Mobile Learning and Engagement: Designing Effective Mobile Lessons

Abstract

As the world continues to move deeper into mobile, higher education classrooms (virtual and face to face) are positioned well for utilizing mobile learning to further enhance student engagement and learning. This is significant to today’s millennial learners who are tech savvy and have never known a world without the Internet. Connecting to this internet generation via mobile technologies creates relevance in the learning environment. Educause discusses the implications for teaching and learning in the May 2010 “7 Things You Should Know About Mobile Apps and Learning” and stresses that “… mobile devices support lifelong learning, and because the devices themselves are integrated into everyday life, they facilitate authentic learning” (Educause 2014). Yet one of the greatest challenges lies in the reality that there are few resources published that offer comprehensive mobile lessons and concrete methods to effectively implement mobile learning into the classroom. Educators need specific guidelines and model examples of mobile lessons to fully understand how to create the lesson, what to consider when developing, and how to successfully integrate it into the classroom. Having these essential components will change the ways in which learning takes place, breaking free of traditional pedagogical structures and finding new and relevant ways to engage the millennial learner. Christy Price, a psychology professor at Dalton State College, indicates that in order to reach this level of engagement, relevance is one of the greatest challenges in connecting learning outcomes and activities for the millennial learner (Price C, Why don’t my students think I’m groovy?: The new “R”s for engaging millennial learners, 2009). Educators can create relevance to learning using effective mobile design and implementation.

The Mobile Lesson Template is a design guide that includes several elements for teachers to thoroughly examine when considering the ways in which mobile can support students’ learning (see Appendix A). As discovered in a semester-long faculty learning community on mLearning, faculty were successful in utilizing the Mobile Lesson Template to create and implement mobile lessons into the classroom, allowing for reflection and evaluation of students’ learning. Educators worldwide can create significant connections between engagement and learning by incorporating mLearning strategies into teaching and learning design.

Appendices

Appendix A: Mobile Lesson Template

• 1. Assignment Name

  [Provide a name that includes the lesson concept and the word “mobile.”]

• 2. Goal

  [What experience is this providing for the student?]

• 3. Learning Outcome(s)

  [By the end of this lesson, what will the student be able to do?]

• 4. Materials/Resources

  [Materials, handouts, software, special equipment needed.]

• 5. Instructions

  [Specific, concise, step-by-step details of the process that is expected to complete the assignment.]

• 6. Assessment/Rubric

  [How the assignment will be graded.]

• 7. Weighting of this Assignment

  [Percent of overall grade.]

• 8. Submitting Assignment for Evaluation

  [How/where to submit the assignment.]

• 9. Time Commitment

  [Expected time to complete the assignment.]

• 10. Deadline

  [When is the assignment due?]

• 11. Feedback Expectations

  [When/how will students receive feedback?]

• 12. Examples

  [Provide an exemplar example so students understand what you’re looking for.]

• 13. Technology Considerations: Challenges/Solutions

  [What considerations are needed to identify challenges for both instructor and student? What potential solutions could solve these challenges?]

Kimberly Vincent-Layton 2013. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Appendix B: Scavenger Hunt Mobile Lesson on Motivational Appeals for Persuasive Speaking

Kimberly Vincent-Layton, Department of Communication

2.1 Goal

In order to be an effective speaker, it is important to consider the emotional impact on our audience, as well as relate our ideas to their emotions, needs, and values. We need to find out what is meaningful to our audience so we can relate to them in persuasive speaking.

Work together as a team to discover and capture a variety of objects and/or visuals that include motivation appeals.

2.2 Learning Outcome

Evaluate at least five different objects and/or visuals that demonstrate motivational appeal.

2.3 Materials/Resources

• Smartphone with video or collage app of choice

• Account with app if needed (Animator, Vine, Flipagram, Instagram, etc.)

• Wi-Fi

• Classroom computer with projector to share final video/collage

2.4 Instructions

You have 20 min to go on a team scavenger hunt, looking and capturing objects/visuals around campus that appeal to needs and values (think: signage, posters, layout of structures, etc.).

Include:

• Needs – think Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow 1943)

• Values – think general values (culture, family, social), core values, authority values, peripheral values

Step One: Scour the campus looking for objects/visuals of any type that demonstrate appeals to needs and values (must include at least one example for need and one for value).

Step Two: Use a mobile app, such as Vine, YouTube Capture, Animoto, Pic Stitch, and Photo Grid, to create a video or photo collage of no more than 1 minute; upload it to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Animoto, or any site where you can share with the class.

Step Three: Think about the purpose and the target audience of your visuals. Answer these two questions in your video:

• 1. What values are appealed to in the object/visual? Identify the values.

• 2. What needs are appealed to in the object/visual? Identify the needs.

Step Four: Upload your video/collage URL to the Share Your Scavenger Hunt Video Here forum on Moodle immediately following the scavenger hunt.

Step Five: Reflection/share out – is the object/visual effective/persuasive to the target audience? What motivational appeal is it an example of?

2.5 Assessment

mLesson rubric valued at total of 10 points will serve as participation points for this class session.

Scavenger Hunt Rubric

Criteria	Exceeds expectations	Meets expectations	Below expectations	Points
Contribution to group (3 points)	Team accepted responsibilities for constructing the hunt and collaborating on the video	Team accepted some responsibility for constructing the hunt and some collaboration on the video	Team made little contribution to constructing the hunt and/or collaborating on the video
Needs and values (4 points)	Team included at least two examples of each: needs and values	Team included at least one example of each: needs and values	Team did not include at least one example of each: needs and values
Final hunt results (video) (3 points)	Video demonstrates an appeal to needs and values by answering all four questions	Video demonstrates an appeal to needs and values by answering most questions	Video demonstrates an appeal to needs and values by answering few questions

2.6 Deadline

URL submission due by April 21, 5:00 pm. Replies to classmates’ posts due by Sunday 11:00 pm of Week 12.

2.7 Feedback

Students will receive classmates’ oral feedback during class share out, classmates’ written feedback in online discussion forum, and instructor feedback posted in Moodle Gradebook by Sunday of Week 13.

2.8 Examples

Sample Video/Collage

• See sample Vine on Moodle.

• See sample Animoto on Moodle.

2.9 Technology Considerations

Instructor will create sample video/collage to demonstrate the final product [Vine, Animoto].

Challenges

• Variety of devices and apps.

• Students may spend a lot of time just picking the app.

• Access to Wi-Fi could be intermittent in some areas.

• Need accounts created that could potentially take time.

• Time logging into accounts on classroom computer (to share video/collage).

Solutions

• Ask students if they have a smartphone in class prior to activity.

• Assign team leaders to choose an app before next class session.

• If students are not using campus Wi-Fi, be sure to let them know that apps may require data usage on their plan.

• Have student leader create an account (if needed) before the mLesson.

Kimberly Vincent-Layton 2013. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.