How to improve students’ satisfaction using mobile devices
L. Podestà 1
Researcher/Assistant Professor
Dept. of Astronautics, Electrical and Energetics Engineering,
Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Rome “La Sapienza”
Rome, Italy
luca.podesta@uniroma1.it
I. V. Shelenkova
Associate Professor
Dept. of International Professional and Scientific Communication,
Tambov State Technical University
Tambov, Russia
intercomtstu@mail.ru
Conference Topic: Information and Communication Technologies
Keywords: Tablet, blended learning, students’ satisfaction, engineering disciplines
INTRODUCTION
In the last years new computing technologies with powerful processors and more advanced
operating systems caused the spread of smartphones, personal digital assistants devices (PDA)
and, most recently, of other devices like tablets. Nowadays mobile devices are widespread
everywhere.
In particular, the success of tablets is due to the easy man machine interface based on
multitouch keyboard and to better Wi-Fi coverage. These characteristics helped it to become
ubiquitous.
In a didactic context, both at school and university, the use of mobile devices has been a
problem to face since the introduction of the first mobile phones. It was not only because
these devices can be an element of disturbance during a lesson but also because they can be
used by students for access to information in particular situations like exams.
Due to these considerations we tried to take advantage of the wide use of mobile devices
within a university class. In this paper the experience of mobile devices usage, combined with
traditional teaching and learning media, in a technical faculty is reported.
1
Corresponding Author
L. Podestà, luca.podesta@uniroma1.it
1
SPREAD OF MOBILE DEVICES AND CONNECTIVITY AT UNIVERSITY “LA
SAPIENZA”
1.1 Mobile devices
In the last years the development of new computing devices, based on powerful processors
and advanced Operating Systems can be observed. There are two classes of devices that
emerged quickly: tablets and smartphones. There were different reasons that led to this result.
Now portable computers are no more the first choice when it is necessary to buy a portable
device. Also the personal digital assistants (PDAs) have no more the success they gained
some years ago. Now we are living in a new era of mobile computing, with hundreds of
millions of smartphones and tablets sold every year in the world.
The four main features that brought success to tablets and smartphones are:
•
a user-friendly touch screen that allowed the reduction of size and weight, compared
with traditional keyboards;
•
a large number of applications developed for mobile devices;
•
Wi-Fi and cellular wireless coverage that provided connectivity to the Internet for
these devices almost everywhere;
•
built-in and integrated devices like photo camera and other connection interfaces like
bluetooth.
Furthermore, every tablet and smartphone includes a mobile web browser and this allows an
easy navigation through websites.
In many universities worldwide there are a lot of initiatives to provide students with the best
technological and collaborative learning tools. There are a lot of different opportunities, from
the financing of the purchase of a mobile device to the offer for free to enrolling students,
based on agreement with the main manufacturers (Apple, Samsung).
1.2 Connectivity at University “La Sapienza”: network and applications
Sapienza Wireless is a university project that allowed the installation of a Wi-Fi network for
the connection to the Internet within the university. The main aim of the project is to allow the
university community to gain an easy access to all the web services using mobile devices. It is
possibile to browse web in open air spaces and inside the lecture halls or inside libraries and
laboratories.
The first experiments were made in 2003 and the first plants were installed in 2004.
The wireless network has an ID name (SSID) sapienza without WEP or WPA keys to access.
It is active and on all day long.
The access is possibile regardless of the operating system, allowing the connection to every
mobile device; it is enough to have a browser. The network parameters are automatically
obtained through the DHCP protocol without configuration problems for the devices.
Only for safety reasons an authentication of users is requested. Both students and teachers can
use the email credentials to start browsing. After this procedure it is possibile to browse freely
the web with the bandwidth of 512 kB/s in download and of 256 kB/s in upload.
The Wi-Fi onboard of the mobile device must be compatible with standard wireless LAN
IEEE 802.11b/g.
Due to this wide availability of Wi-Fi network some specific applications have been
developed for the university community. For example the system named “Infostud” has been
created to allow teachers to publish exam information, including dates and places, and to
record the results of exams.
Students too can have access to the system, and they can “book” the exam which they wish to
take, to print a receipt of the exam or other documents about their curriculum. In the last
months an application has been developed by Computer Engineering students in collaboration
with Infosapienza, to bring all of Infostud's most popular functions to Android mobiles.
Now students can “book” exams, check credits and exam codes, and download exam
registration cards remotely. The app was officially launched last month at FORUM PA 2012.
An iPhone version of the service is currently in the works and will be released soon.
Due to all these reasons students got used to utilize mobile devices during the university day
life.
