Mobile Learner Support

Since we’re now in the process of monitoring and reviewing the uptake and feedback on the latest mobile optimisation work, I’ve had a few queries now from colleagues, and so the following may be of wider interest:

Initially we had a need to move to a more systematic approach to obtaining data and making it meaningful to provide trends and insight. The OU has been monitoring mobile usage of the main StudentHome portal since 2006, and kudos to Steve Bannister in our IT team who has kept this up to date with new devices coming on to the market. However, with the more recent addition of a range of tablet devices we also needed a more granular look at handheld mobile devices and the newer tablets to better inform future approaches.

To move away from the high degree of custom queries and ‘hand-cranking’ on this, the OU has been working most recently with comScore on Digital Analytics (DAx). This area has historically been more within the purview of our communications, marketing and public-engagement teams, but it was deemed timely to have a consistent mechanism to house all pertinent records (including prior VLE reporting) in a data warehouse approach and then interrogate in a consistent way (and with consistent rules and calculations in place).

Of course the needs of what is now Learning Analytics are different from tracking the success of a campaign, time onsite, bounce and click-through conversions, rates and patterns – but there are similarities. So in the interests of preparing for more targetted queries, we needed to compare some of the top-level data.

With this in mind, the DAx framework (and device-specific granularity) has been applied to the different learning system platforms and comparisons made against prior calculations to establish confidence and robustness before iterating further. The most recent quarterly picture of mobile adoption is shown below (old method):

The more recent DAx approach to trending mobile device access overall is illustrated as well:

Looking at the new VLE2 on Moodle 2.x, we see a reasonably balanced picture with regard to handheld/tablet usage, albeit with smaller proportions of BlackBerry users:

The now legacy VLE1 on Moodle 1.9 showed much more prevalent iPad usage over the same period:

In addition, we took a snapshot in July to see how the distribution panned out across live modules and observed some peaks that can be explained partly by:

• Residential schools giving rise to more access on-the-go
• Some reference to mobile use in the workplace or as part of the curriculum, leading to possibly a more mobile-savvy constituency
• Past reference to access via mobile, while not as yet officially promoted nor supported.

In conclusion, this is very much an ongoing test case, with the longer-term aim of providing more drill-down granularity to compare device usage within queries on the use of resources and activities – and also how much active contribution comes back from the students.

The charts shown here were originally prepared for the 1st Moodle Research conference and for a poster session, including a handout.

It’s been a while since the last official project post following the completion of development work [and a number of new initiatives and work have taken over of late - not least planning curriculum usage of Google Apps integration, and finding a Realtime Collaboration solution for 2013 onwards]. With this in mind, a few points have crystallised following presentations, attendance and discussion with folks at a number of events in the first quarter of 2012.

Firstly, the decision and ongoing driver for the Mobile Web: the OU is not promoting this approach on the grounds of cost savings in development and maintenance, but more so that we can provide a mobile entry point in a space where our students may be bringing a whole range of personal technology to bear. We cannot continue with a lowest common denominator approach however [and this isn't sensible for mobile web browsing approaches generally]. The aim is to provide legacy devices with simpler HTML browsers at least the capability to view their progress – read-only. While some folks want a breakdown of what device can do what, I hope that the more generic support materials, coupled with peer support for specifics will address this longer-term. [See also the range of features I outlined previously].

Secondly is the approach taken to support distance learning on mobiles: from looking at a number of different (and some app-based) approaches, I really feel that the OU is distinctive in this area due to our differing needs and experience. Where discrete resources and small-scale activities may suit courses where a lot can be mediated (or overcome) face-to-face – we need much more narrative, signposting and in the cases of open-access students in their first years, scaffolding.
I’m not saying that we do this consistently across our whole online offering – but few others seem to provide a week-by-week or block-by-block online navigation path through a learning journey. Few also manage, by design, to direct and blend differing activities – a lot of successful approaches externally seem to have worked despite the interface or as workarounds to LMS/VLE models.

Thirdly – the ubiquity of mobile connectivity: although this could be characterised by the position favoured by Google and others, the current reality is still that good, consistent mobile connectivity is patchy. Apple and other folks more geared to the higher-quality print or media production equivalents see the blend more as an offline approach with online benefits. I’m not personally persuaded overly by either arguments [particularly since I was happy in the driver away from 'sideloading' to 'over-the-air'], but perhaps the aim towards convergence in this space as well as others in the history of mobile technology will prove the best approach.
Engaging in online activities with some caching or offline backup in case connectivity drops can complement working on longer-form text or media connecting online as required for collaboration or groupwork for example. While the OU has a larger investment in learning & teaching support than mobile services, and mobile web rather than mobile apps at present – we still see an approach for a native ‘shell’ app incorporating some caching, and simpler access to services in the mix for the future.

