TRENDS SNAPSHOT 5 TRENDS IN MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
• Facilitating Student Life • More Effective Communication • Chatbots and Virtual Assistants • Enhancing Learning • Preventing Distraction
Laura Lyon for University of South Florida
obile technology has Among college students, the number is changed the way college even higher. A survey at the University students — and most other of Central Florida, a leader in harnessing adults — live their lives. mobile technology for students, showed 99 MIncreasingly, college administrators and percent of students had a smartphone. faculty members are recognizing that Colleges should not ignore that reality. transformation and looking for ways to “They’re using it whether you want them deliver information to students via the to or not,” says education technology devices in their hands. consultant and blogger Phil Hill of mobile A significant majority of American technology. adults — 81 percent, according to the Pew Rather than banning or ignoring Research Center — own a smartphone. mobile tech, many forward-thinking
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bit.ly/campusm-demo scholars and universities are looking at ways the student government wanted to buy a to use its features — its portability, geolocation safety app for students, but Seilhamer wasn’t capabilities, and audio and video abilities, sure students would download another app. as well as the fact that students have their Instead, Seilhamer worked with the student smartphones with them almost constantly representatives to add safety features to the — to enhance learning, facilitate the student existing university app. The safety features will experience, and communicate more effectively include a “safe walk” feature, where students with students. can send their location and destination to Here are five mobile-tech trends that are a friend who can track them as they walk to gaining traction in higher education. make sure they get there. Facilitating Student Life More Effective Communication At University of Central Florida, the What do you do when students don’t university’s mobile app is a one-stop spot for open campus emails or letters? Universities information on campus life. In addition to are shifting the way they communicate with serving as a portal for final grades and class students by turning to the delivery method registrations, the app tracks campus shuttles, students use to communicate in their personal shows available parking spots, allows students lives — texting on their phones. to check university email, and shows balances College admissions departments send on their accounts. texts to interested students. Alumni affairs UCF uses mobile technology to run and staff members who know younger alumni are enhance campus events, such as orientation, unlikely to pick up their phones for a call will move in-day, and “Pegasus Palooza” (a text instead with gentle nudges about events welcome event for new students), says Ryan in their area or annual giving days they want Seilhamer, the university’s assistant director them to participate in. Universities can also of mobile strategy and innovation. In the past send texts to remind new students of all the three years, the university has hosted about 40 things they need to complete in order to start events on the app, offering students immediate classes. access to schedules, maps, guides, and other Winston-Salem State University is using features on “a platform they can trust,” mobile technology to help reduce summer Seilhamer says. melt, in part by sending new students text For example, the app’s move-in day feature messages about submitting financial forms, helps ease the many logistical challenges final transcripts, and immunization records. students and parents face during what can These messages, which are sent starting in late be a hectic and stressful transition with spring and continue throughout the summer, information about where and how students have helped ensure students, many of whom can check in to their dorm rooms, where are the first in their family to go to college, are students and their families can park or drop prepared when they arrive on campus. off bags, and how to set up Wi-Fi or whom to In the past, the university was contact if something is not working. communicating this information through The app’s orientation feature has been emails, but not all students were opening or especially popular, with 90 percent of first-year reading them, says Joel Lee, assistant vice students and their families using it, Seilhamer chancellor for enrollment management. Young says. Parents and families even requested people communicate most often with their more content for them on the app. mobile devices, so the university decided to The app’s multi-feature design is try reaching them in a way they were sure the intentional. Seilhamer says he has learned students would see. students are not interested in downloading The “Ram Ready” campaign, which also multiple apps from the university and want all included emails and social media messages the features in one place (they tend to check in addition to texts, has been a success, Lee email through the app rather than download says. Enrollment is up, and calls to enrollment a separate email app, for example). Recently, management office are down. Winston-Salem
