Mobilizing learning: mobile Web 2.0 scenarios in tertiary education

Based upon three years of mobile learning (mlearning) projects, a major implementation project has been developed for integrating the use of mobile web 2.0 tools across a variety of departments and courses in a tertiary education environment. A participatory action research methodology guides and informs the project. The project is based upon an explicit social constuctivist pedagogy, focusing on student collaboration, and the sharing and critique of student-generated content using freely available web 2.0 services. These include blogs, social networks, location aware (geotagged) image and video sharing, instant messaging, microblogging etc… Students and lecturers are provided with either an appropriate smartphone and/or a 3G capable netbook to use as their own for the duration of the project. Keys to the projects success are the level of pedagogical and technical support, and the level of integration of the tools into the courses – including assessment and lecturer modelling of the use of the tools. The projects are supported by an intentional community of practice model, with the researcher taking on the role of the “technology steward”. The paper outlines three different scenarios illustrating how this course integration is being achieved, establishing a transferable model of mobile web 2.0 integration and implementation. The goal is to facilitate a student-centred, collaborative, flexible, context-bridging learning environment that empowers students as content producers and learning context generators, guided by lecturers who effectively model th

Towards a competency model for adaptive assessment to support lifelong learning

Adaptive assessment provides efficient and personalised routes to establishing the proficiencies of learners. We can envisage a future in which learners are able to maintain and expose their competency profile to multiple services, throughout their life, which will use the competency information in the model to personalise assessment. Current competency standards tend to over simplify the representation of competency and the knowledge domain. This paper presents a competency model for evaluating learned capability by considering achieved competencies to support adaptive assessment for lifelong learning. This model provides a multidimensional view of competencies and provides for interoperability between systems as the learner progresses through life. The proposed competency model is being developed and implemented in the JISC-funded Placement Learning and Assessment Toolkit (mPLAT) project at the University of Southampton. This project which takes a Service-Oriented approach will contribute to the JISC community by adding mobile assessment tools to the E-framework

Consolidating Resources for the Aged-Out Human Trafficking Population Using a Mobile Application

Introduction: Human trafficking is a multibillion dollar industry that enslaves 20.9 million people across the globe. Trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, or receipt of persons using force, fraud or coercion for forced labor or sexual exploitation. The average age of a trafficking victim is 12-17 years; therefore, most resources are geared towards them. As the victim ages, he/she is more likely to be abandoned by their captors and with the lack of consolidated resources they are more likely to be re-trafficked or enter into prostitution. Aim: The final product of this capstone will be the compilation of evidence-informed resources for a mobile application, which can be utilized by victims of human trafficking. It will consolidate tools and resources necessary to assist with recovery. Methods: Market research and a series of informal interviews with the stakeholders were conducted prior to starting the capstone. Currently, mobile apps like the proposed one do not exist on the market. Literature review was conducted to identify valid and reliable assessment tools and resources by accessing governmental websites and attending local forums/ panels on human trafficking. Results: The proposed mobile application will be built using an existing platform and will include a valid risk assessment, an ecological momentary assessment, safety planning tools, a journal and informative videos. It will also include contact information on group homes/shelters, legal aid and immigration assistance. Discussion: The content will be housed on an existing mobile platform developed by the Capstone Chair. A feasibility study will be conducted with a local metro-Atlanta based advocacy group that serves aged out human trafficking victims. This study will test for the acceptability of the mobile application and readability of the assessment tool

A REVIEW OF DIGITAL FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TOOLS: FEATURES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The Internet and the software stores for mobile devices come with a huge number of digital tools for any task, and those intended for digital formative assessment (DFA) have burgeoned exponentially in the last decade. These tools vary in terms of their functionality, pedagogical quality, cost, operating systems and so forth. Teachers and learners need guidance on how to choose the most effective digital formative software to make the most out of it. This study provides an in-depth critical review of the features of most popular formative assessment tools available on the Internet. It aims to unearth what current DFA tools are capable of doing and what further developments are needed for more effective use. The tools for analysis were sampled using frequency of mentions in educational technology websites and blogs and two scholarly databases (Web of Science and Scopus). After identifying the most frequently recommended reviewed and researched formative assessment tools, the researchers inspected 14 tools in terms of various issues, ranging from platforms and devices used, item-types offered by the software, features related with monitoring student performance and providing feedback (through student/instructor dashboards), grading, scoring of open-response items and collaborative responses. The results indicated that all closed-ended items were common to all the tools examined and they were automatically scored, while only a few of them offered underdeveloped methods of grading open-ended items. All the tools provided learner analytics with diverse forms of data and different mechanisms for feedback, yet the most common form of data were immediate answers and numerical scores. It was also clear that popularity did not necessarily mean offering more functionalities and better tools. Based on the current status of the tools, avenues for further research are discussed. Keywords: Digital formative assessment, mobile learning, feedback, distance education and online learning, improving classroom teachin

Utilisation and perceptions towards smart device visual acuity assessment in Australia: a mixed methods approach

