Slides presented at CSEDU 2014, April 1-3, Barcelona.

1. HOW TO DESIGN A MOBILE LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
Recommendations based on
student perceptions
CSEDU 2014 1 / 21
Pablo Rebaque-Rivas
prebaque@uoc.edu
Community Initiatives (Office of Learning Technologies)
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

2. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
 E-learning university
 Virtual campus and virtual classrooms
 Digital contents in different formats
 Continuous assessment
 Combine their studies with other activities, in particularly their jobs
CSEDU 2014 2 / 21

3. Virtual campus on mobile devices
CSEDU 2014 3 / 21

4. Virtual campus on mobile devices
Webmail
Virtual classrooms
Agenda
Secretary’s
office
CSEDU 2014 4 / 21

5. Virtual campus on mobile devices
CSEDU 2014 5 / 21

6. CSEDU 2014 6 / 21
Adaptation of the UOC
Virtual Campus for mobile
browsers
A native app of the Virtual
Campus
A native e-mail
client app
Mobile developments and UCD
User-centered design

7. The user-student
 What do students want to find?
 Adapted for mobile browsers, a native app,
or both?
 A single app or different apps?
?
CSEDU 2014 7 / 21

8. UOC case study
Focus group with students
UOC mobile developments currently available
Students’ patterns of use and connection habits
Possible improvements and potential
developments in the future



CSEDU 2014 8 / 21

9. CSEDU 2014 9 / 21
Adaptation of the UOC Virtual
Campus for mobile browsers
A native app of the Virtual
Campus
A native e-mail
client app
UOC case study

10. UOC case study
Adaptation of the UOC Virtual
Campus for mobile browsers
A native app of the Virtual
Campus
A native e-mail
client app
satisfaction improvementsopinionawarenessuse
UOC mobile developments currently available
Possible improvements and potential
developments in the future
Students’ patterns of use and connection habits


CSEDU 2014 10 / 21

11.  Uses of the Virtual Campus  to get Information and to “work”
 Laptops or desktop computers  information and working
 Smartphones  less frequent
 daily updates
 communication areas of the Virtual Campus
 Tablets  to view/read documents
Students’ patterns of use and
connection habits
CSEDU 2014 11 / 21

12. Students’ patterns of use and
connection habits
 Uses of the Virtual Campus  to get Information and to “work”
 Laptops or desktop computers  information and working
 Smartphones  less frequent
 daily updates
 communication areas of the Virtual Campus
 Tablets  to view/read documents
 …not conclusive, they were not aware of the mobile
developments…
CSEDU 2014 12 / 21

13. The Virtual Campus
for mobile browsers
CSEDU 2014 13 / 21

14. The Virtual Campus
for mobile browsers
 Little awareness
 It contains the relevant information for
connections from a mobile device
 They missed adapted sections for
Secretary’s Office and Tutor
 It is only necessary to adapt those sections
they were most likely to connect to from a
mobile device
CSEDU 2014 14 / 21

15. The Virtual Campus
native app
CSEDU 2014 15 / 21

16. The Virtual Campus
native app
 Little awareness
 It only contains the relevant information for
connections from a mobile device
 Modern, innovative and functional
 They missed adapted sections for
Secretary’s Office and Tutor
CSEDU 2014 16 / 21

17. The e-mail client app
CSEDU 2014 17 / 21

18. The e-mail client app
 Quick solution for accessing their UOC e-
mail
 Too specific and not sufficiently
comprehensive
 Better all the information in a single app
 Different tools creates a degree of
uncertainty
CSEDU 2014 18 / 21

19. Possible improvements and
potential developments in the future
 The native app, the most likely to be used
 Suggested functions  file storage and sharing system
 instant messaging tool
 Conventional computers and mobile devices will be combined
 Tablets in the near future  an active part of their studies and the main
device for connecting to the VC
 The ideal solution would be an offer of the services that are fully functional
via mobile devices
CSEDU 2014 19 / 21

20. Some conclusions
 The mobile developments answer to their current connection needs
 The native app is preferred among the other developments
 a single tool only for the most relevant services
 Mobile developments portray the UOC as a modern, innovative
university
 Mobile learning environment is already an integral part of students’
day-to-day activities
 Universities should provide user-driven online learning environments
to their students
CSEDU 2014 20 / 21

21. Some recommendations
 A single native app, the best option
 What the student-user requests, what it should be found in mobile
developments
 Devices and their contexts of use
 Document management function
 Instant messaging function
 Virtual Campus app = a good impression
CSEDU 2014 21 / 21

22. Thanks!
This paper has been done within the
framework of the MAVSEL project:
Mining, data Analysis and Visualization
based on Social models in E-Learning,
TIN2010 21715-C02-02.
Pablo Rebaque-Rivas
prebaque@uoc.edu
Eva Patricia Gil-Rodríguez
Irene Manresa-Mallol
Community Initiatives
(Office of Learning Technologies)
CSEDU 2014