Review of M-Learning and Web 2.0 JISC Projects
Contents
Introduction and Background
Methodology
JISC Programmes
Enhancing Collaboration by Work Based Learners
Asynchronous approaches to work based learning
Innovations in Reflective Learning and Location-Aware Services
Transforming Learner and Teaching Practice Through Mobile Technology
Viewing the teaching space from a mobile device
QR Codes
Transforming the experience of Exchange students
E-Assessment and Feedback
Rapid Innovation in Higher Education
Micro Projects within the Realm of m-Learning
Enabling Inclusivity and Accessibility with the Aid of Mobile Devices
Conclusions
References
Author cited documents
Topic Pages:
Introduction and Background
The rapid development of mobile devices and their ubiquitous and pervasive nature has meant that, like many organisations, further and higher education has been able to utilise these recent, new and emerging technologies to enhance their operations. The potential for enhancements to student learning experiences and administrative processes are real and constantly evolving. These changes do have financial implications, and as with any process of change, ‘m-solutions’ need to be critically evaluated in the light of the experiences of a range of institutions, in order to be certain that any proposed changes are indeed a sustainable improvement.
The establishment of JISC (Joint Information Systems committee) in 2003 has helped enable the continued development of new and emerging technologies within further and higher education. The JISC committee has put in place numerous programmes which have facilitated the development of an array of projects within the further and higher education sector. These projects have had a majorimpact on the development of e-Learning within the post 16 sector.
Recent JISC programmes have been instrumental in providing funding for educational institutions to trial and develop m-learning and m-administration. Where the projects have been successful, further and higher education has become increasingly accessible and available to those that otherwise would be difficult to reach. Work based learners, learners undertaking fieldwork, people with disabilities, lone parents, exchange and international students through the numerous JISC programmes are now able to benefit from an educational experience that some ten years ago would have been extremely difficult to achieve.
The JISC programmes take place against a social and technological backdrop of rapid change. An ever-expandingarray of communication devices with increasing computational and interactive multi-media capacities, and in some areas significant cost reduction, means learners can expect an increasingly personalised learning experience – at least in terms of the methods they use to access learning resources.
Numerous studies have shown that mobile learning (be it through texting friends about class-times or audio recording lectures on an iPod) is happening regardless of whether institutions embrace it or not, as mobile technology is already embedded in the lives of many learners and teachers. Educational practices which make use of and enhance technologies that are already ubiquitous are to some ‘pushing at an open door’. A note of caution must be sounded however as the insensitive deployment of m-solutions can create problems, and these are explored in the review.
The UK education sector has been presented with significant challenges over the last decade and these are not likely to be solved with a ‘silver bullet’ technological approach. Changes in the global economic and environmental climate, and in the UK government, mean educational institutions will have to operate with significantly reduced budgets in the near future. Furthermore, the development of an ever increasing accessible, flexible and personalised learning experience does not always happen without impacting on other, often cherished, aspects of educational experience. Many institutions, of which the University of Bradford is a prime example, have also embraced the notion of sustainabledevelopment and mobile technology clearly has a role to play in this agenda, with its low levels of power-consumption when compared to a desktop PC.
This literature review forms part of the ‘Building Capacity’ at Bradford project, and in an attempt to prevent ‘re-inventing the wheel’, the review aims to provide a synthesisof projects which relate to m-Learning which have been funded by JISC, with a particular focus on the those funded since 2007.
Methodology
The aim of the literature review isinitially to identify and analyse JISC funded projects that relate to m-Learning. This analysis will then be used as a starting point for choosing which project ideas and tools would be sensible to implement as part of The University of Bradford’s m-learning strategy. This decision will be based on matching project findings with the University’s published corporate and learning goals in this area.
A simple spreadsheet was used to collateevidence detailing project findings, gleaned from the JISC website and the numerous projects’ own online resources and reports. This was supplemented by the expertise of the Building Capacity team at Bradford and a broader sweep of M-learning related literature.
Whilst researching the JISC database, keywords were used to identify funded m-learning projects includingmobile learning, m-learning, mobile devices, phones, handheld devices andportable devices. The reviewer then systematically analysed each project whilst noting details such as project title, description, institution, and topic within the spreadsheet. Additional columns were added to the spreadsheetduring the process to give more detail, including technology used, efficacy, and expected impact on strategic goals, barriers to success, outcomes and an overall score.
