TAFE SA m-learning Learnscope project: October 2007

It's high time I updated you with the progress of our trial. I've been rolling along recording the screencasts of the lecturer demos in our Corel Draw class - gradually ironing out the technical issues. However, I've become a little less focussed on mobile learning as the broader eLearning strategy for our program is starting to take shape.

Towards the end of last term, we gave our Certificate IV in Applied Fashion Design & Technology students a simple eLearning survey. Primarily we were hoping to find out about their attitudes to both online and mobile learning. Our program has had little exposure to eLearning generally so we were anticipating that this information would help to shape our future direction in this area.

In an effort to actually get people to complete the survey, it was intentionally brief and simple. About seventy surveys went out and around forty came back, which is a decent enough sample from which we can draw some conclusions. The groups surveyed appeared to be quite indicative of our usual student demographic - Gen Y is predominant with a small proportion of Gen X and Baby Boomers (about 20%). Here’s the survey preamble:

“Dear student

We are currently looking at ways of enhancing our current classroom-based delivery by utilising eLearning in the delivery of our course content.

Firstly, we are looking at establishing an online ‘Fashion Hub’. This could contain general information for students, upcoming events, job opportunities, links, forums, and resource materials for download. Eventually, some units will also be available for on-line study.

We are also trailling the use of mobile learning (‘mLearning’). This involves having course content available for download to mobile devices and PC’s. Initially, we are recording screencasts (video with sound) of lecturer demonstrations in the computer-based units (Corel Draw, Style CAD etc.).

The recordings can be made available to students in a range of formats for playback on PC’s (as Quicktime movies) and video enabled mobile phones, iPods, portable media players, PDA’s etc. This would enable you to revise and review the demonstrations, both in class and at home.

We are also looking at recording selected lectures (particularly classes with guest lecturers) and having them available to students as podcasts (ie. audio only). The files would be available for download from the Fashion Hub or directly from a computer on campus (phone-based content can be distributed using Bluetooth on campus).”

Here’s the questions and the response data/comments:

1. Do you think that you would utilise an online Fashion Hub? If so, what type of information or content would you like to see included in the hub?
The response to this question was overwhelmingly positive with 96% thinking it would be a good thing. The students also came up with some great suggestions about what they’d like to see on the hub/delivery platform.

2. Do you think having audio/video content available for download and viewing on a PC would assist your learning? If so, in what way?
92% said yes to this. Again there were many comments but the most common observation was that it would be very useful way to recap or catch up on a lesson. A number of students observed that it would be useful both in class and at home.

3. Do you think having audio/video content available for download to a mobile device would assist your learning? If so, in what way?
The responses to this question were less emphatic, consisting of 48% yes, 42% no and 10% inbetweenies. Here some examples of the comments:
“Yes, because it would make it 100% accessible and would be very helpful.”
“Yes, because you can move around, pause and play at a more convenient time.”
“Yes, more access to info in my own time and more accessible to each student.”
“If I had the mobile device, yes. Eg. I could review while waiting (for a bus, for ……) or at home/whenever I am not doing something else eg. lunchtime at work.”
“I think it would help but everyone may not have a mobile that could play video, especially if they are long as some have limited memory. Also could have weak quality.”
“Yes, I prefer visual instructions over written theory.”
“Yes, it will make demo’s/catching up a lot easier/quicker.”
“Good idea. It’ll help make learning more independent.”
“Yes, can review in own time allowing for work/family commitments
“No. It would be annoying”
“I think using mobiles would be a waste of time”
“Spend the money on things we actually need”
“Nah – too expensive for me”

4. Do you have a mobile device that plays video (eg. mobile phone, video iPod etc.)? If so, which device/s.
52% said yes. Mobile phones were the most common, but there were a number of iPods, a PSP and a Blackberry. No Palms, of course – they are just soooo GenX!

5. Do you have a mobile device that plays mp3 audio?
63% said yes to this.

Any other comments?
As is often the case with surveys, there weren’t a lot of additional comments. The most interesting comment was one suggesting that we should forget about all this and use the money to paint our workshops! One student also expressed concern that we’d be phasing out lecturers….

Conclusions
Whilst I think that there is certainly a place for mLearning in our program, it’s fairly clear from the overall responses that our students were not wildly enthusiastic about having content available on mobile devices. They do however, like the idea of being able to review and revise what they’re taught in the classroom and they want to have easy and timely access to information – they just prefer to do it through their computer, not their mobile device.

The results of this survey have helped to solidify an eLearning direction for our program. For me personally, this project started out as an opportunity to learn about and play around with some technology that interested me. Through the process of exploring that technology I’ve been exposed to a wider variety of innovative eLearning practices – some of which I’m hoping to incorporate into our program.

To that end, we’ve taken our first eLearning steps by establishing a Moodle site and have began adapting our existing resources for inclusion on the site. I envisage mobile content being an important part of the resource tapestry that we’ll make available to our students in an online environment.