Abstract:

Academics often bemoan the difficulty of getting students to engage in lectures, and struggle with how to combat shyness and passivity, particularly in courses that by the nature of their content present challenges to traditional mechanisms of engaging students. Many students resist lecture interaction, either from a lack of confidence, lack of interest, or simply because the lecturer can't compete with content and interaction available over their mobile device(s). A simple prototype system was developed to aid academic staff in addressing these issues and in gauging students' level of comprehension of lecture material. The system was accessible both during and after lectures from students' mobile devices. It was trialled over a period of fourteen days in a course introducing students to ICTs, in which there was a lot of factual content requiring understanding and retention, but no opportunity for students to try the concepts and skills as they were introduced due to a paucity of resources common to many African universities. Prior to the testing of this system, students completed a questionnaire to gain insight into interaction in lectures. Subsequent to the testing a second questionnaire was employed in an attempt to determine the students' perception of the system's value. The trial revealed some problems with the system's design and the way it's use was implemented in the trial; these are discussed, and solutions proposed. Feedback from students was largely positive, as was the experience of the lecturer, and both students and faculty are requesting further development and a wider roll-out of the system for a second trial.

Keywords:

Mobile learning, e-learning, ICTs in education.