www.le.ac.uk

Mobile devices and open education:Match made in heaven or shotgun wedding?

Terese BirdLearning Technologist andSCORE Research FellowInstitute of Learning InnovationUniversity of Leicester

What will we talk about today?• Mobile use generally & in education

• Is open educational movement mobile-friendly? (anecdote about a meeting to look at oer – first was flash-based, chair of meeting was looking via iPad –not good)

• My survey – MOOCs

• The global mobile situation

• Conclusions

Global growth of mobile

Marketing Charts data 2013

Horizon report 2012 (New Media Consortium 2012)

Within 12 months these will become mainstream in education:• Mobile apps

– Pervasive internet connection

– GPS

• Tablet PCs

– Less disruptive than phones

– More mobile than laptops

– Good for long readings

Photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr

Mobile use in education (UoL snapshot)

• 15% of UoL first year medical student own an iPad… rising to 35% of UoL third year medical students own an iPad (Winter 2013 data)

• Over 7000 unique downloads of Blackboard Mobile from October 2012 through Feb 2013 without being required to

• Many distance learning courses choosing and considering mobile as e-reader and other learning purposes

Is the open education movement mobile?

• MIT Open Courseware – pdf and video

• iTunes U – yes but Apple-weighted

• Flash clash

• Online v offline

Photo by Steve Rhodes on Flickr

JISC OER projects encourage mobile

www.le.ac.uk/manufacturingpasts

Are MOOCing students using mobile devices? SurveyMonkey - via Twitter 1 week - Coursera - N=12

If you had trouble, briefly describe:“I tried to access Coursera on my BlackBerry, but it won't play ball. Phone's software and memory capabilities are main culprits. Would likely work on a more recent smartphone, but still sad not to have a mobile option available to me at present. “

“All I really used the phone for, was to pick up my results today, while I was out and about. Whilst I got the "You may not be able to access this with your webbrowser". (Using Sony phone with Android - not sure which release), I could get to the assessment page. Havent tried viewing videos etc. It would be great if the Coursera site was optimised for mobile.:

“All materials accessed through tablet browser but would think that in this day and age they would've created a specific 'app for that' that would make the forums more accessible and easier to navigate. “

“Flash” (Apple mobile)

“I’ve dropped out of MOOCs because I could not access the content from my iPhone or iPad”

The global mobile situation• Growth of smartphones in African nations

• Growth of Apple in China

• iPads and other tablets in Turkey

• Apple infrastructure

No African unis in iTunes U

iBooks Author free but…

iTunes U good for offline

Apple is courting education but

• Developing world?

• Is it open if few can afford it?

Photo by BasiliskSam on

Flickr

Photo by Brett Jordan on Flickr

Conclusions

• Develop open materials and platforms for mobile

• Develop for offline use where possible

• Small filesizes

• Communication between communities

References

• Marketing Chart Staff. (2013). Mobile Share of Web Traffic Jumped in Q4 2012. Marketing Charts Website. Retrieved march 11,2013, from http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/interactive/mobile-share-of-web-traffic-jumped-in-q4-2012-26057/

• New Media Consortium. (2012). Horizon Report > 2012 Higher Education Edition.