The proliferation of mobile devices like Smartphones and tablets such as Apple’s iPad is readily apparent on today’s college campuses. Students and faculty have an expectation of mobility and anytime, anywhere access to virtually every aspect of their daily life, including their education. Furthermore, mobile devices have become critical to the businesses and industries for which we are preparing our students.
Currently, most learning objects - materials designed to enhance learning - are delivered using the Internet. Generally, they are provided to the students using the College’s Learning Management System (ANGEL). While this approach provides a significant benefit for students by giving them access to course materials 24/7 using laptops and desktop computers, many of these learning objects are not available on or optimized for smaller mobile devices like iPhones, iPads, Android Smartphones and the like.
What is the reason for this problem? Many learning objects were developed with applications that create Adobe Flash format files which may not run on some of these mobile devices. For example, Apple doesn’t support the Flash player required for much of this type of content. Additionally, content developed for a desktop or laptop computer may not have the correct screen dimensions to display properly on mobile devices. Lastly, applications designed for a traditional keyboard and mouse-based user interface may not be suitable for mobile devices using a touch-based interface.
One of the goals of this project is to investigate and migrate some existing learning objects to different types of mobile devices in order to see if current course materials can be leveraged within this new mobile learning pedagogy. Can we reuse or re-publish materials that have already proven successful in student learning and deliver them on a variety of devices that students rely on daily or even hourly?
Another goal for the project is to develop new learning objects that can benefit from some of the unique technology, such as a touch screen interface, that today’s mobile devices support.
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