Impact of Mobile learning in education by Gabor Kismihok

This research on this new field of mobile learning is one of the first ones, which tries to measure what students and real users of mobile learning applications think about this technology compared to students who weren’t engaged with this way of teaching before. The database created by this project contains 300 questionnaires from two groups (focus and control group) which is also freely available for all researchers further research from the project website www.ericsson.com/impact.

The results of this analysis are two folded. On one hand useful and significant data has been gathered and analysed, which describes the main attitude differences between traditional and mobile learners. As it is visible from the descriptive analysis there is a remarkable scepticism towards technology in the focus group and also great positive expectations from the control group.  

On the other hand most of the analysis which has been carried out provided non significant results. Among these results there are quite a few items which support our hypotheses and also some which deny them, however based on our observations it is not possible to say significantly that our main research ideas are justified or not.

However regarding the hypothesis 1 – “There is no significant difference in the judgement of people with or without experience in mobile learning that the use of mobile technology can enhance the general quality of learning.” – there is significant data in this research, which shows that this might not be true! The abovementioned scepticism shows that people who are engaged in technology based learning are a bit more careful about articulating their expectations, especially positive expectations towards technology based learning and in this case mobile learning.
One it comes to our next research statement, – “It is generally accepted that the use of mobile learning in education is beneficial for improving the communication between students and educators.” – it is also quite hard to say anything which justifies or denies this statement. It was generally accepted that communication has great importance in education and using mobile devices might have a positive impact on educational communication between students and educators. However one of the significant results of this research was that students, who tried mobile learning, were more pessimistic regarding this question than those who didn’t. However mobile learning as a category is quite broad, and there is no evidence that respondents in the focus group were using communication related applications. This was one of the weaknesses of the questionnaire, which should be handled in future research.

Regarding the “Incorporating Mobile learning into educational activities adds additional value for the learning programmes provided by higher educational institutions.”  there was no significant evidence gathered from this research pro or contra this statement. There is no doubt, that mobile educational services treated positively in both groups and there is a positive support from both groups towards technology in education. But there is no evidence coming out from this research, which gives a clear justification.

There is still quite a long way to go. This was one of the first steps on this new field of mobilised education but hopefully not the last. It is essential to carry out other quantitative research, which targeted more carefully, maybe leaving this traditional focus and control group method and focusing more on the attitudes of the mobile learners.

 The following publication appeared at the conference by Daniel Schulte and Bernd J. Krämer http://www.eadtu.nl/conference-2008/Proceedings/R-%20Schulte%20and%20Kraemer%20-%20Impact%20of%20new%20technologies%20on%20distance%20learning%20students.pdf 

http://www.eadtu.nl/conference-2008/proceedings/EADTU%20Conference%202008%20proceedings.pdf

http://www.eadtu.nl/conference-2008/

http://www.eadtu.nl/conference-2008/proceedings/EADTU%20Conference%202008%20proceedings.pdf

http://www.eadtu.nl/conference-2008/

The conference presentations from the International conference are now available on

http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/corpinfo/programs/the_impact_of_new_technologies_on_distance_learning_students/resources.shtml

Quality of distance education in comparison to mainstream higher education

Bernd J. Krämer

The misconception that distance education aims at the total abolishment of face-to-face classrooms is revived every now and then, especially when new technology promises to extricate the learning process from time and space constraints. The truth is that specialized distance education institutions were particularly established to serve students who are prevented from attending on-campus classes regularly because they are working professionals, have to satisfy family obligations, or suffer from other constraints. Distance education and on-campus education traditionally occupied the poles of a continuum spanned by the dimensions locality, time, control, and strategy.

While distance students are largely interacting with their teachers and peers remotely and asynchronously, control the pace of their learning process, and are basically free in their choice of a learning strategy, on-campus students have ample opportunities for face-to-face interaction but are also bound to predefined times of classroom lectures and lab sessions and the educational process is strongly directed by teachers and tutors. But with the advent of new media in higher education and a range of digital learning environments and platforms, software-based learning, communication and collaboration tools and services, the classical distinction between distance education and on-campus study gets blurred. Distance education evolves towards blended education including more face-to-face and synchronous study phases and more and more campus universities are changing into dual-mode universities including an ever increasing number of distance education elements into their educational processes.

A recurring debate in the context of distance education is concerned with the quality of distance education in comparison to mainstream education and the recognition of university degrees awarded by open and distance universities. One way to answer these questions is to refer to the growing number of distance teaching institutions and distance students. The argument here is that this would probably not happen if the educational model of open and distance university were doubtful. Another approach was taken by Kathleen Ellis in her PhD thesis entitled <”Satisfaction of Graduate Students with their Distance Learning Experience”> <

http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses/available/etd-04032008-134720/unrestricted/Ellis_Kathleen_Diss.pdf>. This research was inspired by a core claim in the Noel-Levitz <National Online Learners Priorities Report> <

