Here’s a story of mobile learning being put to use to help alleviate the effects of an age-old human tragedy: human trafficking.

The Italy-based learning content management and digital repository solution provider, eXact learning solutions, along with other companies, is providing mobile learning materials to US Department of Defense (DoD) personnel to help them combat human trafficking.

In a proclamation made at the end of December last year, Barack Obama, the President of the USA, named January 2011 as ‘National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.’ President Obama said: “Around the world and even within the United States, victims of modern slavery are deprived of the most basic right of freedom… We cannot strengthen global efforts to end modern slavery without first accepting the responsibility to prevent, identify, and aggressively combat this crime at home…”

To help in the campaign against ‘trafficking in persons’ (TIP), ADL, the Advanced Distributed Learning initiative, organised a pilot learning programme – known as the ‘Mobile TIP course’ – a general awareness course delivered via mobile devices to showcase the efficiency of mobile learning in targeting just in time and on the field training needs for US DoD staff around the world.

eXact learning solutions produced two versions of the mobile content, using its new eXact Mobile 2.0 platform to produce, store and distribute learning packages  conforming to SCORM 1.2 ‘lite sequencing’, with GEO location capability and a built-in interface to third party LMSs.

Comment: America’s military personnel have had access to e-learning materials on TIP for some years but only 60% of these people ever completed the course. So far, there is evidence that the Mobile TIP course is proving popular with DoD personnel, meaning that the anti-trafficking message – and guidance on how to prevent human trafficking – is getting to more American servicemen.