1. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Beyond Delivery Modes and Apps
A Case Study on Mobile Blended Learning
Christian Glahn, Marion R. Gruber, Olga Tartakovski
presented at ECTEL 2015

2. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Context of the Work
• Marion Gruber: Co-ordination, support, and integration of
digital technologies in education and research at the Factulty
of Arts and Social Sciences of the UZH.
• Olga Tartakovski: E-learning co-ordinator at the Institute of
Mass Communication and Media Research at the UZH.
• Christian Glahn: Director of the Blended Learning Center
at the HTW Chur.

3. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
We Share Common Challenges
Provisioning of TEL solutions for the immediate
application in higher education courses at scale.
Keep the teaching faculty up to speed with
educational and technological developments.
One of the driving challenges for the HE practice is
the appropriate integtation of mobile learning apps.

4. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Every university offers apps to their students
State of Mobile Apps in Swiss Higher Education
• Responsive design
• Scheduling and orientation apps
• Special purpose apps
Few scalable solutions
consider dedicated
mobile learning activities

5. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Every university is in the business of
assessment
Need to provide reliable and scalable assessment
solutions.
• Large amount of students
• Work-intense paper-pencil approaches
• Summative approaches cannot be used to guide
the lecturing processes
(Flipped Classroom)

6. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Why it is relevant to scale up mobile learning?
Mobile Technologies in Higher Education make
sense, if they...
1. Integrate with and extend the existing TEL
solutions and practices
2. Link and enrich the students’ experiences
and learning
Practical
Seamless Learning

7. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
What benefits does mobile technology contribute
to an already technology enhanced learning
environment?
• What technologies are available and practices are
common to students in higher education?
• Are there intrinsic context-related affordances that
allow bridging learning activities into contexts
uncommon to learning?

8. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
What do we mean by “uncommon to learning?”

9. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Case study of blending large lectures with
mobile technologies
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is the largest
Faculty of the University of Zurich
• Approx. 11,000 Students
• 240 Professors + 911 Lecturers
• Typical introductory lectures have large participant
numbers
• Technological Support via a VLE is well established
and cultivated.

10. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
The Case
• Introduction to Mass Communication and Media-
Research (PuK I&II): 410 participants
• Provide a mobile learning app that is orchestrated
through an VLE
• Activity analysis + student survey
06.10.15 Titel der Präsentation, Autor Seite 10

11. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Mobler Cards
Very short learning activities
No contextualisation

12. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
System integration architecture
(Glahn, 2013)
The lecturer is in control of
the content and the process

13. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
The Learning Design
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14. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Statistics for Lecturers and Students

15. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Results
• 410 participants: 300 female, 109 male
• 350 downloads of the app within the first week of
the course
• 125 students used the app during the term
• 13,192 answered questions in the app
• 50 participants responded to a summative
questionnaire after the end of the pilot

16. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
What technologies are available and
practices are common to students in
higher education?

17. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Smart phone ownership
72%
26%
2%
iOS
Android
Windows
n=50

18. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Mobile device ownership
Students use several mobile and
portable devices in parallel.
• 92% Laptops
• 48% Tables
• 64% use 3 or more devices frequently
Students learn in a
device ecology
n=50 (multiple responses)

19. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Common practices
Daily used apps and services
• 94% texting
• 74% online search
• 72% social networking
• 62% news and blogs
• 61% e-mail
• 52% photos
Weekly used apps and services
• 52% navigation
• 52% telephony
• 50% camera
• 44% videos
Our students considered gaming
neither relevant nor play
n=50 (multiple responses)

20. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Are there intrinsic context-related
affordances?

21. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Application usage
Weekly app sessions during the term (n=125)

22. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Usage context
n=37

23. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Didactical factors (6 point Likert-scale)
• No unnecessary workload was created (µ = 5.9)
• Useful addition to online and lecture hall activities
(µ = 5.5)
• The app should replace conventional online
activities (µ = 3.4)
• Would use the app only if it was compulsory
(µ = 1.5)
• More frequent use if deeper integration with the
curriculum (µ = 3.2)
n=37

24. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Motivational factors
• Helps to learn more frequently (57%)
• Motivates them to learn more intensively (51%)
• Recommend using the app to fellow students (91%)
• Use improved app in other courses (86%)
n=37

25. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Other factors (Open Question)
n=37

26. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Conclusions
• The majority of today’s students learn in a multi-device ecology
• Gamification elements were completely irrelevant
• Mobile learning activities can enrich the learning experiences
beyond having access to functions on a smart phone
• Bite-sized learning on smart phones supports learners in bridging
learning into uncommon learning settings (e.g., public transport)
• The students appreciate the mobile app, but don’t consider it as a
replacement for other learning solutions
• The students value the authorized content provided for learning,
but many wait until the last moment to initiate their learning

27. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF & IPMZ Blended Learning Center
Thank You
Mag. Dr. Marion R. Gruber
University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, DLF
marion.gruber[at]phil.uzh.ch
M.A. Olga Tartakovski
University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, IPMZ,
o.tartakovski[at]ipmz.uzh.ch
Dr. Christian Glahn
HTW Chur, Blended Learning Center
christian.glahn[at]htwchur.ch