Mobile Learning Design

By Mark Sivy

The use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has greatly increased the past few years. More people are now accessing learning content via their favored piece of portable tech…assuming that the content is mobile ready. Preparing content and resources to include mobile learning requires specialized responsive design practices such as:

• Should be specifically designed to be visible and interactive on a variety of devices.
• Addresses immediate personal learning needs – concise and on-demand.
• Allows for content retrieval that is self-directed and self-paced.
• Empowers the learner to take more responsibility for their learning.
• Facilitates immediate learner collaboration and communication.

Development

The development of mobile learning requires the consideration of multiple points. So for starters, a general recommendation that can be applied at all levels is to Keep It Simple. Overall, the design should be clean, easy to navigate, and ubiquitously functional. Remember mobile learning is NOT about adapting or squeezing entire e-learning courses for delivery to a mobile device, but is more about just-in-time or chunked information. The design and development needs to be originally created for mobile learning, and every learning situation is unique.

Considerations

Before getting into specifics, here are some overarching considerations to get you thinking:

• Know the digital devices the learners will be using. What operating systems will be used? Will the content stream through wireless or mobile services? What size screens do the devices have?
• Know the recipients of the content. Will they be teenagers, young adults, or adults? What languages do they speak? Are they full-time learners or employees? Are there any accessibility considerations?
• Know your development tools and formats. Will the content be text, audio, or video? What screen orientation will be used? Will Flash or HTML5 be used and how? Are your development technologies supportive of mobile device content?
• Know the subject matter and how it is best presented. How interactive should it be? What learning theories will be applied? How can it be chunked for mobile learning? What strategies will be used to present and connect the chunks into a course learning sequence?

Now getting down to the nitty gritty, there are several developmental elements that need to be considered. Next you will find these elements and some associated points for each.

The Learner

• Hold each learning segment to a maximum of 10 minutes.
• Keep scrolling to a minimum.
• Try to avoid external links, but notify the learners if you use them.
• If you quiz, keep questions and responses short.
• Consider how the learner will input or interact with the device.
• Involve learners in development and usability testing.

The Technology

• The interface should be simple and intuitive.
• Try to use formats that are cross-compatible with multiple devices.
• If a specific device will be used (i.e., iPad or Chromebook), then research and design accordingly.
• Be considerate of bandwidth limitations.
• Optimize audio and video files or files that will be downloaded.

The Visual Design

• Use a white background
• Keep the visuals and font clean and simple
• Use images instead of descriptive text when possible
• Don’t use text in images
• Apply bold and strong visuals
• Keep font no less than 12pt
• Use large, well-place buttons

The Content Design

• Keep text focused, relevant, and minimalistic.
• Be creative.
• Apply appropriate learning theories and guidelines.
• Use an agile learning development process combined with an instructional systems design approach such as ADDIE.
• Have developers and learners preview the design.

Reflection Point – “One training event is not sufficient for people to transfer learning to new situations. If you are seeking strong retention and learning transfer, people need distributed learning and performance support.” ~ Connie Malamed

Online Teaching and Learning in Practice

Online Teaching and Learning (OTL) Framework

by Mark Sivy

The current global academic arena is being shaped and led by innovation and online courses, MOOCS, certifications and degrees. Learners, whether young adults who are full-time learners or working adults fitting courses into their busy schedules, are demanding and benefiting from on-demand access to online education. Developing a robust OTL program enables higher education institutions to be competitive, to meet learner demands for online content and collaborative learning, and to address SME and industry needs for employees to have a working knowledge of online learning and operations.

Program stakeholders need to realize that a new OTL initiative will take a few years to gain momentum, but once that occurs, rapid growth and development will follow. The following is a summary of the necessary considerations for strategically planning and developing a successful OTL program. Not all items must be implemented in association with the faculty development, but they will be to occur early in the deployment of OTL.

Elements That Facilitate Effective OTL Practices:

1. Infrastructure
2. Support
3. Learner Fulfillment
4. Faculty Approval
5. Learning Outcomes
6. Cost Effectiveness

Infrastructure

To ensure success, the technical, administrative and instructional foundations for an OTL program should be strategically planned to be sustainable and scalable. Common technical aspects include servers and database capacities, load analyses, student information systems, a learning management system, end-user devices, and bandwidth. Administrative backing in areas such as providing financial resources and staff, policy, advising, online library access, and learning object repositories.

