The use of mobile applications in increasing learning and comprehension - A
multidisciplinary approach
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Darcy L. Medica and 2Elinor M. Madigan.
1
Department of Science, Engineering and Technology and 2Department of Information Sciences
and Technology, Penn State Schuylkill.
ABSTRACT
Students are used to obtaining material and information from mobile devices or online and
lecture courses may be more successful if they include interactive course material in a mobile
format. This project is an interdisciplinary one, incorporating Biology and Information Sciences
and Technology (IST) faculty and students. We are developing a mobile application as a
supplement to teach nutritional concepts that are usually taught in lecture format in BiSc004
“Human Body”. Students in BiSc4 often have minimal interest in scientific topics. This is a “gen
ed” course that they take to fulfill their science (GN) requirements. Many of the students have
difficulty with the material, particularly with the amount of information that is included within
each topic. Active learning strategies, such as laboratories, are commonly used in science classes
to engage students. BiSc4 does not have a laboratory component, and it can be a challenge to
design active learning strategies for this lecture course. The mobile app that we are developing
will be used to teach nutrition topics in this course, and provide an interactive mechanism that
the students can use to learn the material. Students in IST 495 will use the development of the
mobile app as their internship project. These students are typically sophomores and juniors and
this project will give them valuable experience and reinforce what they have been learning in a
new and exciting field. The students will practice requirements gathering, using a new platform
for development and provide a service learning opportunity. We are using a platform (HTML 5)
that allows the greatest flexibility in offering material to a variety of tablets and phones. We are
also creating a companion web site for those without access to a tablet or suitable phone. A
combination of student satisfaction surveys, SRTE scores, and test scores will be used to
evaluate the effectiveness of the app in helping students retain the nutrition material taught in
BiSc004. The finished product will be a mobile application, for a variety of devices, as well as a
companion web site that will have the same application for students who do not have access to
mobile devices that can support the app.
BACKGROUND
Students are used to obtaining material and information from mobile devices or online.
Previous studies have found that “computer assisted learning” (CAL) strategies that supplement
traditional instruction methods in science courses with information technology are more effective
and can increase student learning (Lindell et al., 2006; Pereira et al., 2007; Tam et al., 2009).
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Thus, lecture courses may be more successful if they include interactive course material in a
mobile format. This project is an interdisciplinary one, incorporating Biology, Information
Sciences and Technology (IST) and First Year Seminar (FYS) faculty. Students in BiSc4 often
have minimal interest in scientific topics. This is a “gen ed” course, that they take to fulfill their
science (GN) requirements. Many of the students have difficulty with the material, particularly
with the amount of information that is included in each topic. Active learning strategies, such as
laboratories, are commonly used in science classes to engage the students. BiSc4 does not have a
laboratory component, and it can be a challenge to design active learning strategies for this
lecture course. We are creating interactive material in the form of mobile applications to assist
student learning in BiSc4. Apps developed for phones and tablets may support student learning
(Stark, 2012) and the objective of this study is to develop a mobile app for instruction in the
nutrition unit of the BiSc004 course. In addition, the mobile app will be used to teach
nutritional concepts to students in FYS, who are generally making their own nutritional choices
for the first time, as many of them are living away from home. Making health choices may be
especially important, in light of data on childhood obesity - approximately 17% of children and
adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese, and obesity rates in children have almost tripled in the
last thirty years (CDC, 2012). Traditional aged students entering college fall into this age
category, and these students are at risk of developing serious health issues associated with being
overweight, including type II diabetes (Cassazza and Ciccazzo, 2006).
Students in IST 495 will use the development of the mobile app as their internship
project. These students are typically sophomores and juniors and this project gives them
valuable experience and reinforces what they have been learning in a new and exciting field. The
students practice requirements gathering using a new platform for development and this project
also provides a service learning opportunity for these students. We are using a platform (HTML
5) that allows the greatest flexibility in offering material to a variety of tablets and phones. We
are also creating a companion web site for those without access to a tablet or suitable phone. We
will use a combination of student satisfaction surveys, SRTE scores, and test scores to evaluate
the effectiveness of the app for learning the nutrition material in BiSc004 and FYS courses .
STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
● Improved performance in BiSc4 (evaluated by test scores)
● Improved student course satisfaction (by course evaluation)
● The BiSc and FYS students will have improved understanding of nutrition
● The IST students will have a greater understanding of requirements gathering
● The IST students will gain valuable knowledge in software delivery methodologies.
● The IST students will design and implement a mobile application
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METHODOLOGY FOR APP BUILDING
The two IST students involved in this project have no previous experience in creating
mobile applications, however both have programming experience in C++ , JAVA and web
development. Their first task is to work on learning an appropriate language for mobile app
development. As we are using both the Android and iPad the students will have to work in two
completely different environments. Android development is predominantly JAVA while the
iPad uses Objective C. As these languages are very different and makes development of one app
very lengthy, we looked at methods to write in one language but be able to port to different
devices. We have settled on PhoneGap which uses HTML5 as it’s base language. The
development of the apps will occur within the Software Development Kit for each Operating
System but both can support PhoneGap.
The IST students started their development with a set of flashcards. This gives them the
opportunity to develop a template for the apps, gain experience in managing data and graphics.
After that is finished, they will develop a simple game on nutrition. At this writing the theme has
not been decided.
We are creating a companion web site as well (see Fig. 1). This site will be developed in
PHP with a companion database of Sqlite. It will be hosted on the IST community server at the
Schuylkill Campus (sl-community.sl.psu.edu). This server uses a Linux Operating System,
which typically supports the MySql database. Sqlite is available on the server so the students
will be able to create useable databases for multiple Operating Systems.
Figure 1- Companion website (in development)
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EVALUATION PLAN FOR LEARNING APP
The IST students will create a working mobile app to teach nutrition to BiSc004 and FYS
students, they will also design a pre-test and post-test and a student satisfaction survey for the
program that they design. IST 495 students will be evaluated on their knowledge of requirements
gathering as well as their ability to develop a project plan for the application and the actual code
design & structure.
BiSc 4 and FYS students will be given a pre-test and post-test, and material will be
offered by traditional lecture (all students) and using the mobile app (1/2 of students in each
course, randomly assigned). Student satisfaction surveys will give the best idea of how effective
the learning app is for these students, since we do not have a control other than the pre-test. We
have created the student satisfaction survey for the students who use the app (see Fig. 2). The
survey will include rating as well as open-ended questions, and will ask students to evaluate
items such as content, outcome (learning goals), strengths, weaknesses, suggestions for
improvement, and comparison to similar programs that they may have used. In addition, test
scores on the nutrition material will be compared to the average score for the same material
during the previous year (when the mobile apps were not used).
REFERENCES
Casazza, K. and M. Ciccazzo. 2006. Improving the dietary patterns of adolescents using a
computer-based approach. Journal of School Health 76:43-46.
CDC, 2012. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html. Accessed 9-19-12.
Lindell, K., K.M. Adams, M. Kohlmeier and S. H. Ziesel. 2006. The evolution od nutrition in
medicine, a computer-assisted nutrition curriculum. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
83:956S-962S.
Pereira, J.A., E. Pleguezuelos, A. Meri, A. Molina-Ros, M.C. Molina-Tomas and C. Masdeu.
2007. Effectiveness of using blended learning strategies for teaching and learning human
anatomy. Medica education. 41:189-195.
Stark, L. 2012. Cell biology apps for Apple devices. CBE- Life Sciences Education 11:226-230.
Tam, M.D.B.S., A.R. Hart, S. Williams, D. Heylings and S. Leinster. Is learning anatomy
facilitated by computer-aided learning? A review of the literature. 2009. Medical Teacher
31:e393-e396.
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Figure 2- Student satisfaction survey
The Nutrition Flashcards were easy to use
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
I would like other Biology sections to have an App
similar to the Nutrition App
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
The Nutrition app was easy to use
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
The Nutrition Flashcards concept could apply to other
classes besides Biology
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
The Nutrition Flashcards helped me understand the
concepts of the Nutrition Section
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
The Nutrition App concept could apply to other
classes besides Biology
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
The Nutrition app helped me understand the
concepts of the Nutrition Section
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
I would use the Nutrition app again
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
I would like other Biology sections to have
Flashcards similar to the Nutrition Flashcards
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
I think the Nutrition app could include more than
flashcards to help me learn Nutrition concepts
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - neutral
4 - agree
5 - strongly agree
If so, what? Examples could include other quiz-like games,
etc.
ESSAY
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