Bike with flowers
Update on Research: Faculty's Use of Mobile Learning Across Campuses
Dear Faculty,
For more than two years now, Dr. Margaret Merrill, instructional designer and educational technologist, and I have been collaborating on a cross-UC study on mobile learning with two other instructional designers, Samantha Eastman and Dr. Mindy Colin, from UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara respectively. In this work, we’ve created a number of helpful resources through conference presentations and journal publications. If you are interested in integrating mobile learning into your course, these resources highlight the work of faculty across UC campuses with mobile learning and could be a source of inspiration.
This project began as an exploration of mobile learning across UC campuses. We started by looking into the technology infrastructure at our UC campuses and presented our findings at the University of California Computing Services Conference in 2017. Through this phase of the project, we found that the infrastructure at each of our campuses was increasing rapidly to support student device usage in class. The rapid increase in infrastructure was important to support the average of 2.5 devices students were bringing with them to class.
In the second phase of our research project, we highlighted innovative use cases of faculty implementing mobile devices inside and outside of the classroom to support student learning. Through interviews with faculty across four UC campuses, we have found creative uses of mobile learning including strategic uses of Google forms and clickers to teach research methods, Pokémon Go to teach ecological sampling, and Snapchat to quiz students on bird identification. If you are interested in integrating mobile learning into your course, the innovative ways in which faculty across UC campuses are integrating and using mobile devices to support learning could provide inspiration. Check out our recent publication “Spotlighting Innovative Use Cases of Mobile Learning” to see a summary of one use case from each campus.
Our team recently presented a poster at the Educause Learning Initiative Annual Meeting. The poster and handout highlight successes and challenges faculty reported as they integrated mobile learning into their courses. Common successes included increasing student engagement, increasing efficiency in teaching/learning, improving social connection, and improving learning outcomes. Common challenges included changing technologies, concerns about use of class time, funding/licensing, and infrastructure. Being aware of these potential successes and challenges before designing mobile learning activities in a course can help faculty take advantage of the potential benefits of mobile learning and mitigate common challenges.
Due to our work in this area, our team was recently interviewed for an article in Inside HigherEd titled “Students Are Using Mobile Even If You Aren’t.” At the interview, we were all so excited to talk shop about mobile learning that we quite possibly overwhelmed the interviewer. The article highlights the ubiquity of student use of mobile devices as well as the challenges and opportunities for integrating mobile learning in the classroom.
We are excited to continue exploring and curating the innovative uses of mobile learning at UC campuses to unceasingly improve our support of faculty. If you are interested in integrating mobile learning into your course, sharing innovative ways you use technology in your course, or hearing more about the project, please reach out to Margaret Merrill (mmerrill@ucdavis.edu) or myself (arockey@ucdavis.edu). We clearly love talking about mobile learning!
Best,
Alex
For more than two years now, Dr. Margaret Merrill, instructional designer and educational technologist, and I have been collaborating on a cross-UC study on mobile learning with two other instructional designers, Samantha Eastman and Dr. Mindy Colin, from UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara respectively. In this work, we’ve created a number of helpful resources through conference presentations and journal publications. If you are interested in integrating mobile learning into your course, these resources highlight the work of faculty across UC campuses with mobile learning and could be a source of inspiration.
This project began as an exploration of mobile learning across UC campuses. We started by looking into the technology infrastructure at our UC campuses and presented our findings at the University of California Computing Services Conference in 2017. Through this phase of the project, we found that the infrastructure at each of our campuses was increasing rapidly to support student device usage in class. The rapid increase in infrastructure was important to support the average of 2.5 devices students were bringing with them to class.
In the second phase of our research project, we highlighted innovative use cases of faculty implementing mobile devices inside and outside of the classroom to support student learning. Through interviews with faculty across four UC campuses, we have found creative uses of mobile learning including strategic uses of Google forms and clickers to teach research methods, Pokémon Go to teach ecological sampling, and Snapchat to quiz students on bird identification. If you are interested in integrating mobile learning into your course, the innovative ways in which faculty across UC campuses are integrating and using mobile devices to support learning could provide inspiration. Check out our recent publication “Spotlighting Innovative Use Cases of Mobile Learning” to see a summary of one use case from each campus.
Our team recently presented a poster at the Educause Learning Initiative Annual Meeting. The poster and handout highlight successes and challenges faculty reported as they integrated mobile learning into their courses. Common successes included increasing student engagement, increasing efficiency in teaching/learning, improving social connection, and improving learning outcomes. Common challenges included changing technologies, concerns about use of class time, funding/licensing, and infrastructure. Being aware of these potential successes and challenges before designing mobile learning activities in a course can help faculty take advantage of the potential benefits of mobile learning and mitigate common challenges.
Due to our work in this area, our team was recently interviewed for an article in Inside HigherEd titled “Students Are Using Mobile Even If You Aren’t.” At the interview, we were all so excited to talk shop about mobile learning that we quite possibly overwhelmed the interviewer. The article highlights the ubiquity of student use of mobile devices as well as the challenges and opportunities for integrating mobile learning in the classroom.
We are excited to continue exploring and curating the innovative uses of mobile learning at UC campuses to unceasingly improve our support of faculty. If you are interested in integrating mobile learning into your course, sharing innovative ways you use technology in your course, or hearing more about the project, please reach out to Margaret Merrill (mmerrill@ucdavis.edu) or myself (arockey@ucdavis.edu). We clearly love talking about mobile learning!
Best,
Alex