Download pdf - Beyond Delivery Modes and Apps - A Case Study on Mobile Blended Learning

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center

Beyond Delivery Modes and Apps A Case Study on Mobile Blended Learning

Christian Glahn, Marion R. Gruber, Olga Tartakovski

presented at ECTEL 2015


Context of the Work

•  Marion Gruber: Co-ordination, support, and integration of digital technologies in education and research at the Factulty of Arts and Social Sciences of the UZH.

•  Olga Tartakovski: E-learning co-ordinator at the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research at the UZH.

•  Christian Glahn: Director of the Blended Learning Center at the HTW Chur.


We Share Common Challenges

Provisioning of TEL solutions for the immediate application in higher education courses at scale.

Keep the teaching faculty up to speed with educational and technological developments.

One of the driving challenges for the HE practice is the appropriate integtation of mobile learning apps.


Every university offers apps to their students

State of Mobile Apps in Swiss Higher Education •  Responsive design

•  Scheduling and orientation apps

•  Special purpose apps

Few scalable solutions

consider dedicated

mobile learning activities


Every university is in the business of assessment

Need to provide reliable and scalable assessment solutions.

•  Large amount of students

•  Work-intense paper-pencil approaches

•  Summative approaches cannot be used to guide the lecturing processes (Flipped Classroom)


Why it is relevant to scale up mobile learning? Mobile Technologies in Higher Education make sense, if they...

1.  Integrate with and extend the existing TEL solutions and practices

2.  Link and enrich the students’ experiences and learning

Practical

Seamless Learning


What benefits does mobile technology contribute to an already technology enhanced learning environment? •  What technologies are available and practices are

common to students in higher education?

•  Are there intrinsic context-related affordances that allow bridging learning activities into contexts uncommon to learning?


What do we mean by “uncommon to learning?”


Case study of blending large lectures with mobile technologies The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is the largest

Faculty of the University of Zurich

•  Approx. 11,000 Students

•  240 Professors + 911 Lecturers

•  Typical introductory lectures have large participant numbers

•  Technological Support via a VLE is well established and cultivated.


The Case

•  Introduction to Mass Communication and Media-Research (PuK I&II): 410 participants

•  Provide a mobile learning app that is orchestrated through an VLE

•  Activity analysis + student survey

06.10.15 Titel der Präsentation, Autor Seite 10


Mobler Cards

Very short learning activities

No contextualisation


System integration architecture

(Glahn, 2013)

The lecturer is in control of the content and the process


The Learning Design

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Statistics for Lecturers and Students


Results

•  410 participants: 300 female, 109 male •  350 downloads of the app within the first week of

the course •  125 students used the app during the term

•  13,192 answered questions in the app

•  50 participants responded to a summative questionnaire after the end of the pilot


What technologies are available and practices are common to students in higher education?


Smart phone ownership

72%

26%

2%

iOS

Android

Windows

n=50


Mobile device ownership

Students use several mobile and portable devices in parallel.

•  92% Laptops

•  48% Tables •  64% use 3 or more devices frequently

Students learn in a

device ecology

n=50 (multiple responses)


Common practices Daily used apps and services •  94% texting

•  74% online search

•  72% social networking •  62% news and blogs

•  61% e-mail

•  52% photos

Weekly used apps and services •  52% navigation

•  52% telephony

•  50% camera •  44% videos

Our students considered gaming

neither relevant nor play

n=50 (multiple responses)


Are there intrinsic context-related affordances?


Application usage

Weekly app sessions during the term (n=125)


Usage context

n=37


Didactical factors (6 point Likert-scale)

•  No unnecessary workload was created (µ = 5.9) •  Useful addition to online and lecture hall activities

(µ = 5.5) •  The app should replace conventional online

activities (µ = 3.4)

•  Would use the app only if it was compulsory (µ = 1.5)

•  More frequent use if deeper integration with the curriculum (µ = 3.2)

n=37


Motivational factors

•  Helps to learn more frequently (57%) •  Motivates them to learn more intensively (51%)

•  Recommend using the app to fellow students (91%)

•  Use improved app in other courses (86%)

n=37


Other factors (Open Question)

n=37


Conclusions •  The majority of today’s students learn in a multi-device ecology •  Gamification elements were completely irrelevant

•  Mobile learning activities can enrich the learning experiences beyond having access to functions on a smart phone

•  Bite-sized learning on smart phones supports learners in bridging learning into uncommon learning settings (e.g., public transport)

•  The students appreciate the mobile app, but don’t consider it as a replacement for other learning solutions

•  The students value the authorized content provided for learning, but many wait until the last moment to initiate their learning


Thank You

Mag. Dr. Marion R. Gruber University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF

marion.gruber[at]phil.uzh.ch

M.A. Olga Tartakovski University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, IPMZ,

o.tartakovski[at]ipmz.uzh.ch

Dr. Christian Glahn HTW Chur, Blended Learning Center

christian.glahn[at]htwchur.ch