Mobile technologies The NKI case study Morten Flate Paulsen Professor of Online Education NKI Distance Education The slides are available via: http://home.nettskolen.com/~morten/ A presentation (30 min) at the EADL conference in Dublin, May 24. 2007.
NKI Internet College: April 2007 www.nettskolen.com Operated by NKI Distance Education (www.nki.no) Online education since 1987 (About 80 000 course enrolments) Broad spectrum of subjects from secondary to master level About 470 distance education courses online About 8800 online students in at least 37 countries About 70 % women Revenue of 8 million Euros in 2006 You may start whenever you like Individual progress plans Always room for more students Exams at local schools and embassies Online students get better grades 2
All time high: 14621 in March 2007, 8800 (60.2%) online 16000 Active students at the end of each month: Jan 2000 - Mar 2007 Active students 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 Active students in total Active correspondence students Active online students 0 1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 Months since turn of millenium 3
NKI s EU-supported e-learning projects 1. E-Learning Quality for SMEs (2005-2007) 2. Megatrends in e-learning provision (2005-2007) 3. Delphi: Analyses of European e-learning projects (2003-2004) See also the Delphi Observatory 4. Boldic: A ODL network for Nordic and Baltic countries (2002-2003) 5. Student support services in e-learning (2002-2003) 6. Web-edu: A Study of Learning Management Systems for Online Education. (2001-2002) 7. CISAER: Courses on the Internet: Survey, Analysis, Evaluation, Recommendation (1999-2000) 8. Mediaweb: Multimedia Courseware On the World Wide Web (1999-2000) 9. MMWWWK: Multimedia WWW Kernel For Distance Learning (1998-1999) 4
NKI s EU-supported m-learning projects 1. M-learning: From e-learning to m-learning (2001-2002) 2. Mobile Learning: The Next Generation of Learning (2003-2005) 3. Incorporating mobile learning into mainstream education and training (2005-2007) 4. The role of mobile learning in European education (2006-2008) 5
Our definition of mobile learning mlearning is learning that can take place anytime, anywhere with the help of a mobile computer device. The device must be capable of presenting learning content and providing wireless two-way communication between teacher(s) and student(s). Typically, an educational organization administrates both the course content and the communication services. 6
From e-learning to m-learning (2001-2002) Technology: Content and communication: Pocket PC/PDA Learning content to be downloaded Mobile phone Portable keyboard Online access to forums for reading/writing E-mail communication with attachments Scandinavia s first Mobile Student? www.studymentor.com/studymentor/mobilelearning.pdf 7
M-learning the next generation of learning (2003-2005) Main features explained in a video that was made for an internal project meeting: www.nettskolen.com/video/mlearning/mobile_presentation.wmv All online courses and services should be accessible via PDAs without special adaptions DSL, which gives control over communication costs Always online PDA environment via wireless networks at work and at home High bandwidth, which gives fast downloading of course content and use of audio, video and advanced graphics Main challenge: Small screen presentation and navigation 8
Features NKI focused on (1) Navigation structure, mobile access to e-mail and discussion fora Flash and Java for demonstrations, tests, etc. 9
Features NKI focused on (2) Synchronous communication: MSN chatting and Skype telephony Video Speech synthesis and accessibility Accessibility: Online Education for All 10
Screen shots from SPICE 604, Specialization Program in International Online Education
Some flash assignments on the PDA Drag-and-drop assignment, - First aid course Boat Operators Certificate Game - Take your boat through rough waters guided by the navigation marks and beacons Multiple-choice assignment, - From the course Sales and Services
The Incorporation of Mobile Learning into Mainstream Education and Training (2005 2007) NKI deliberates mobile phone services including: Welcome message with username/password and basic information on how to log on to the web pages Password retrieval Reminders to students for exam registration Reminders to students who deliver assignments late Notification to teachers when students deliver assignments Notification to students when grades are registered To use a web interface to allow teachers and administrators to send SMS to students and allow students to send SMS to one another Allow students to upload pictures and text to their personal pages It is essential to develop cost efficient solutions that provide these services for all students in all courses and programs.
Learn to Learn (link for mobile phones) 14 14
Example 1. Prospective registrations Jan. 2006 Via www.nki.no: 6124 Via SMS: 3611 Via telephone: 144 512 students enrolled without being registered as prospectives 15
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Example 2. Data quality, e-mail addresses and SMS We struggle with incorrect e-mail addresses to students. In September 2006 we wanted to distribute an e-mail newsletter to our 7445 online students. There were 42 students with the address not@registered. We distributed the newsletter to the remaining 7403 students. We received error messages for 421 students (6.2 % errors). We had mobile numbers for 207 of these 421 students. All these 207 received an SMS request to correct their e-mail addresses. This resulted in 52 error messages, which revealed a need to improve the quality of our mobile numbers. The remaining 155 SMS messages resulted in 108 corrected e- mail addresses. 17
The role of mobile learning in European education (2006-2008) Background and challenge: Nearly all European students own a mobile phone The problem is that they use their phone constantly but yet not in education The objective of this project is to bring this unprecedented ownership of mobile devices into European education and training. Main activities and products of the project: development of a policy document on the role of mobile learning survey and presentation of the state of the art of mobile learning in selected countries world-wide survey and present an overview of the role of mobile learning in the 25 states today, including achievements of mobile learning and pedagogical aspects of mobile learning adapting instructor led training and e-learning materials to mobile learning development, adaptation, teaching and evaluation of mobile learning courseware for real students. 18
Mobile Learning in Japan Rekkedal, T. 2007. 28 pages This survey of mobile learning and research on mobile learning in Japan has shown that Japan in many respects is in the forefront of applications of mobile devices in education. Thanks to information from a number of Japanese researchers in the field we have managed to identify a number of research and development projects on mobile learning in Japan. On the other hand, we feel that there is no doubt that there probably are more examples of applications of mobile devices in education in Japan that we have not been able to discover partly because much information is published in Japanese only. From the general overview of Japanese education it seems that in spite of being one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, it seems that open and distance learning is less developed than in many countries in the western world. Thus, the use of mobile learning as part of distance education and a means to make distance education more flexible and more accessible to learners on the move is not typical for the development of mobile learning in Japan. 19
Thank You! Questions? The presentation and contact information is available via: http://home.nettskolen.com/~morten/