee turnover in roles responsible for onboarding and communication results in a disjointed experience.

• The personalization of a plan also makes it difficult. The order in which an employee needs information will vary depending on their role. This is a challenge that extends beyond just onboarding and is broader in workplace education.

What is causing the challenge to persist?

This popular technology being used in other sectors presents an opportunity to enter into an untapped space: education. Where geofencing plays a role is creating virtual boundaries around buildings or landmarks. GPS or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) enabled devices, like smartphones or tablets would allow learners to engage with interactive resources, receive real-time information specific to a location, and participate in learning experiences beyond the traditional classroom setting. It is designed to target audiences based on their physical location and activities. Imagine a learner enters a geofenced area, it can prompt relevant educational content, notifications, or activities on the device. This lends itself to being a dynamic, personalized and contextual educational experience.