Support

Multiple areas of support will be needed. This will involve help desk support for students, professional development and training for faculty, and technical support and maintenance for systems. Very often with a start-up program, support is provided by faculty, teaching assistants and user communities, but this should be supplemented and eventually replaced by institutional support facilities.

Solid support services can make all the difference between program success and failure

Learner Fulfillment

Online learners prefer and need responsive and individualized services. This includes not only the learning management system and faculty, but also areas such as advising, registration and tutoring. Effective and frequent communication is a premium in OTL, and thus the learning environment should sustain high levels of communication, social interaction, and collaboration. Student surveys and needs assessments should be performed on a regular basis.

Faculty Approval

At the core of a successful OTL program are the faculty. They should be involved in the program building process from the very beginning. Input surveys identifying faculty needs, learning needs, and technological needs should be implemented. Marketing of the OTL program should begin early, showing the benefits and advantage of how OTL can enhance instruction and the academy. It is also vital to host faculty forums, create faculty focus groups, form communities of practice, and identify faculty champions. A grassroots faculty advancement of OTL is likely to have a much higher degree of buy-in and success than a program that is a top-down initiative. With that said, administrators should acknowledge that OTL can be more time consuming for the faculty than in-person courses.

Learning Outcomes

It’s essential that both students and faculty feel that the quality of OTL is on par with face-to-face learning. If done well, OTL can exceed traditional classroom outcomes. This can lead to better enrollment, retention and graduation rates.

Cost Effectiveness

A well-planned and supported OTL program can increase financial, infrastructure and human resource effectiveness, thus reducing overall costs.

Reflection Point – “The challenge is not simply to incorporate learning technologies into current institutional approaches, but rather to change our fundamental views about effective teaching and learning and to use technology to do so.” ~Donald Hanna

Online Learning Part 2

Online Learning Part 2 – How Did Online Learning Come to Be?

by Mark Sivy

In tracing the roots of online learning, it is first necessary to put forth a basic understanding of what sets online learning apart from other forms of learning. For the purpose of this article, online learning is learning that takes place via the Internet when there is a lack of physical presence between the learner and instructor due to geographic separation. Given this perspective, evidence of learning at-a-distance is seen in a 1728 advertisement for a Boston mail-based correspondence course for learning shorthand. Recognized formal education at-a-distance can be found as early as 1858 at the University of London and in 1873 through the Society to Encourage Studies at Home in Boston. Early forms of technology-enhanced distance learning are found in the early 1900s with the use of new technologies such as the radio, slide projector, and motion picture. Starting in the 1940s, television provided another medium for distance learning. The first noted use of computers that formed an organized and connected system of learning was PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) in 1960 at the University of Illinois. With the conception of the World Wide Web in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee and it being made publicly available in 1993, modern forms of online education began developing.

Today’s online learning occurs through the use of digital devices such as personal computers, laptops, tablets, or mobile phones that are connected to educational content, events, and activities via the Internet. Depending upon personal choices, needs, and resource availability, web-based learning is available in a variety of formats from instructor-led massive open online courses (MOOCs) to self-paced personalized web-based tutorials. Online learning usually involves gaining access to rich learning environments, experiences, and events which might otherwise not be possible in a typical classroom.

At the level of primary grades, online learning is usually limited to teacher-led activities in the classroom or parent-monitored web-based activities at home. At the secondary level, online learning options become more varied and with increased individual access. For higher education and adult education, learners typically have open access to a variety of digital technologies which allow full access and use of web-based learning resources.

Today online learning is often and incorrectly, used interchangeably with e-learning. In actuality online learning is a subset of e-learning, which actually encompasses all forms of teaching and learning through the use of educational technologies whether via the Internet, a network, or a standalone system. This broad expanse of e-learning includes multimedia learning, computer-based training (CBT), virtual learning environments, and mobile learning.

In summary, online learning involves achieving intended learning outcomes using a digital device that has access to web-based educational content, resources, events, and activities.

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” ~W. B. Yeats

Online Learning Part 1

Online Learning Part 1 – Internet Trends

by Mark Sivy

The use of the Internet for purposes of communication, information, and online learning has experienced rapid growth during the past two decades. The 2013 Pew Internet Use Survey results show that over 86% of all adults (18+ years of age) in the United States are connected to the Internet, whereas in 1995 it was 14%. The Miniwatts Marketing Group maintains global Internet usage statistics, which indicated in June 2012 that over 34% of the global population were connected to the Internet and that this indicated a 566% increase since 2000.

The point made by this Internet usage information is that the path is for the broad use of the Internet as an education conduit for online learning is widening. In a 2012 global Internet user survey by the Internet Society, 98% of the participants agreed that the Internet is essential for access to education and knowledge.

