mLearning

or Blended Learning On-the-Go

The BackstoryChinese university campuses cannot keep pace with

enrollment growth.

Universities in the PRC: Receive 21 million applicants yearly Can only admit 4.2 million 81% rejection rate 60% of Americans receive some higher education

NotAccepted

Accepted

Overall Rejection Rate at Chinese Universities

Not Admitted Admitted

Changing ConditionsAs China industrializes

Higher education is more valuable

Higher education is harder to get

Competition is fierce

Enter mLearningmLearning

Stands for ‘mobile learning’

Is a blended learning solution

Focuses on learner mobilitynot technological

mobility

Why mLearning Fits China

If students cannot come to the university,

the university must go to the students.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s E-Learning Labbegan experimenting with mLearning three years ago.

New Direction

“Provide education anytime, and anywhere”

Their Goal

E-Learning Classroom

The mClassroom

High-Tech, Low BarriersThe resulting system

Streams live video of courses

Provides mobile access to course content

Allows for interactive text-messaging Between students and teachers Amongst students With an ‘answering machine’

This is Where I Came In…

July, 2007:

I left for Shanghai to join my contact at SJTU.

I spent six weeks in China.

Our StudiesWhile in the field, we studied m-Learning in three

contexts:

A blended English language course (1000 students) Resulting Paper Published in the British Journal of EdTec

A blended Computer Science course (592 students) Resulting Article in Review at IEEE Transaction

mLearning as Educational Practice Resulting Article will be presented in Hong Kong

The CoursesThe Instructors:

Streamed live and pre-recorded content

Sent exercises and reminders to distance learners

Received live feedback from mLearners

Interacted with all students through forums

FindingsmLearning works well on a large scale

1000+ students

In-class, eLearning, and mLearning work together seamlessly

Favorable end-of-course evaluations

FindingsStudents valued the mLearning experience

Left positive messages in forums

Wrote off-topic messages in the forums

Formed learning communities

Became active learners

FindingsSpontaneous communication occurred

Students IM’d each other and the instructor

Unusual in a Chinese classroom

Indicates reduced transactional distance

FindingsThose who sent more text messages

Earned higher grades

Felt more connected to the instructor and class

Were more likely to continue with their coursework

Lessons Learned People enjoy learning on-the-go

The American market will respond to mLearning if it is adapted to the American classroom

Socio-cultural context is a factor in instructional design

Culture neutrality