Finally, the inclusion of real collaboration in a mobile space: in a similar way to the whole ‘learning styles’ debate and inaccurate mentions by some commercial companies [i.e. that people only have one favoured style - rather than related to context], the use of ‘collaboration’ can be misused [i.e. an activity constructed so that it is the differing individual contributions to the whole that end up with an outcome impossible to achieve alone]. A lot of what is talked about in this space is really just group cooperation or discussion using more advanced tools.
I do welcome the increasing possibilities to include rich media in discussions so that more time can be given over to analysis and reflection rather than just description of fieldwork/practice-based work (as an example). On testing the water for collaborative support however, the most widespread approach seems to be activities supported by Google Apps toolset in particular – much improved by the mobile interfaces refined of late. Bespoke apps of course also have a place, but then you need to stitch these together [and provide alternates, arrange for bulk-buy/education discount??].
I don’t think we have an answer here yet by any means – it’s good to see work that bridges the physical world with online (e.g. QR codes at the simpler end, Augmented Reality at the more complex) to make the connections in this process easier/better. The challenge is to find meaningful learning outcomes appropriate for HE, and at scale, as well as some of the great work already explored at school level.

Informing this set of reflections have been the large number of discussions and contributions from colleagues at a number of recent events, including: BETT 2012, LWF12, OU Learn About Fair, Apple Mobility in HE seminar [to be followed by similar webinars on 2nd May & 5th May I suspect], London Knowledge Lab “What the research says” events, SCORE OER Open Education sessions, Blackboard Teaching & Learning conference [EU]. Internal sessions continue as well of course, although these have been largely informal – allowing more for catchup/coordination. It’s also good to be involved in more faculty staff development with IET in this area, and I still hope to get more granular learning analytics on existing use of mobiles by our students.

Complementing this period of reflection have been yet more advances in OU provision in the mobile space – particularly in public engagement and informal learning opportunities. More of our apps have been ported to Android, further prototyping has taken place with interactive iBooks and more recently iTunes U Courses. Most recently, the guidance on use of mobiles is starting to be made available in advance of promoting our offering more officially to students.

I’m currently in the process of specifying what has received broad support in principle and perhaps is proving difficult to articulate in formal documentation, so I’m putting this out as background. Perhaps of wider interest to colleagues attempting something similar?

Short version: simple support microsite shell structure needed that reduces number of clicks/taps by embedding rather than crosslinking into other site hierarchy. Content hosted in other areas. Mobile optimised, using key generic guidance, self-help and peer support for specifics. Community self-sustaining via forums.

Given that the OU is a large organisation, one thing we’re told we do well is student support, whether mediated face-to-face, over the phone or via the numerous websites and detailed ‘how-to’ guides, we try to cater for all types within our student body. The case becomes stronger of course when introducing something new.

One of the drawbacks of this is that there are then many different teams or siloed parts of the organisation that provide material, some so similar as to duplicate content and/or purpose. There has been a good effort to centralise core advice so that yet further (dated) versioning doesn’t creep in at a subject level. Immediate colleagues and myself have probably been a little bit closer to this diversity than the average member of staff or student, most recently in my case for building up Google Apps at the OU.

What I’ve aimed for in the past is a good level of interconnectivity and crosslinking between resources and better delineating where something fits in the spectrum of support. From a mobile user experience point of view, the ‘transaction cost’ of clicking (or tapping) through to multiple websites is an additional key issue for some, not least due to timely download and impact on data allowances and cost for some larger website templates. Of course things should ‘just work’ on mobile too, and where possible should be convergent (or aggregated).

Coupled with the ‘standard’ support aspects of introducing a new tool or method of access is how much can be provided by the OU – generically, and how much needs to be customised, not just by use case but sometimes by platforms/devices. This is why it would be helpful to respond to the student survey that indicated that a degree of self-help and peer support would be possible to add in to the mix for mobile.

