Designing A Mobile Learning Application Based On The MOBIlearn Task Model

In the past few years, there are an increasing number of higher educational institutions offer courses using mobile technologies as a supplementary to traditional learning. However, there is a challenge to set guidelines for appropriate use and to provide tools and resources for personal learning activities across contexts. The purposes of this research study therefore are to provide guidelines for appropriate use of a mobile learning application and design it as tools based on MOBIlearn task model to support personal learning activities in formal, informal and non-formal educational contexts. The study begins by conducting a systematic review to synthesize pedagogical requirements from the task model. In the next part, the study adopts multiple-case study as a methodology to evaluate learners' experiences of using the application designed based on the requirements. At the end, a cross-case analysis is conducted in effort to find emerged patterns of data from all the case studies. This study successfully produces guidelines for appropriate use of mobile learning application based on learning contexts and finds that different priority needs to be considered for each context in order to provide it as personal learning tools for mobile learners. In addition, the study generates a series of implementation steps to employ a mobile learning application into a blended or hybrid learning and finds that the task model should be enhanced to provide better understanding and to keep it relevant for future reference. Importantly, this study contributes a new deep understanding and insight on the task model and provides guidelines for appropriate use and designing a pedagogically sound mobile learning application to support learning activities. Furthermore, the study significantly expands research into how mobile learning applications are actually used by students to support their personal learning in educational contexts.