Objectives: To investigate mobile health product use in Australia and societal and clinician perceptions towards smartphone based visual acuity (VA) assessment tools. Design: Quantitative analysis of a cross-sectional survey delivered to the general public and thematic analysis of in-depth interviews of eye health clinicians. Setting: Online survey within Australia and face-to-face in-depth interviews of clinicians. Participants: 1016 adults were recruited via Survey Monkey Audience, social media (Facebook and Twitter), Rotary Australia and Lions Clubs Australia. Six clinicians were recruited from private and public settings in Melbourne, Australia. Primary and secondary outcome measures: The study assessed socio-demographic characteristics, history of mobile health product use and perceived advantages and potential drawbacks of smartphone based VA assessment tools. Results: A total of 14.4% of the study population had previously used a mobile-based health product. After adjusting for covariates, younger age (p=0.001), male gender (p=0.01) and higher income (>$45 000) were associated with increased likelihood of having used a mobile health product (p=0.005). Seventy-two per cent of participants would use an automated smartphone based VA assessment tool, provided that the accuracy was on par to that of human assessors. Convenience (37.3%) and cost-savings (15.5%) were ranked as the greatest perceived advantages. While test accuracy (50.6%), a lack of personal contact with healthcare providers (18.3%) and data security (11.9%) were the greatest concerns. Themes to emerge from clinician qualitative data included the potential benefits for identifying refractive error in patients, as well as the ability to self-monitor vision. Concerns were raised over the potential misuse of self-testing vision apps and the inability to detect pathology. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a substantial proportion of the Australian population do not use mobile health products. Furthermore, there remains notable concerns, including test accuracy and data privacy, with smartphone-based VA assessment tools by both clinicians and the public

Evaluating the use of mobile phone technology to enhance cardiovascular disease screening by community health workers

Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD),by identifying individuals at risk is a well-established, but costly strategy when based on measurements that depend on laboratory analyses. A non-laboratory, paper-based CVD risk assessment chart tool has previously been developed to make screening more affordable in developing countries. Task shifting to community health workers (CHWs) is being investigated to further scale CVD risk screening. This study aimed to develop a mobile phone CVD risk assessment application and to evaluate its impact on CHW training and the duration of screening for CVD in the community by CHWs.A feature phone application was developed using the open source online platform, CommCare(©). CHWs (n=24) were trained to use both paper-based and mobile phone CVD risk assessment tools. They were randomly allocated to using one of the risk tools to screen 10-20 community members and then crossed over to screen the same number, using the alternate risk tool. The impact on CHW training time, screening time and margin of error in calculating risk scores was recorded. A focus group discussion evaluated experiences of CHWs using the two tools.The training time was 12.3h for the paper-based chart tool and 3h for the mobile phone application. 537 people were screened. The mean screening time was 36 min (SD=12.6) using the paper-base chart tool and 21 min (SD=8.71) using the mobile phone application, p

Interoperability of Mobile Devices for Crisis Management: Outcomes of the 1st JRC ECML Crisis Technology Workshop

The 1st JRC ECML Crisis Technology Workshop on Mobile Interoperability for International Field Deployment took place in the European Crisis Management Laboratory (ECML) of the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, from 12 to 13 March 2012. 37 participants attended the workshop. They were coming from: 11 EU countries and Norway, Brazil and US, 3 UN agencies, and 2 NGOs. The workshop's purpose was to measure the added value of mobile assessment technology for rapid situation assessment in international emergency operations. Seven mobile assessment systems were deployed among the participants and needed to provide, in an interoperable way, real-time data to a single electronic On-Site Operations Coordination Centre (eOSOCC). The performance of the systems was benchmarked against a traditional paper-based assessment that was conducted simultaneously (pOSOCC). In the workshop experiment both paper and electronic On-Site Operations Coordination Centres (OSOCCs) reached a similar situation awareness in the same time, but only the eOSOCC had products available as sharable electronic maps and documents. The final map with all incoming feeds in the eOSOCC was very cluttered and there was considerable information overload. Therefore sophisticated editing, filtering, and visualization functionalities have to be available for eOSOCC staff. Mobile technology is mature and can be deployed in an interoperable way. However, then the information of each system leaves the proprietary applications for processing and analyzing the data. The main impression from the eOSOCC team was that there is a lot of potential. Having access in real-time to field information was felt to be extremely useful. Still missing are tools and procedures for exploiting this benefit. Most important are tools to curate, filter, manipulate, edit, and delete assessment information of all teams. A dedicated eOSOCC software suite is needed that gives full control over the data to the eOSOCC staff.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

A review of the use of information and communication technologies for dietary assessment

Presently used dietary-assessment methods often present difficulties for researchers and respondents, and misreporting errors are common. Methods using information and communication technologies (ICT) may improve quality and accuracy. The present paper presents a systematic literature review describing studies applying ICT to dietary assessment. Eligible papers published between January 1995 and February 2008 were classified into four assessment categories: computerised assessment; personal digital assistants (PDA); digital photography; smart cards. Computerised assessments comprise frequency questionnaires, 24 h recalls (24HR) and diet history assessments. Self-administered computerised assessments, which can include audio support, may reduce literacy problems, be translated and are useful for younger age groups, but less so for those unfamiliar with computers. Self-administered 24HR utilising computers yielded comparable results as standard methods, but needed supervision if used in children. Computer-assisted interviewer-administered recall results were similar to conventional recalls, and reduced inter-interviewer variability. PDA showed some advantages but did not reduce underreporting. Mobile phone meal photos did not improve PDA accuracy. Digital photography for assessing individual food intake in dining facilities was accurate for adults and children, although validity was slightly higher with direct visual observation. Smart cards in dining facilities were useful for measuring food choice but not total dietary intake. In conclusion, computerised assessments and PDA are promising, and could improve dietary assessment quality in some vulnerable groups and decrease researcher workload. Both still need comprehensive evaluation for micronutrient intake assessment. Further work is necessary for improving ICT tools in established and new methods and for their rigorous evaluatio