Abstract:

In countries where VET systems have a long tradition, they enjoy the reputation of effectively reducing youth unemployment by improving school-to-work transitions –in particular, for students who are not on the track to university. Compared with native-born people, only one-half of migrants started a VET in Germany in 2010. Furthermore, Beicht and Ulrich [1] find that having a migrant background significantly increases the risk of drop-out from vocational training. It has been argued that a dearth of knowledge about the host country language could hamper young migrants’ access to vocational training or endanger their graduation [2]. Since there is no support for such groups of persons, we have developed a special game-based learning application to support these learners during their VET. The aim of this mobile learning application is to support migrant learners possessing little or no knowledge of German and few literacy skills to learn vocation-based words. Thus, the mobile learning application provides different game-based learning activities and a composition of these activities for a workday simulation. A workday simulation has different tasks (Cloze, decision-making, sorting task, mapping task), which are embedded in a work-related story (e.g., “My first workday.”). Apart from this, the mobile learning application provides further learning activities to intensify knowledge gained from the simulation-based activities. A crossword puzzle and a word-guessing game train and consolidate the learners’ knowledge. Although game-based learning encourages learners to spend, in general, more attention to the learning content, the mobile learning application provides incentives for learners in the form of scoring points. In addition to competitive factors between learners, both learners and teachers can determine the current level of qualification, based on the scoring system. Statistics of finished games and learning activities show the learning progress over time.

The architecture of the mobile learning application includes an import mechanism. Teachers can easily build and provide new simulations, crossword puzzles and guessing games through this mechanism. Programming skills are not required for this task.

In this paper, we identify and describe the special requirements of the designated target group of migrant learners, develop an appropriate domain model to describe used data and behavior of the mobile learning application, and outline the system design and development process.

To demonstrate the applicability of the mobile learning application, we demonstrate the usage lifecycle beginning from the creation of content (teacher’s role) and the consumption and modification of content (learner’s role).

References:
[1] Beicht, Ursula, and Joachim Gerd Ulrich. "Welche Jugendlichen bleiben ohne Berufsausbildung." Analyse von wichtigen Einflussfaktoren unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Bildungsbiografie, BIBB REPORT 6 (2008): 2008.
[2] Jobs for Immigrants (Vol. 1): Labour market integration in Australia, Denmark, Germany and Sweden, OECD Publishing: 2007.

Keywords:

Game-based learning, mobile learning application, e-learning, Vocational Education and Training, migrant learners.