So… from what I’ve been able to evaluate, we need a microsite – basically a shell that:

• hangs off whatever new top-level mobile access point we have
• is optimised for mobile web delivery
• includes key information (particularly for novices) on cost, roaming etc.
• covers specific OU official, generic guidance
• provides for self-help approaches via an existing help and FAQ system
• connects other mobile learners to discuss and help with device specifics from a peer-to-peer standpoint
• is ready before wider publicity and release of new mobile options (!)
• once established, can self-sustain to continue to be current and responsive with minor structural changes/upkeep

Unfortunately the OU doesn’t (yet) have a single technology that will allow for the range of activity outlined, drawing in multiple sources while providing a community or peer-support angle. The range of content or guidance is fairly simple and can be allocated or to some existing areas (my crude characterisation below):

• Key information to know: mobile data costs, travelling abroad (roaming), use of WiFi, apps & mobile/desktop web [ PC4Study - context & rationale]
• Official support for: Mobile VLE view of course materials, use of eBooks, audiovisuals, interactives [ Online Computing Guide - feature list & 'how-to' ]
• Self-help for common queries and generic advice [ Help & FAQs ]
• Peer support for device-specifics, escalating key requirements [ VLE forums ]

In all of this it’s not really where some of these features are located, more that there is a good, easily accessible overview rather than relying on search coverage and accurate queries/metadata. Contextual help will also be available of course, though slightly different from the popups and ‘tooltips’ used on desktops.

Whether this is a microsite, shell, launchpad or whatever I’d hope that for mobile support at least we can improve on a site that just links off left, right and centre. Embedding, feeding and consuming web services would be ideal in this scenario.

I’ll keep you posted as to how we get on!

The last two days provided a useful opportunity for members of the OU Mobile Learner Support/Mobile Learning community to see what new work is planned and underway across the university. More importantly I feel though is that this was also a good opportunity for folk less familiar with work in this area to see that this isn’t a niche activity any longer, and that much of the work underway will be for the benefit of a mainstream audience.

Thanks go to Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Daisy Mwanza-Simwami and the team in the Institute of Educational Technology for pulling the event together, and hopefully new project information will make its way soon to http://www.open.ac.uk/mobisite

Project stands included many areas with online resources to follow up, listed on Cloudworks at http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/4967

From the perspective of institutional support, it was great to be able to say that real inroads are being made into providing updates to more mobile-friendly learning and public-facing sites using Moodle and Drupal respectively. For the Mobile VLE in particular, some concept screenshots from the recent usability-tested wireframes were also on show:

At the same time, we could also relate that in December 2010, student mobile usage had now increased (possibly somewhat due to exam results time) to ~19.2K individual accesses to StudentHome via handheld devices (about 10% of students online that month) and ~9.3K mobile users of the [moodle] VLE.

The final update from this current round:

In addition to cross-unit discussions about the above projects and sub-projects – some for technical integration, some for knowledge-sharing as part of the Mobile Technologies Special Interest Group (SIG) or the eLearning Community programme of events from Sept 09, there are many other activities underway:

Emulators – to aid those staff who don’t have access to devices themselves for exploration, the Digilab ‘mobile zone’ equipment has been updated, and the Mac and PC desktops have also been supplemented with device/browser emulators or simulators for newer devices including Apple iPhone/iPod Touch, Google Android, Palm Pre, in addition to older Microsoft Windows Mobile 6, Sun Java Mobile and the OperaMini demos [also available online via http://operamini.com/demo ]

Knowledge-sharing sessions – an ongoing programme of activities include mobile themes, presentations and seminars. These include the eLearning Community and the Mobile Technologies SIG as well as IET Technology coffee mornings and other Faculty and Programme-initiated seminars and symposia. There is also interest in improving the online presence available to staff interested in Mobile Learning, but until this is specified and agreed further, a co-created list of teaching and learning projects is also available for updating.

Staff briefings – most recently there are two briefings that provide an update and overview of mobile learner support coordination of teaching and learning activities and LIO projects, given as part of the above knowledge-sharing sessions: IET and eLC.
Ongoing briefings are also being conducted as part of the Digilab facilities, where ‘Digibytes’ and ‘Digiquests’ can be followed, by consultation with the staff: http://digilab.open.ac.uk

Cross-faculty consultation – commencing September 2009, there will be broader consultation via a group established by LIO, complemented by further interaction with course managers and teaching and learning staff in each unit. Building on this will be a series of activities to better coordinate information on any ongoing teaching and learning projects that are relevant to mobile learner support. While the main thrust of activity will be to improve communication and networking, the activities will also be an opportunity to feed back new areas of innovative practice and models for e-learning (and m-learning) for wider dissemination and to LIO. Evaluating new MobileVLE designs and small-scale student trial coordination is also expected to be part of the ongoing work in this area.

