Needs Assessment

Evaluate to build a Tailored Framework for Mobile Learning

This article is a Needs Assessment (NA) conducted to improve the design of instruction with mobile considerations for a private school in Dubai, during the pandemic situation. These considerations will ideally support the instruction to improve the performance of the students and augment their skills while learning with technology. Therefore, the approach of this article is a design-based approach (DBR), where we will explore design approaches to enhance the instructional design with mobile learning capabilities. The school will try to specify the theories of work that will enhance the instruction; describe a workflow that will include steps and strategies to leverage the learning outcome of the students; incorporate products, and solutions from mLearning to get a specific outcome, and thus, come out with an instructional framework needed to implement mobile learning strategies. To do so, the school decided to conduct Needs Assessment to be able to generate a framework that suits their learners and the design of their instruction and curriculum. Then, to identify the needs (gaps) to be readdressed by a strategic framework of instruction and enhance the skills of the students. The m-learning will be measured during the collection of data on two perspectives: subjective factors and objective factors for learning. Finally, a report will be delivered to the school administration within three weeks of work as the final framework for mobile learning implementation.

INTRODUCTION

Mobile learning introduced complex design for learning with very few guidelines on how to implement it (Plomp & Nieveen, 2007), that is why it is important to identify, before any implementation, a specific framework to be able to incorporate sound methodology of work that matches the instructional design of the school. And to be able to collect information and build an instructional framework that the school will need, it is important to conduct Needs Assessment to study the environment, attitudes, and the engagement of the audience of the school in question, and define the gaps and the needs between the old instruction and the new/desired instruction. This NA will help find the challenges and the gaps to readdress the design by identifying the requirements needed to upgrade the instructional framework with mLearning approaches.

NEEDS ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES

The aim of this needs assessment is not only to resize the existing courses of the school eLearning platform only but to optimize the learning outcome using approaches from learning theories and mobile learning interface capabilities to build a sound framework. Therefore, the objectives of this NA is to find the following needs:

1. Identify the learning capabilities of mLearning.

2. Determine the cases for learning that allow mLearning.

3. Identify the need for mLearning and the optimization of the learning design.

4. Understand the need to shift the learning approaches for mLearning capabilities and their appropriate use to redesign the instruction.

a. Questions:

The questions that the above objectives are imposing for this study are:

• Does the school need to incorporate mLearning?

• What are the approaches that the school will need to incorporate mLearning in their instruction?

• How to optimize eLearning design with mLearning?

b. Methodology:

1. Determine the Targeted Audience: This NA is targeting a large audience in the school: K-12 students, teachers, and every educational staff who is interested in participating in the implementation of mLearning. Therefore, the survey conducted was based on qualitative and quantitative questions with students, parents, and academics (teachers, instructional designers from different stages) to collect diverse data (random sampling).

2. Instruments of the data collection: The sampling was collected from the most representative persona for the use of mobile learning to get the closest responses to the target audience of the school (K12- students, parents, and academics). Also, the design-based approach of this study requires a meaningful sampling as it is mentioned in the literature review, (Geuna, 2000, p.335), it requires random sampling that we call probability-based design. In addition to that, and in the same reference, it is mentioned that design-based sampling does not require assumptions regarding the population under focus. However, this type of sampling requires high diversity in the population, which is something available in this school population as it is a private school and the population used has different nationalities, thus the collection of a rich and diverse data is possible. In addition to the particularity of a diverse population as a requirement for the design-based random approach, it is also important to have a hight number in the sampling population, and as this was not possible for the limitations of time and number of volunteered people to participate in this survey, the researcher followed mixed sampling approaches (Plomp, 2007) to get meaningful data by targeting small population who can give relatively meaningful information from parents, students, and class teachers. To avoid uncertain results, the researcher made the condition of having old academics and students (5 years enrolled/working in the same school) as a condition to gain specified data collection to the environment of the school. The survey methods were varying between qualitative and quantitative data collection surveys (Google forms). For the collection of data, qualitative interviews were conducted by phones to introduce the concept of conferencing with mobiles, and the quantitative surveys were emailed to the concerned people. The following questions were asked for the teachers and the instructional designers (educators):

Educators’ Qualitative Survey Questions

(Descriptive answers required)

[1] What are the changes that you can incorporate in your learning method when we will introduce mLearning?