This document contains a digested summary of many of the projects accessible through this spreadsheet, along with reflections and conclusions that emerged from the review process. It was agreed that the reviewers would contribute to a blog ( which would aid the reflective learning process, and provide evidence of how the reviewer’s objective was to be achieved. This supplements the overall project’s blog ( and the project’s web-pages (
The literature review will provide a brief outline of relevant programmes and how they have facilitated the development of m-learning relevant projects. The review is looking at each project retrospectively, and therefore is able to formulate and identify projects which have had a significant impact within the realm of further and higher education (at least within the limited time-frame of the report).
JISC Programmes
JISC projects aim to benefit the UK post 16 sector through collaboration with educational institutions and the dissemination of outcomes within the wider community. This has enabled the education sector to continuously develop projects which have had successful outcomes and adopt and implement these ideas within their own institutions; further benefiting the UK education sector as a result. The philosophy of the e-Learning programme is therefore continuous and iterative.
The aims and objectives of the e-Learning programme are as follows:
- To identify the benefits of e-learning
- Give advice on its implementation
- Develop an improved understanding of the potential for digital technologies to support learning and teaching
- Consider the strategic implications of this
- Inform and support the the delivery of national policy in this area
Thinking of the e-Learning programme as the parentof m-learning is an analogy which supports the understanding of the JISC framework as a whole and how it relates to other programmes. As a hierarchy, the parent programme produces child programmes known as strands.
In 2007 JISC funded a range of projects that piloted the use of technology on higher education courses within further education as part of the e-learning Capital programme. This programme included a number of projects that address an element of m-learning. As an example, The WOLF project (Stone, 2009) aimed to better use mobile devices for work based learners. The study found that the implementation of mobile technology meant that students were increasingly engaged,enabling them to develop skills in reflective learning, and consequentlyimproved attendance, retention and collaboration.
For ease of reading and to place projects within the context of the JISC framework, the literature review has identified particular recurring themes, which form the following chapter headings. These do not always directly relate to specific JISC programmes, but in some instances there is a particular grouping. Clearly these title-themes are not absolute categories and a given project’s outcomes and conclusions could often apply to more than one section.
Enhancing Collaboration by Work Based Learners
The JISC HE in FE programme, 2007, funded numerous projects to investigate how technology could be implemented on higher education courses within further education. Research into m-Learning during this period oftenlooked at how mobile technology could better support personalised and collaborative learning. A number of illustrative examples are described below.
The UsPaCe-fd project, for example led by the University of Plymouth was a collaborative project which aimed to “support foundation degree students, both full-time and part-time, whilst undertaking work based learning” (McDermott & Witt, 2009). The project looked at ways in which activities could be assessed with mobile devices and with Web2.0 technologies for collaborative purposes, to promote the sharing of useful web pages via Del.icio.us, an online social bookmarking service.
The use of ELGG (an open source Social Networking platform) for the development of e-Portfolios and MediaWiki “allowed web pages to be created and edited collaboratively”. Other activities included the development of iGoogle gadgets to create a personalised learning experience; accessible with mobile technologies.
Anotherinteresting collaborative project wasKASTENET,carried out by Kingston University. This investigated the use of podcasting as a method of delivering feedback(Williams, 2009), HELPP which enhanced learner and student engagement through the use of online e-Portfolios, blogs and forums (Hoyland et al, 2009) and the WOLF project (Stone, 2009) led by Leicester College,which gave PDAs, already connected to the college’s Moodle system to thirty teaching assistants,who would normally rely on a notepad and pen for recording any personal development reflections within the hectic classroom context.
The JISC funded research which focused on m-Learning at this stagewas generally limited to investigative and comparative work within further education and work based environments. Initially, research undertook explorative workintomobile devices and how they could be applied in the varying work-based settings.
Asynchronous approaches to work based learning
Numerous approaches have been tried to non-real time feedback and communication between students and tutors, in different settings. Usually students will use a device or set of technologies within the context of the work-based setting.
A significant developmentin this area was the EPICS2 project. The project was a large scale North East regional collaboration led by Newcastle University. The project teamfocused on e-Portfolios, blogs, and social networking sites for use in work based learning. They developed an SMS service to update learners’ e-Portfolio blogs using the educational texting service JANET txt. Piloted by medical students the project developed an asynchronous approach which enabled offline working and thereby overcame their reliance on a live network (Cotterill et al, 2009). Medical settings have a number of ethical and practical considerations which make aspects of standard mobile communication, such as a real-time connection, problematic.
