Research centre

Communication and Computing Research Centre

Date
2013 - current

Tags
Information Technology and Interactions

Insight

Research Degree Project

My PhD research title is "Framing pedagogical requirements for mobile learning based on Task Model". This research study investigates on contributing factors in the Task Model that could influence pedagogical design of a mobile learning application. The aim of the research is to capture appropriate pedagogical requirements to inform the design of educational application in effort to enhance learner experience in mobile environment.

The research objectives are: to determine the learning activities performed and resources accessed by learner in mobile environment; to gain insight into how control, context and communication factors can support pedagogical needs for mobile environment; to evaluate learners' experiences in mobile learning through the integration of a techno-pedagogical tool; to recommend a pedagogical requirement framework to appraise the mobile learning design and to recommend a techno-pedagogical tool to students, lecturers and universities. The key research question is 'How can pedagogical requirements be met by the Task Model in order to provide rich learning experience in mobile environment'.

This research uses inductive approach to research design as its motivation is to tackle the real world current issue in the field of mobile learning. It basically relies upon case study and both qualitative and quantitative techniques for data collection and analysis. The case study will involve a group of student participants who are voluntarily giving their informed consent to the researcher.

The participants will be recruited through advertisements and have some particular criteria. The case study will be designed based on a learning scenario to explore Sheffield Hallam University using a prototype to support the participants' learning activities, communication and collaboration.

The data collection techniques used are questionnaire, direct observation and semi-structured interview. For qualitative data, the analysis follows the grounded theory approach that is a systematic development of theory out of data. Whilst for quantitative data, a statistical analysis tool called SPSS will be used to analyse the close-ended questions in questionnaire.

The most interesting part of this research is the development of a techno-pedagogical tool to support learners in mobile environment. This tool is initially developed as a prototype that could be installed on participants' mobile devices which running Android-based platform. In addition, this research will develop a framework to inform the design of mobile learning application for educational purpose. The feedback received from the case study will be used to validate and refine the tool and framework before recommending them to universities for supporting their students learning on the move.

Project Supervisors

• Dr Martin Beer  (Director of Study)
• Dr Paul Crowther (Second Supervisor)

Researchers involved

Abdurrahman Jalil - Research Degree Student