[2] Did you participate in or conducted mLearning designed lessons?

[3] Do you have a particular process to follow or model for mLearning requirements?

[4] What are the technics in teaching that will enable students to perform better when using mLearning in classrooms?

[5] How to upgrade the school eLearning platform with more features that will allow students to have a comfortable mLearning experience at home?

Parent’s Quantitative Survey Questions

The following sample questions were used for the parents’ survey

[1] Do you use a mobile, laptop, or tablet to study at home?

[2] Which device is more helpful for your child to submit, read, and conduct any activity from school?

[3] How do you find the interface of the school eLearning platform on your personal device?

[4] Do you allow your child to work on his personal device in the school?

[5] When do you feel that your child is engaged in his learning?

Student’s Quantitative Survey Questions

The following sample questions were used for the students’ survey

[1] Do you prefer to use hard copy books or soft copy books from the school?

[2] Do you prefer to submit written (with a pen and a paper) assignments scanned and posted or to work on your device directly?

[3] When do you feel that the content of the school is easy to read?

[4] Do you think online live sessions are easier when using smartphones?

[5] How much time do you spend learning when using your smartphone?

The information collected during the surveys (qualitative and quantitative) helped the researcher understand well the design requirements of mobile learning and how to implement it in the school. The following represents the usage of technology per the choice of the sample population.

Technological Resources

To conduct the present NA, the school used many technologies to collect data. First of all, the administration e-mailed all the school community to inform them about the decision of conducting studies for the possibility of implementing mobile learning as students will be bringing their personal devices to work in the classroom during the pandemic situation (COVID-19) and that no sharing is allowed preventing the spread of the virus. That is to explain to the school community how the current situation is going to change their learning. Then, the school started the collection of the data through surveys made on Google Forms to collect quantitative data. More qualitative data was collected from the school academics using web conferencing for interviews on smartphones. Google Classroom for higher grades and Schoology LMS for primary students are other technologies the school used for the delivery of online learning when students are at home to study the ability of these platforms to deliver to the school students the right mlearning.

Human Resources

The human resources that participated to conduct the following NA are • The researcher (me) • The teachers for their knowledge of the levels across the school • The head of the departments for their input about the assessments and the course contents • SEND teachers for the requirements and adaptations the school will need to include for SEND students • IT department for their input about the technologies used • Instructional designers and SME’s across the levels for their knowledge about the school curriculum and course materials • The school stakeholders for their input about the funding and material limitations. • The students and the parents were also included in the NA while collecting data for their user experience (UX) that would help in reshaping the school teaching and learning.

Process of the data:

The questions designed for the collection of data were divided into subjective and objective factors.

• Subjective factors: are all about learning motivation, learning interest, classroom attraction, persistence, assessment methods, and teaching online and in-classroom practices.

• Objective factors: are all about ease of use, platform facilities, features and interfaces, and the way students learn (time and device choices).

Therefore, the findings will be reported according to the above factors.

OBJECTIVE FACTORS | • Students and parents prefer tablets for reading and assignment work • Smartphones are mostly used by parents to check on their children work, assignments’ updates and school reports only • The LMSs used by the school are both designed to accept mobile and tablet interfaces, which made the percentage of the data in the choice between both learning devices very close • The majority of the participants in the survey agreed on the fact that the online sessions are much easier when using mobile phones or tablets as the quality of the voice is better than using laptops • Instructional designers admitted that they researched the topic of creating an instructional framework based on mobile learning strategies, but did not come across good mobile learning that is specific to smartphones only, they all agreed on the fact that the confusion is about the device to use as laptops are considered mobile learning but in fact, they are not as much portable as smartphones, and are not as instant accessible as laptops and they have user support features that keep the device up to date.

