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.

Having completed a talk on a range of mobile-related topics and work delivered, underway or in the proposal stages at the OU – for the IET Technology Coffee Morning series – here’s a slightly amended replay to incorporate demos and overlay prompt slides.

Since chaptering the podcast feed isn’t working as I’d hoped, please use the timecodes below to help find something of specific interest ['scrub' around using the playhead/slider below the video]
UPDATE: The timecodes below are also now hyperlinked to the appropriate segment on the IET YouTube channel as an alternate:
00:01:40 Overview
00:03:27 Student Usage [incl. background/context]
00:16:13 Student survey ’09
00:19:57 Mobile VLE beta [VLE1 on Moodle 1.9 - current, incl. staff demo via goo.gl/TMcPF]
00:26:07 Student survey ’10
00:34:17 Mobile-optimisation: VLE2 [incl. live demos using mobile emulators]
00:50:48 Mobile support [covering some proposals before wider release/publicity]
00:59:07 Mobile coordination [practitioner info, strategy, mobile-friendliness, improved interfaces]
01:08:06 Mobile web applications and third-parties [reflection on OU web-based approach]
01:12:03 Mobile apps & resources [outline of ePub eBook work]
01:14:40 Mobile exposure [proposal for OU Home mobile]

You may also find the prompt slides useful to identify an area of interest [via goo.gl/yjAkT]:

In the last 4 posts, I have given an overview of new features and enhancements along with some rationale as part of the move from mobile-optimising Moodle 1.9 to 2.1 at the OU. There are a select number of modules that have now migrated to OU VLE2 in the October/November presentation period and more will follow through to February 2012 and beyond. Currently our students will continue on the same basis as before when using mobile – that is on an (open) beta trial with opportunities for feedback and some further enhancements due in December.

In parallel, work continues on proposals to better unify the OU mobile presence from the top down, which will be discussed in the upcoming IET Tech talk, but also mocked up in outline using Google Sites – all subject to approval. Part of this will be to offer commonly-accessible guidance and provide self-help where possible for novices and less familiar users of the (OU) mobile web – again an approach expected to be trialled in early 2012.

Other features of mobile delivery include the extensive work now underway in providing better solutions to ‘long-form’ content previously available only in print. Early prototyping using Structured Content materials in OpenLearn have yielded a range of more interactive and enhanced eBooks in the ePub format [currently implemented for iBooks, with Kindle on its way]. This is a precursor to being able to provide similar materials to students, accessed through OU VLE2 – with some early trialling underway in the OU Business School, Faculty of Business & Law.

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!

Since the beta release of what we’re now loosely calling Mobile VLE v1 (aligning with OU VLE1 which is on Moodle 1.9.x), the development team has received a number of very positive responses to the implementation, with a few requests and suggestions.

In addition, some key findings from the most recent Oct 2010 survey included the following:

• Use of ‘dead time’, mobile use also includes that on sofa
• Mobile phone contracts predominate [from current user sample]
  
• Usage: Touch phones (up) Smart phone (down)
• Device change in 2 years, not 18 months – possibly contract related
  
• Surveyed users largely Tablet agnostics [at the time]
  

• Assessment [scores] remain a key driver
• More frequent visits via mobile over the 2010 period
• Reading updates and forums are the most completed activity
• Accessing different parts of Study Planner important [validating 'launchpad']
  
• Switching view or mode depending on requirement [make as easy as possible]
  

• Downloadable resources preferred in standard formats
• OU app for adding multimedia desireable rather than 3rd party/intermediates
  
• Self-help, FAQ-based and crowd-sourced online support sufficient for device-specifics
  

User testing on some of the new designs has taken place and these have been refined to the point that a concerted effort is now in place to prototype and implement new features on OU VLE2 (Moodle 2.x) in preparation for staged rollout from the end of 2011. This is alongside migrating the design rules and principles to existing OU Moodle modules.

Samples of the latest designs below show the improved ‘launchpad’ view – with increased user customisation on being able to show or hide specific sections and also some new features such as contextual notes and better switching between views. The OU mobile header and footer will also be standardised in parallel with learning systems development.

