This presentation was part of a webinar for Open Education Week 2013, with the title: New global education trends: policy, learning design, mobile.http://www.openeducationweek.org/

1. Mobile devices and open education:
Match made in heaven or shotgun wedding?
Terese Bird
Learning Technologist and
SCORE Research Fellow
Institute of Learning Innovation
University of Leicester
www.le.ac.uk

2. What will we talk about today?
• Mobile use generally & in education
• Is open educational movement mobile-friendly?
(anecdote about a meeting to look at oer – first was
flash-based, chair of meeting was looking via iPad –
not good)
• My survey – MOOCs
• The global mobile situation
• Conclusions

3. Global growth of mobile
Marketing Charts data 2013

4. Horizon report 2012 (New Media Consortium 2012)
Within 12 months these will become
mainstream in education:
• Mobile apps
– Pervasive internet connection
– GPS
• Tablet PCs
– Less disruptive than phones
– More mobile than laptops
– Good for long readings
Photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr

5. Mobile use in education (UoL snapshot)
• 15% of UoL first year medical student own an iPad…
rising to 35% of UoL third year medical students own
an iPad (Winter 2013 data)
• Over 7000 unique downloads of Blackboard Mobile
from October 2012 through Feb 2013 without being
required to
• Many distance learning courses choosing and
considering mobile as e-reader and other learning
purposes

6. Is the open education movement mobile?
• MIT Open Courseware – pdf and video
• iTunes U – yes but Apple-weighted
• Flash clash
• Online v offline
Photo by Steve Rhodes on Flickr

7. JISC OER projects encourage mobile
www.le.ac.uk/manufacturingpasts

8. Are MOOCing students using mobile
devices?
SurveyMonkey - via Twitter 1 week - Coursera - N=12

10. If you had trouble, briefly describe:
“I tried to access Coursera on my BlackBerry, but it won't play ball. Phone's
software and memory capabilities are main culprits. Would likely work on a
more recent smartphone, but still sad not to have a mobile option available
to me at present. “
“All I really used the phone for, was to pick up my results today, while I was
out and about. Whilst I got the "You may not be able to access this with your
webbrowser". (Using Sony phone with Android - not sure which release), I
could get to the assessment page. Havent tried viewing videos etc. It would
be great if the Coursera site was optimised for mobile.:
“All materials accessed through tablet browser but would think that in this
day and age they would've created a specific 'app for that' that would make
the forums more accessible and easier to navigate. “
“Flash” (Apple mobile)
“I’ve dropped out of MOOCs because I could not access the content from
my iPhone or iPad”

11. The global mobile situation
• Growth of smartphones in African nations
• Growth of Apple in China
• iPads and other tablets in Turkey
• Apple infrastructure
No African unis in iTunes U
iBooks Author free but…
iTunes U good for offline

12. Apple is courting education but
• Developing world?
• Is it open if few can afford it?
Photo by Brett Jordan on Flickr Photo by BasiliskSam on
Flickr

13. Conclusions
• Develop open materials and platforms for mobile
• Develop for offline use where possible
• Small filesizes
• Communication between communities

14. References
• Marketing Chart Staff. (2013). Mobile Share of Web
Traffic Jumped in Q4 2012. Marketing Charts
Website. Retrieved march 11,2013, from
http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/interactive/m
obile-share-of-web-traffic-jumped-in-q4-2012-
26057/
• New Media Consortium. (2012). Horizon Report >
2012 Higher Education Edition.