The University in your pocket: opening access to learning and support Julie Usher The University of Northampton Blackboard Users’ Conference, 5 th Jan 2012
The University in your pocket: opening access to learning and support
Nov 28, 2014
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The University in your pocket: opening access to learning and support
Julie Usher
The University of Northampton
Blackboard Users’ Conference, 5th Jan 2012
Drivers
Why mobile?
– Strategic planning and pedagogy
– Marketing
– Demand
Anticipated challenges to openness (pt 1)
Why not?
“not everyone has a smartphone”
“not everyone can ‘do’ mobile learning”
Challenges or opportunities?
1. Inclusion
– Device provision
– Wireless campus
– Mi-fi units
Challenges or opportunities?
2. Accessibility
– Choice
– Personalisation
– Control
3. Usability and skills gaps
– Training and support
What are the needs?
Different audiences (students, staff, prospects)
What’s possible?
Anticipated challenges to openness (pt 2)
Where’s the data?
Creating a ‘one stop shop’
Web team and CIS
Marketing
Library systems
LearnTech
Is it working? Measuring success
Analytics:
1000 downloads one week after launch
>3000 downloads after one month
6575 downloads to date
5 months from purchase to deployment
Most popular link was timetables with 21,686 hits in the first month
Measuring success: what they said
• Twitter (#iNorthampton)• Email• Blog• Spot surveys• Focus groups• Pilots
Get the @UniNorthants app immediately! Dream!!
Get the @UniNorthants app immediately! Dream!!
@UniNorthants has an app!! This is tres exciting! I'm actually having a physical reaction I am that excited. Will make life so much easier!
@UniNorthants has an app!! This is tres exciting! I'm actually having a physical reaction I am that excited. Will make life so much easier!
@UniNorthants now have their own app. Snazzy.
@UniNorthants now have their own app. Snazzy.
Am not tryna gas but thank God for the Northampton app because now I left my timetable at home, I would have been lost.
Am not tryna gas but thank God for the Northampton app because now I left my timetable at home, I would have been lost.
Bloody good idea!Bloody good idea!
Other challenges
• Project convergence (all under one roof.....where possible)
• Skills gaps
• Working within different time zones
• Challenging platforms (Blackberry)
Top five tips
1. Identify needs (and decide which ones you can meet)
2. Bring together a project team with range of experience.
3. Find a provider who can satisfy the immediate need and
provide extensions for the future (SDKs).
4. The app stores are your friends (?)
5. Stay in the loop
Next Steps
• Kaizen...
– Piloting the mobile VLE
– SDK developments and extensions
– Strategies for engagement (bribery etc.)
– Investigating support models
– iNorthampton phase 2
References etc.
Useful links
•More about the iNorthampton project:http://www.northampton.ac.uk/mobile
•Guidelines on accessibility for the mobile web:http://www.w3.org/Mobile/
•TechDis on mobile learning: http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/investinyourself/freeresources/accessiblemobilelearning
•Traxler, J. (2010) “Students and mobile devices.” ALT-J Research in Learning Technology [online] 18.2, p149-160. Available from: http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=0968%2d7769&volume=18&issue=2&spage=149 [Accessed 3rd January 2012]
•More info on JADU MyAPI (presentation by Steve Martin): http://speakerdeck.com/u/s2martin/p/inorthampton-and-jadu
Image credits
•Photography by Rob Farmer, University of Northampton
•3d characters from http://www.canstockphoto.com/3pod
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