SUBJECTIVE FACTORS | • Teachers and educators could not understand the requirements of mobile learning and the capabilities of the mobile device for learning. The school will try to explain the difference in teaching and learning and the capabilities of mobile learning in the redesigning of the educational material • Touchscreen was the only interaction that the academics could include in their course design by using applications that allow students to answer by writing with their fingers or by drag-and-drop the answer • Instructional designers proposed some approaches like the use of performance support which is used for training purposes in the industry field, but the instructional designers proposed to use this approach to facilitate mobile learning a specially for scientific subjects (this point will be elaborated under the below title)• Instructional designers and teachers agreed also on the fact that mobile phones are agile devices but linking the theories of learning with the mobile technologies in constructing a course are not that easy as it requires features from the device itself and that all they can integrate is collaboration, communication, and diversified activities for their learners, while mobile learning can handle wider opportunities for learning when using learning theories like enactivism. (This theory will be elaborated below) • Some of the feedbacks came to elaborate on a specific design framework for mobile learning: Integrative Learning Design framework as a design for mobile learning integration process. The framework will help redesign the course as the interviewee said, to create effective interactivity with activities and feedback.

Future Actions

According to what was collected from the qualitative and quantitative data, the school decided to create a set of priorities to include in the school curriculum in order to integrate mobile learning properties in the new design framework with the following recommendations:

• The school recommended that the instructional design should empower self-learning to engage students while using their personal devices and to encourage informal and natural learning by lifting up the limited schedules of assignments and try to integrate learning into their daily-basis activities like to accommodate short learning instances that can be visited by the learner on the go.

• The constructivist approach for learning is also what the school decided to add to the learning design by encouraging authentic activities forcing the learner to make more researches on the web and come up with a sound answer that is relevant to his specific learning interests.

• Encourage collaboration and information sharing between the students in a way that makes it a fluent informal chat between them allowing interaction with each other. The design of the course should not be forcing things to happen, instead make them look informal, instant and spontaneous peer-to-peer conversations.

• Students will need some training especially for primary school students who need to understand how they effectively collaborate and maintain effective discussions. To do so, the school decided to give more consideration to the performance support instead of training them which is giving information as a block to the learner. With the performance support, they can receive instant feedback, tips and tricks, and recommendations as short messages while they interact with each other to redirect them to the right use of language or use of the application. The user support system can generate also smileys and icons for the performance of the learner.

• Situated learning was recommended to be implemented using mobile learning in classrooms specially to record data and observations instantly and information from the classroom, to take pictures from the board for note-taking instead of writing on a notebook. This was not allowed in the school as the mobile was not allowed inside the classrooms too. The school recommended also to design to this particular feature of the mobile learning specific activities and incorporate the use of the camera in a structured way.

• New learning theory will be included in the curriculum design which is the enactivist learning theory (cognitivism blended with constructivism). It is a theory developed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty (Wikipedia, 2018) to explain that learning is not only about one individual, it is also about others in the outer environment and knowledge is an interaction between the learner, the other learners and their environment (Sumara & Davis, 1997). It gives an overview on how students learn individually and in groups, explaining that learning should never happen in a classroom only, it has to be informal too to reflect the real learning events of the student in new experiences and environments. That is why the school will encourage the use of 3D learning labs and sensor-based games that are embodied in the mobile learning interfaces.

• The Integrative Learning Design framework (ILDF) is to support learners’ literacy with powerful applications to make their reading effective (US National Reading Panel Report, 2000). To do so, the school decided to abandon their child-focused literacy program and move to a collaborative story-based program including computer skills embedded in writing applications.

CONCLUSION

One of the best practices of blended learning is to redesign the instruction at any occasion or event to include new approaches and create a new framework for learning that suits the school and its audience (McGee & Reis, 2012). This redesigning cannot be done without running a needs assessment evaluation process before the reengineering of the instruction. in this paper, the researcher tried to extract a new framework for the school to redesign the instruction and incorporate new strategies for learning that suit Covid-19 arrangements and blended learning between the classroom and online learning.