In another interesting project, Thames Valley University carried out a comparative study of paper-based as opposed to technology-based working by social workers. The study made use of REMORAmobile toolkits, to search for documents both on a remote and local server, to limit costs. A share tool to enable collaboration aswell as a diary for reflective learning and to gather evidence for assessments was also developed. At the time,networking capability was limited and this was overcome by using a USB, 3G dongle modem plugged into an Eee PC (a highly compact laptop). The study needed considerable administrative support due to the complexity of the placement process, which required both an academic, practice tutor and placement assessor. One of the key lessons learnt from the study was that “For mobile learning to be effective it is essential that end-users are given extensive opportunity to familiarise themselves with the basic ‘in-the-box’ functionality before being introduced to specific mobile learning applications.” (Oussena & Barn, 2009)
A further collaborative study carried out by the University of Glamorgan known as the WALES study assessed the use of mobile technology to enhance the learner experience and develop learner-teacher support for cohorts on HE courses in FE. The University developed a java-based application called MobiGlam which integrated into the popular open-sourceVLE Moodle and SNS (Social Networking Sites). The use of software aimed to add value to the learner support mix, enabling greater accessibility and flexibility,thereby facilitating a personalised learner environment. The technology demonstrated the use of SMS for notifying owner-learners following changes to their VLE and the use of MMS for accessing multimedia resources.
It was noted howeverthat numerous barriers were experienced during the pilot includingthe resistance of learners to using Facebook (an SNS of particular focus), learner’s lack of experience in using Web2.0 technologies and difficulties in integrating institutional technology with outsidetechnology. The study found “that mobile technologies are developing at a rapid rate, and that the MobiGlam system needs to be developed in parallel, and in negotiation with service providers, to remain both compatible and optimised” (Toole, 2009). The study also recognised that “work based learners have to fit their learning around their work and that anything that aids in that process is valued” (Toole 2009). Interestingly, the study also noted that “work based learners are mature adults who do not use emerging technologies as readily as young learners and this creates barriers to their use in the learner support mix. It is anticipated that this will change in time but they are always likely to lag behind the early adopter of new technologies. This factor needs to be accounted for in the use of new technologies” (Toole 2009).
Innovations in Reflective Learning and Location-Aware Services
In 2008, JISC funded the REFLECT2.0 project, which was carried out by the University of Leeds, under theUsers and Innovation: Personalising Technologies Programme. Mobile phones were used to facilitate creative story telling amongst students. The students used their phones to take pictures of images that reflected their feelings, relating to an event or experience and then posted them on mediaBoard (see
for details).
The students engaged in this project did experience some problems with using the technology however, including “a personal preference for written reflective accounts” in assessments (high word-count is something that can be relatively difficult to achieve with mobile phones, without additional keyboard or writing apparatus). Learners also had to deal with a mobile device that was not their own – “students were frustrated by the technological limitations of the institutionally supplied T-Mobile 3G PDAs with cameras” (Frith, 2009). This last comment shows that an institution-wide implementation of an m-learning strategy should aim to provide services which cater to a broad spectrum of the types of devices available to students, and with a constant eye on those developments just around the corner – this is actually a cheaper option in terms of not having to provide as many hand-held devices to students or staff, but it does mean more focus is needed in resource development and deployment, to cater for the range of devices and learner/user contexts.
The REAChstudy, carried out by Manchester Metropolitan University,has integrated a mobile text messaging service and RSS feeds into their virtual learning environment. Teachers are able to make announcements through the VLE and students receive SMS messages on their phones, for example to notify of room changes and reminders of assignment deadlines. The technology built on was open-source, utilising a mix of Java technologies aswell as using EDUtxt as the messaging service provider.
As in other studies, cohorts in the REACh study had a mixed reaction towards the use of SNS (social networking sites) and the report also recommended an opt-out clause for SMS. The pilot limited SMS to important announcements to prevent student disengagement, however the study found that most students did not use RSS as a tool for news feeds and suggested the implications of the study were two-fold, firstly “SMS and RSS as a channel to students have the potential to be effective but is still only appealing to a small subset of the student population and that there is a need for further research across the UK” (Bird, 2009). Secondly, “without a clear strategy for introduction and monitoring, these services could easily proliferate across a single institution leading to confusion amongst staff and students.” This comment points to the situation within modern institutions of multiple technological solutions overlapping in the solutions they offer – while the many technological ‘solutions looking for a problem’ can of course bring many benefits, they can add to the administrative burden of both students and staff by being additional requirements rather than replacements for existing services. This is to say nothing of the financial implications of solution duplication. Furthermore, actually requiring students to use technology with steep learning curves and no clear benefit is likely to over-load and annoy them.