IET EPD and forward planning – although there was no Educational and Professional development programme for mobile learning this year, IET have released Teaching & Learning guide on Mobile Learning by Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and Anna Page.
The intention for 2009/2010 currently is to build on the consultation outlined above by working with course teams not only to explore which elements of current provision are most appropriate to mobile learning, but also to establish ‘microchunked’ course materials and activities lending themselves best to mobile learning. There is also currently interest in further investigating mobile usability with an educational focus, the facilities within the Jennie Lee Labs being ideal for conducting focus group investigations and establishing mobile learning journals among other activities.

Copying the message sent out to Strategy-Mlearn-List mail list earlier:

I have been in consultation with a number of smaller groups of interested parties, but would now appreciate if you are able to attend, or send representatives to a Mobile VLE stakeholder meeting on 19th March 2009, 1-3PM, Library Presentation Room. Coffee and cake provided.

This meeting would be most appropriate for colleagues involved in usability and learning design for courses, those implementing course sites and colleagues who receive regular feedback from students as to online course provision.

We will be working in conjunction with the Integrated Online Experience project looking at design and usability of the VLE. We need to have a vision on what appropriate VLE services should be highlighted (and most easily accessible) to users browsing with mobile technologies, and ideally how these can be structured, most likely around the study planner.

Looking to the future we also need to improve on interactions, not just browsing capabilities, and an additional aim will be to ensure that OU (formative) learning material can be packaged for use while mobile, even with intermittent connectivity.

Please confirm whether you can attend via the Learning-Innovation mailbox by Friday 6th March.

Recently, the MTech group conducted a device roundup to relate experiences in using particular mobile technologies.

Specifically, we looked at:

• Apple iPod Touch (and quick comparison with iPhone)
• Qtek 9100 – PDA/Smartphone
• Nokia N95 – Multimedia phone
• Asus EEE PC – Ultramobile PC/Sub-notebook

and there are some captured session feeds and notes available from: http://conclave.open.ac.uk/m-tech-group/index.php/Devices
This was also the first opportunity for us to try the KMi Podcast Directory currently in development, so you can also see a rough-cut of the devices used, with commentary at: http://podcast.open.ac.uk/podcast.php?id=34

A follow-up session is planned for 10th March in the Library Presentation room, where we hope to cover the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, Samsung Q1 ultramobile PC/tablet among others.

Before I become a full-time member of the VLE Programme next year, taking on more responsibilities, I wanted to make sure I had discussed and established a ‘position paper’ for future mobile learner support work. This will be available at: http://conclave.open.ac.uk/m-tech-group/index.php/M-learning_OU and I will return to this topic in January, and hope colleagues will be able to assist in further defining the scope and direction of the work.

A more contentious offering than normal I feel:

This weekend you may have missed the latest bit of scaremongering on the newsstands, but there is increased reporting on the so-called health risks of Wireless Technologies where there have been comparisons between WiFi hubs (those small low-power boxes more and more of us are getting) and large mobile phone transmission masts.

Today, it’s interesting to see that the BBC has come forward to balance the argument (even if it is commentary):
Wi-fi? Why worry? in rebuttal to Wi-Fi: Children at risk from ‘electronic smog’

Yet another case perhaps in finding science and research to help promote whatever agenda you like (following the trend of statistics there then). It will be interesting to see the results of the investigation and whether these will be conclusive.

Perhaps there is a link between the timing of this story and Switch on for Square Mile wi-fi, and of course Milton Keynes among other cities now has it’s own ‘britezone‘…

From an educator’s point of view it’s particularly worrying to see that schools have also promoted some of these worries – perhaps the lack of Physics teachers to inform on the differences in electromagnetic strengths is telling? Some of the debate started back at the end of last year – c.f. Wi-fi worry, Is there any proof that Wi-Fi networks can make you sick?

UPDATE: Unfortunately even the BBC is not consistent on this issue, as a later Panorama programme illustrates. The BBC has been roundly criticised (including on their own ‘Have your Say‘ area) for joining the scare-mongering tactics of the wider media.

Some interesting news and facts and figures coming out this month:

Mobile internet use ‘increasing’
Mobile Data Association
Text.it 

and also some crystal ball gazing… 

Mobiles navigate the future
Predictions for the mobile future