https://www.noellevitz.com/NR/rdonlyres/8F7A812B-C791-452D-AFAC-54C536BBEB70/0/06ONLINE_report.pdf>: “Satisfaction with learning has been associated with student success”. A third attempt was made by the Leonardo project <IMPACT> <link to project website>, which performed a series of randomized controlled trials using questionnaires and statistical analyses as research instruments to find answers to these and other questions related to the impact of new media and ICT on distance learning students. Around 50% of the more than 360 respondents agreed that university degrees awarded by open universities compare to degrees from traditional campus universities. However, especially in the control group, which was composed of 180 students who had no distance learning experience, a great deal of uncertainty existed (more than 42%) about this question. In the intervention group, which just included people with distance study experiences, much less uncertainty can be observed about this thesis, while the level of agreement is about twice as high as in the control group. This results corresponds to Ellis’ finding that “experience in distance learning is a predictor of satisfaction with the constructs of instruction, membership, technology and course management”. With respect to the quality of learning outcomes at open universities as opposed to campus universities, our research found similar judgements as for the degree question . In both groups the level of uncertainty was high on this question.

The IMPACT International Conference will take place in Rome.  This will take place on the 19th September 2008.  The address is Aula 36, Piazza della Repubblica 10.

The speakers include Benedetto Vertecchi, Desmond Keegan, Bernd Krämer, Demitar Tokmakov, Christine Von Prummer, Francesco Agrusti, Gabor Kismihok and Joe Thompson.

PU research in this project was connected to the Impact of technology on learning in “traditional” elearning. E-learning is the provision of education and training via the WWW for students who study mainly as individuals using LMSs (or VLEs) like WebCT and Blackboard.

Our research questions was:

1.      How does exposure to and use of ICTs in the learning process affect present and future employment?

1. What is the impact of learning methodology used in learners’ achievement and motivation?
2. What is the impact of ICTs in education/training on access, use of, attitudes toward, and learning outcomes?
3. How can ICTs be used to present, comment on and discuss learners’ performance, and what are the implications of such impact?
4. Are some subjects better suited for ICT integration than others?

The profile of our responders shows that we obtained a good representation of age (88,2% to 40 years, actively working people), gender (half male, half female) and personal background (if we have in mind, that we investigate the role of ICT for educational purposes and students could be actively working people), of the population engaged in e-learning activities.

Analysis of the results show that the target population pointed an importance to all the opportunities that ICT offered.

Presented results show that responders in our sample held a fairly positive view of the different advantages that ICT can bring to learning and education. However, this positive view of ICT was accompanied by a rather positive attitude towards learning with traditional education methods. A closer inspection of the answers on the individual questions reveals that the responders were especially interested in the use of ICT for purposes of information exchange, if ICT is to be used in an educational context, our responders specifically expressed doubts about the quality of the human interaction when there is no face-to-face contact.

The responders think it important to use ICT in order to develop skills for the future employment such as performing tasks, teamwork, problem solving, self-learning capability, presentation skills, etc. Our population has a positive perception of the different advantages ICT can bring to learning and education. They think that using the new technology – new methods like performance-centered approach, new devices such mobile phones and PDA, is an alternative to the traditional methods for learning and teaching.

The impact of new technologies on distance learning students

Rationale

It is known that the United States of America spends many billions of dollars annually on the provision of educational technology to American schools, colleges and universities. All the 27 Departments of Education in the European Union in like manner spend millions of euros each year on the provision of educational technology.

In the light of this massive expenditure the research on the impact of technology on learning, what actually happens when students use technology in their education, is inadequate.

As recently as 2005 the World Bank declared ‘It is generally believed that ICTs can empower teachers and learners, promote change and foster the development of ‘21st century skills, but data to support these beliefs are still limited. There is widespread belief that ICTs can and will empower teachers and learners, transforming teaching and learning processes from being highly teacher-dominated to student-centered, and that this transformation will result in increased learning gains for students, creating and allowing for opportunities for learners to develop their creativity, problem-solving abilities, informational reasoning skills, communication skills, and other higher-order thinking skills. However, there are currently very limited, unequivocally compelling data to support this belief.’ (The World Bank Impact of ICTs on learning and achievement).

A detailed search of the literature shows that what research there is, is nearly all on the impact of technology on children in schools. There is little or nothing on adult education, on lifelong learning or on distance learning. The research situation is unacceptable in an area that is costing European governments millions of euros annually.

Methodology

Because of the criticisms of the World Bank and other authorities on the lack of quality of the existing research great care was taken in the choice of methodology for this study.

The methodology to be used in the project is based on the Identifying and implementing educational practices supported by rigorous evidence of the US Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences of December 2003, probably the most recent and most authoritative educational research methodology available at present.

Progress

The work of the project is well under way. Seven investigations are being carried out on:

• The impact of technology on learning in Open Universities
• The impact of technology on learning in e-learning systems
• The impact of technology on learning in synchronous virtual classroom systems
• The impact of technology on learning in the use of the WWW on-campus
• The impact of technology on learning in mobile learning
• The impact of technology on learning by men and women
• The impact of technology on learning by the young and the old.

Questionnaires have been designed and distributed to students and citizens. Data is being collected, statistics are being analysed and reports are being written. The completed reports will be distributed widely, both on paper and the WWW.

To follow the research and for further information, please go to www.ericsson.com/impact.