5 TRENDS IN MOBILE TECHNOLOGY 3 State is now expanding this to prospective at any time for help. If the chatbot cannot students to help with the admission process. answer the question, Crompton is notified. At Winston-Salem State, they use data The chatbot is in the pilot stage now, with to make sure unnecessary messages aren’t the potential to be adopted in more classes being sent, like a text reminder to register for across the university, she says. housing sent to a student who has already done so. “The last thing we want is students to feel like we’re spamming their phones,” Lee says. “The last thing we Chatbots and Virtual Assistants One way universities can make sure students’ questions are answered at any time want is students to feel is to use artificial intelligence chatbots or virtual assistants. These tools can answer like we’re spamming common questions 24 hours a day and also route questions they cannot answer to people who can help. their phones.” Winston-Salem State’s enrollment management department worked with a vendor to develop “Winston,” a text-message virtual assistant that sends reminder texts Enhancing Learning to new students. They gave Winston a more According to Crompton, mobile casual tone (using jokes or emojis) than technology allows learning to take place university emails, Lee says. seamlessly both inside the classroom and out. Students seemed to find Winston’s features Just as Pokémon Go uses players’ locations — including its 24/7 availability — appealing. as part of the game, students can hold up The university found students texted Winston a mobile device in their surroundings to more often outside of office hours. In Winston’s access more information. For example, says introductory text, which offered the option to Crompton, engineers studying stormwater opt out of future texts, less than 1 percent did, systems can hold up a device outside and, Lee says. And some of the students responded using an app that uses augmented reality, see as if Winston were real: One of the common an overlay of the image on their screen that responses to the introductory text was “thank shows what the system looks like underneath you.” the ground. Such programs also allow students If the students still have outstanding items to examine the parts from different angles. to turn in, Winston asks if students would Mobile technology can also help students like a follow-up phone conversation with a who aren’t able to go on a site. Crompton has counselor. If they say yes, a counselor will call, worked with a group of geology students who Lee says. Because the student is expecting a could not visit a typical field site because of call, campus officials have found that he or she mobility issues. They worked on iPads with will be more likely to answer the phone. geology students who were at a field site in Helen Crompton, an associate professor coastal Ireland with mobile devices of their of teaching and learning at Old Dominion own. Using video conferencing and the University, studies mobile technology and says geolocation features of the tablets, along with artificial intelligence will be the next big game data collection tools, the two groups were changer for society and higher education. In able to work together to study and record rock her classes, she uses a chatbot that can answer formations. simple questions, such as due dates for work, Inside the classroom, Crompton uses thus saving Crompton time and energy to mobile technology to quickly assess where focus on working one-on-one with students or her students are in their learning. She has on her research. Students can also text “DIVA” them scan a QR code with their phones when
5 TRENDS IN MOBILE TECHNOLOGY 4 they enter class, which pulls up questions questions that require students to type and that the students must answer. It also asks submit longer answers, and share student if they did the reading and if they need help responses and examples of good work. understanding something. The information Yaros teaches the entire class on the goes to Crompton’s laptop, and she can see Nearpod app. Students who click out of the app which students need her help and if she needs will miss something. It’s a change for students to go over certain concepts again. It’s a digital used to watching slides in the front of the room record that helps keep students accountable and simultaneously checking social media or for the required reading and also alerts her to texting — on their own devices. anyone who is in danger of falling behind. “I’ve tried to turn that model upside down, on its head,” he says. Preventing Distraction Holding students’ attention during a No question, mobile devices in the 70-minute class requires a different mind-set, classroom can be disruptive. Social media, focused on how information appears on the texting, and checking emails all divert students’ tablets and the different ways that technology attention to the lesson at hand. Some faculty can be used to engage students during the members ban mobile technology. Others, lectures, he says. That includes making such as Ron Yaros, an associate professor of sure the slides include a balance of text and journalism at the University of Maryland at graphics, and breaking up the slides with class College Park, are looking at ways to harness discussions and quizzes. His research suggests mobile technology to minimize distraction. that using mobile technology this way shows Yaros took it as a challenge to figure out improved quiz scores over classes that did not a way to turn a distracting device into the use technology at all. Mobile devices have such exclusive learning tool in his classroom. a powerful pull on students — when we use Students in his class use iPads loaded with them in smart ways, they can be effective tools an app called Nearpod. On that app, Yaros for learning, he says. “You cannot say tech is can show slides, offer quizzes, ask open-ended always a foe.”
5 Trends in Mobile Technology was written by Kathryn Masterson. The Chronicle is fully responsible for the report’s editorial content. ©2019 by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced without prior written permission of The Chronicle. For permission requests, contact us at [email protected]