THE CHALLENGES OF DETERMINING STUDENT ENGAGE IN A DIGITAL, MOBILE LEARNING AGE

ABSTRACT

The use of mobile learning, and technology overall, continues to be an emerging concept in the area of teaching and learning. Discerning which types of technology work most effectively for student learning, for particular courses, and in what context, requires considerable intent and experimentation. This study explores the use of mobile learning applications, specifically Twitter and Kahoot, on overall student engagement. This is a quasi-experiment in which the experimental group of a course received mobile learning enhancements and the control group received traditional instructional methods. Surveys were administered to students in both courses midway and at the end of the course in order to measure and quantify engagement.

Results were mixed. Midway through the course, results from the surveys indicated equal levels of engagement, but through different means. By the end of the course, students in the control group (i.e., traditional instruction) indicated greater levels of engagement. Course outcomes were also analyzed for both groups. The control group received higher marks on their final projects and overall course evaluation, although again -these projects were derived from a historical approach to teaching and learning. Reflection on these exploratory data and findings, though, give rise to larger methodological concerns over how to best measure student engagement in a digital age and how to move beyond our traditional methods of measuring engagement.