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THE COURSE OF ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENTS
2.1 Use of Moodle
The course of Electrical Measurements at the Faculty of Engineering of “La Sapienza” in
Rome was already based on a Moodle web site to implement e-learning [1].
The introduction of Moodle for the Course of Electrical Measurements has been very
effective to organise a traditional course and it has a real effect on the quality of the course.
Lesson materials (slides, files…) are published on the web site day by day as well as
assignments and quizzes.
Different teaching methods are used in the course:
• Simulation tools specific for the field
• Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach
• Cooperative work and publicity of reports
• Thematic forums
• Online testing with automatic scoring used for informal assessments during the course
• Creation of glossaries of metrological terms
By reading the FAQ section on the web site, students can find answers to questions that they
have. Questions not answered in the FAQ can be posed in the discussion forum available for
users. As a friendly environment for the information exchange, the web site offers numerous
possibilities for interaction among students, teachers and tutors. The quality of learning is
improving and it is a valid integration for face-to-face situations.
Students can perform virtual measurements by accessing the library of experimental exercises
accompanied with theoretical explanations. The students are able to perform experimental
exercises and repeat them freely. They are not limited by the opening hours of the laboratory.
If necessary, it is also possible to make a theoretical study using available documents.
Furthermore, this virtual study can be used as a preliminary approach before executing real
tasks in a laboratory.
The students are invited to fill glossaries using metrological terms they can find in the
International Vocabulary of Metrology and in other metrological dictionaries. When they
translate terms from English into Italian, they are obliged to understand fully the meanings of
the words and in this way they learn to use these terms in the right way after a discussion with
the colleagues.
During some kinds of assignments students are subdivided into small groups, 3 or 4 people.
This is made to oblige them to work in group. They must learn not only to compare different
opinions but also to make a report that will be evaluated as an output of the group. Reports are
accessible for other groups. This is another way to improve the quality of the reports.
2.2 Use of mobile devices
Wi-Fi is available in the lecture rooms at the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering. At
the first lecture of Electrical Measurements course, students are informed that all the activities
provided during the course will be done using mobile devices. Tablets, smartphones, PDA,
and portable computers are allowed.
Even the announcement of this possibility creates a different approach and students are more
curious about the lectures.
Course activities are structured in the following way (an example of activities’ scheme is
represented here):
-
the lesson on a topic starts;
-
when the first part of the topic is concluded, students can have access to materials
provided on the web site, usually in the PDF file format;
-
they are encouraged during the lesson to interact, suggesting other links to the sites
where it is possible to find more information on the topic;
-
in the following lesson they must do a quiz containing the topics studied previously.
The quiz is activated in real time on the web site during the lesson and there is a preset
time to do it. Students can check their results when they have finished and the quiz
tasks are closed.
-
assignments can be activated during the lessons at the following stages as well. The
students’ reports must be uploaded on the website.
Some kinds of quizzes are designed to provide an automatic score after their completion. The
immediate feedback is a stimulus to improve the score.
Due to the use of mobile devices all activities are performed better, everything is produced in
an electronic format and corrections can be partially automated. The students’ attention is
higher, because they are continuously stimulated.
As a result students’ satisfaction is greater, as the interaction with teachers and collaboration
with classmates are performed in real time during the lessons [2].
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CONCLUSIONS
The use of ICT within universities [3] helped to increase effectively the quality of higher
education making easier the implementation of methodological innovations in teaching and
learning that we have tested over the years.
The Moodle-based web site is a friendly environment for the exchange of information and it
offers numerous possibilities for interaction among students, teachers and tutors. The quality
of learning is better and it is a valid integration for face-to-face situations.
Through the web site students can access different resources at the same time. Thanks to the
use of mobile devices they are able to perform assignments and exercises online during the
lesson.
In conclusion we think that the combined use of Moodle and mobile devices is a powerful
instrument for the improvement of quality of teaching and learning.
REFERENCES
[1] Podestà, L., (2010), Course Management Systems: Do they Improve the quality of
Teaching and Learning?, Proceedings of the Joint International IGIP-SEFI Annual
Conference 2010. Trnava, Slovakia, 19-22 September 2010, p. 248-249.
[2] Martinez-Caro, E., Campuzano-Bolarin, F. (2011), Factors affecting students’
satisfaction in engineering disciplines: traditional vs. blended approaches, European
Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 36, No. 5, October 2011, pp. 473-483.
[3] Podestà, L., Shelenkova, I. V. (2012), ICT for Teaching and Learning within
Technical Faculties: Evolution and Trends, Proceedings of International Congress on
Information Technologies (ICIT 2012). Saratov (Russian Federation), 6-9 june 2012.