Mobile‐Based micro‐Learning and Assessment: Impact on learning performance and motivation of high school students
Abstract
Mobile‐based micro‐learning has gained a lot of attention lately, especially for work‐based and corporate training. It combines features of mobile learning and micro‐learning to deliver small learning units and short‐term learning activities. The current study uses the lens of the Self‐Determination Theory of motivation and proposes a series of Mobile‐Based micro‐Learning and Assessment (MBmLA) homework activities to improve high school students' motivation and learning performance in science. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. One hundred and eight students of a senior‐level high school in Europe were randomly assigned into either a control condition (conventional paper‐based homework approach) or an experimental (MBmLA approach) condition. The study carried out for a period of 5 weeks. From the experimental results, it was found that, in comparison to the conventional paper‐based approach, the proposed MBmLA approach enhanced students' basic psychological needs of self‐perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness and improved students' exam performance in terms of factual knowledge. Moreover, students self‐reported greater learning satisfaction with the mobile‐based microassessment and micro‐learning homework tasks. Implications on educational practices as well as future research are discussed.
Lay Description
What is already known about this topic:
- Mobile learning has the potential to promote learning and motivation
- Micro‐learning is an effective training approach in work‐based and corporate environments
- Mobile learning is an appropriate delivery mode for micro‐learning and microassessment
What this paper adds:
- The study proposes a series of mobile‐based micro‐learning and assessment activities for secondary school students of science
- The proposed approach improves student learning performance in terms of factual knowledge
- The proposed approach enhances student motivation in terms of autonomy, competence and relatedness
- Students self‐report greater learning satisfaction compared to the paper‐based approach
Implications for practice and/or policy:
- Self Determination Theory provides an appropriate theoretical framework to study student motivation in mobile‐assisted learning in the context of secondary education
- The use of mobile devices for micro‐learning and micro‐assessment can be an effective teaching and learning strategy in the context of secondary education
Number of times cited: 1
- Kleopatra Nikolopoulou, Mobile learning usage and acceptance: perceptions of secondary school students, Journal of Computers in Education, 10.1007/s40692-018-0127-8, (2018).
