Evaluating the Use of Audio Smartphone Apps for Higher Education

Digital audio technology has garnered interest in Education recently, being deployed by early adopter academics to provide audio feedback. Students have also used it, gathering audio notes on their personal devices to enhance their learning. However, the sharing and distributing of the recordings is time-consuming and requires separate technology. Smartphones with audio apps are able to support recording and distribution/sharing of learning conversations more effectively because of their additional customisable and integrated functionality. This is attractive to Education now that it is clear that smartphones are becoming ubiquitous on campus. This paper describes an evaluation of audio apps for recording learning conversations by an academic and students and their experience in using smartphone audio apps to date.