Some of the above was shared at a recent m-Libraries workshop on ‘Evolving Mobile Content’ with JISC and a number of educational publishers. The relevant slides are also available.

We have also been able to report that use of [handheld] mobile devices is now consistently around 10% of the student body on the StudentHome portal, with ~6/10ths of those converting through to use of the Mobile VLE v1 – over 11,000 individuals both months in 2011 so far.

Tablet use is also now increasing to around 2% of the student body – so mobile use exceeding that of our Mac user base, while tablet use is on par with that of Linux.

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.

Quicker than expected, thanks to some rapid work on the accelerated development programme (so yes, faster and faster) there are now early proposals that were shared with an internal audience at our Berrill event last Thursday.

Stewart Nixon, the project manager for the next phase of Mobile VLE development for Moodle v2.x shared the below with me (click on the image to see an annotated version):

Currently, the idea is for more basic phones to receive an updated version of the current ‘launchpad’ view, while higher-end devices will also get a tabbed view of key areas of module [course] content and activities.

The proposal, along with a series of suggested designs, will be usability tested later this week, and more updates will follow after that.

Following an interim review of our latest mobile survey to students (outline available here soon I’m sure ), we have looked at the very positive feedback on our current mobile-optimised implementation of OU-customised Moodle views and modules, and also indicators for future directions.

As part of an accelerated development plan running through to next summer, we are going to refactor and improve the implementation we had on Moodle v1.9.x for Moodle v2.x in line with other work already underway.

On a technical level, our developer Anthony Forth has posted a proposal to the Moodle community at: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=162872 which I hope will start to help us standardise an approach that will be of wider use beyond our original customised work.

More information and initial (re)design work will follow soon in the new year!

A number of activities are now underway, but again in order to ground these in actual student requirements, the follow up survey on mobile use and feedback on the work to date is going on at the moment.

A student survey is again being held from StudentHome mobile, so staff who are also students are welcome to contribute (signing in with a student ID to see the notice), with a closing date of 1st Nov 2010.

I will be discussing interim points of note with colleagues in the mobile learning community next week at the mLearn 2010 conference as part of the poster session that’s been prepared.

Fuller results, and an update of current work will also be shared with our Mobile Technologies Special Interest Group on the 28th Oct 2010. The outline agenda is as below:

1.       Feedback from student survey – overview of current usage patterns and future indicators

2.       Validating development work for the RAP mobile strand, including discussing mobile web and apps and synergies elsewhere

3.       Open updates on project work/interest areas

4.       Capturing and sharing information and practice online via ‘mobisite’ http://www.open.ac.uk/mobisite

Note that I’m hoping the mobisite will be fully live imminently – at least in its basic state, to validate and start to input more content.

Since I started this latest series of blog articles with reference to the student survey that gave us the indicators for priority areas for development, I’ll wrap up by going back to this (originally referred to in the student rating blog post).

So, in order of priority for development, now complete:

• Assessment – scores available more rapidly on StudentHome mobile portal as a result of parallel development
• Messages – course messages and quick view of forums with unread posts on ‘launchpad’ view, ForumNG also optimised
• Tasks – ‘tick-boxes’ can be used to keep track of progress, preserved on both mobile and desktop views
• Planner – the course planner ‘launchpad’ view is optimised to display the current week, but also a quick view of 3, 5 or 9 weeks of activity, depending on course settings. There is also an entire-course view available, and courses without calendar weeks display in full
• Resources – resource pages and the resource block are optimised and where mobile devices can handle downloadable resource files these will work in addition to Structured Content

To complete the collaborative tools provision, we also included OUWikis and OUBlogs which cross over between tasks, activities and resources.

Remaining areas for development:

• Calendar – on hold subject to work with Google Apps
• Search – will follow from a separate integrated search project
• Glossary – should be able to be done in next development round
• Objectives – learning objectives are usually implemented as resources, but could be drawn out subject to further verification

A follow up student survey will be available on StudentHome mobile, as before, once the successful release of these new features have been made available in September 2010, where we will also query further the demand for quizzes, eBooks and mobile apps.
In conclusion, many sincere thanks go to Anthony Forth in being able to bring some of this mobile development work ahead of schedule, and for his thoroughness in checking through the latest additions to our mobile-optimised featureset.