Evidence indicates that the use of the Internet for online learning is steadily increasing and has seen the fastest growth in higher education. An August 2011 Pew Research Center survey, The Digital Revolution and Higher Education, found that 77% of colleges and 89% of four-year universities of offer online courses. Also reflecting this growth in online courses is a Sloan Consortium /Babson Survey Research Group report, Grade Change: Tracking Online Education in the United States, 2013, which found that over 7.1 million higher education students (33.5%) took at least one online course in the Fall 2013 term. In terms of fully online higher education institutions, the Online Education Database organization currently contains reviews of over 1847 higher education schools in the US that offer online courses.

In the K-12 setting, there has also been a rapid increase in the use of online courses and resources. There is an increasing emphasis on online and blended courses and online learning systems, such as found in the National Education Technology Plan, released by the U.S. Department of Education in 2010. A Project Tomorrow survey report, Learning in the 21^st Century: 2011 Trends Update, found that three times as many high school students and twice as many middle school students are learning online as compared to the original 2007 report. It was also noted that in 2011, 27% of all high school students took at least on class online. In Project Tomorrow’s 2013 Trends in Online Learning Virtual, Blended and Flipped Classrooms, it is reported that 43% of US school districts offer access to online courses. In iNACOL’s 2013 Fast Facts About Online Learningstates that five states – Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Virginia, and Michigan – require online learning for students in the public schools. According to the Evergreen Education Group’s 2013 Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning Report, 26 states have state-led virtual schools, 24 states have blended schools, 30 states have fully online schools, and the number of private online learning options is increasing.

Reflection Point – The next big killer application on the Internet is going to be education. ~John Chambers

 

International ICT Education Trend

Extending the Reach of High Quality P-12 Education through ICT: An International Trend

by Mark Sivy

Realizing that a well-educated populace is essential for boosting national prosperity and competitiveness in an international economy, top-level education departments and ministries around the world are now focused on ensuring that their P-12 curricula and instruction are adjusted to modern standards. This task involves ensuring that learners have the specific skills, literacies, knowledge, and expertise that will ensure their success in the global marketplace. A crucial piece in accomplishing this, both in terms of learning outcomes and instructional delivery, is ICT (Information, Communications and Technology).

As a driver of learning outcomes, ICT has played an important role in the development of new international curricular strategies. The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills has been at the forefront of providing a basis for the remodeling and modernization of teaching, learning and curriculum, with ICT being a significant consideration. Even though established as a US K-12 education initiative, the organization’s recommendations have global relevance and implications. One of the major categories found within the Partnership’s renowned publication, P21 Framework Definitions document, was created in response to the fact that we live in a global environment that is infused with and dependent upon technology and media. This portion of the document offers the following guidelines for the knowledge, skills, and expertise that student should possess as a result of the learning process:

Information Literacy

• Access and Evaluate Information
  • Access information efficiently (time) and effectively (sources)
  • Evaluate information critically and competently
• Use and Manage Information
  • Use information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem at hand
  • Manage the flow of information from a wide variety of sources
  • Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information

Media Literacy

• Analyze Media
  • Understand both how and why media messages are constructed, and for what purposes
  • Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors
  • Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of media
• Create Media Products
  • Understand and utilize the most appropriate media creation tools, characteristics and conventions
  • Understand and effectively utilize the most appropriate expressions and interpretations in diverse, multicultural environments

ICT Literacy

• Apply Technology Effectively
  • Use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information
  • Use digital technologies (computers, PDAs, media players, GPS, etc.), communication/networking tools and social networks appropriately to access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information to successfully function in a knowledge economy
  • Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information technologies

As a medium for instructional delivery, ICT plays another significant role in the modernization of international education systems. One of the challenges in many countries has been the provision of a quality and equal education to all children regardless of their circumstances. Around the world, ICT infrastructures are being updated and expanded to provide Internet access to both urban and rural destinations and recipients. Additionally, these schools and learners are being provided with devices to receive educational web content that has been specifically designed and developed by subject matter experts, master teachers, and instructional designers who are highly specialized in e-learning and the variety of learning devices. Of particular interest and development are mobile learning, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), and other one-to-one initiatives. These will be examined in future posts.

Reflection Point – M-learning is the intersection of mobile computing and e-learning, that includes anytime, anywhere resources; strong search capabilities; rich interaction; powerful support for effective learning; and performance-based assessment. ~Clark Quinn