1.    Introduction

The R³ project was funded by the Higher Education Academy to conduct research on the in-classroom use of mobile technologies to support formative assessment and feedback.

Thirteen members of the seven faculties at Kingston University participated and were mentored by two mentors, Andreas Panayiotidis and George Masikunas. The thirteen academic staff are:

·         Faculty of Art and Design and Architecture: Helen Potkin and Amanda Sleet

·         Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: Harriet Tenenbaum

·         Faculty of Business and Law: Desmond Doran and Rebecca Lees

·         Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics: James Denholm-Price and Dimitris Tsaptsinos

·         Faculty of Engineering: Mohamed Askari and Yawei Wang

·         Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences: Anne Ferguson and Wilson Muleya

·         Faculty of Science: Sunil Chhatralia and Stuart Downward.

2.    Rational of project

The use of mobile technologies can facilitate the process of providing rapid feedback to students. Researchers have shown the importance of providing feedback to students on their understanding. Feedback is associated with improved academic achievement (Hargreaves 2005; Hodgen & Marshall 2005; William et al 2004) and students who receive feedback outperform those who do not (Black & William 1998). In addition, feedback is most beneficial for low-achieving students (Black & William 1998). Equally important is the immediacy of the feedback (Tilson et al 1998; Yorke 2007; Yorke 2005; Scheeler et al 2006; Di Battista et al 2004; Gibbs & Simpson 2002). In addition, the use of mobile technologies can facilitate the process of identifying possible gaps between what is taught and what is being learned by providing information about student learning to the lecturer.  The lecturer can identify students’ misconceptions, challenging concepts, and adapt teaching practices accordingly.

3.    Methodology

A mixed-methods methodology was used to address the following three sets of research questions:

—  Research questions related to technology

¡  Under which conditions can each of the technologies be effectively and efficiently used for formative assessment and feedback?

—  Research questions related to student learning

¡  What is the impact of the in-class use of mobile technologies for formative assessment and feedback on:

÷  Students’ attitudes toward the module?

÷  On students’ conceptual understanding?

÷  On students’ test results?

—  Research questions related to teaching

¡  What is the impact of the R³ project on:

÷  Teaching practices (and will they be sustained?)?

÷  Assessment practices (and will they be sustained?)?

÷  What indicators are there of institutional commitment?

Data collection instruments consisted of students and staff questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations and reflective journals.

4.    Findings

a.    Technology

A range of mobile technologies was available to participants. The Electronic Voting System was the most used, followed by the Tablet PCs. Other technologies used were the Blackboard content system, SchoolPad Interactive Pads, and the Text messaging system.

b.    Students

Students’ responses were overwhelmingly positive. Students were asked to what extent they agreed with statements related to their lecturers’ use of the mobile technologies. 

The students (somewhat) agreed that the use of mobile technologies:

—  made it more enjoyable to attend the classroom sessions: 89.3%

—  made the classroom sessions more interactive: 90.5%

—  had a positive impact on their motivation to study for this module: 74.7%

—  was useful for feedback on their understanding: 79.1%

—  provided information about their misunderstanding of certain components: 73.0%

—  had a positive impact on their understanding of the material taught: 81.4%

—  assisted them in focusing their study efforts: 69.5%

—  overall, the use of mobile technologies was a positive experience for them as a student: 87.2%

In addition, 91.7% of the students would advice their lecturer to keep using mobile technologies in his/her modules and 88.5% of the students would like other lecturers to start using mobile technologies in their modules.

c.    Participants

Participants reported an increased level of satisfaction with their own teaching practices related to assessment and feedback. They also reported an increase level of perceptions on students’ satisfaction with the module and with assessment and feedback in particular. The participants felt a greater level of classroom interaction and student participation and engagement. They also gained insight on their students’ understanding of certain components, which gave them information used to reflect upon their teaching practices. Among the challenges were access to the technologies, time it takes to learn, setup and prepare for the use of the technologies, however, the biggest challenge was to make pedagogical changes. All participants are still using the mobile technologies in their teaching practices this academic year.

5.    2009-2010

Six of last year’s participants have taken on the role of mentor this year and are supporting new academic staff members. Please feel free to contact one of the mentors if you are interested to testing the use of mobile technologies in your modules.

·         Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: Harriet Tenenbaum

·         Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics: James Denholm-Price Faculty of Engineering: Mohamed Askari

·         Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences: Anne Ferguson and Wilson Muleya

·         Faculty of Science: Stuart Downward.

·         Other: Andreas Panayiotidis

6.    More information

Please contact Dr Ann Ooms by e-mail (a.ooms@kingston.ac.uk) if you would like to receive additional information about this research project.

            Dr. Ann Ooms, Senior Lecturer, ADC