A Case Study of Learners’ Engagement in Mobile Learning Applications

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v25i4.2827

Keywords:

Mobile learning, engagement, mobile learning application design, lifelong learning

Abstract

Although mobile learning applications play a crucial role in today’s education and can support learning, the low retention rate is a prevalent challenge in mobile learning. Existing studies have found that interpersonal interaction, high expectations, and supportive environment (from an educational perspective) as well as compatibility, interactivity, and usability (from a marketing perspective) can impact learners’ engagement in learning activities and customers’ engagement in mobile applications. However, comprehensive studies investigating learners’ engagement in mobile learning applications from educational and marketing perspectives are rare. To fill the research gap, we analyzed learners’ reviews on five top-ranked lifelong learning applications (Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, edX, and Skillshare). Inductive coding was used to identify critical factors impacting learners’ engagement in mobile learning applications, such as usability, availability of learning experiences, features to facilitate learning, interpersonal interaction, and incentives for completion. We further explored specific engagement strategies displayed in the analyzed applications through an analytical evaluation. Besides, this study expands Hew’s model of learners’ engagement and suggests new conceptual relationships between critical factors impacting learners’ engagement, self-determination theory, and learners’ engagement.

Author Biographies

Chenxi Liu, Department of Educational Studies/Center on Education and Training for Employment, The Ohio State University

Chenxi Liu is a doctoral candidate in learning technologies at The Ohio State University and a graduate research assistant at the Center on Education and Learning for Employment. Liu worked as a language teacher and TV director. Her research interests include mobile learning, online learning, collaborative learning, usability and evaluation, and learning analytics and modeling. 

Ana-Paula Correia, Department of Educational Studies/Center on Education and Training for Employment, The Ohio State University

Ana-Paula Correia is an associate professor of learning technologies and the director of the Center on Education and Training for Employment at The Ohio State University. Specifically, her expertise in online learning, online and mobile learning, usability and evaluation, collaborative learning, and entrepreneurial educational approaches have been published in nearly 90 refereed articles and book chapters.

References

Ansari, M. S., & Tripathi, A. (2017). An investigation of effectiveness of mobile learning apps in higher education in India. International Journal of Information Studies & Libraries, 2(1), 33–41.

AppGrooves. (n.d.). About AppGrooves. https://appgrooves.com/about

Aspin, D. N., & Chapman, J. D. (2000) Lifelong learning: concepts and conceptions. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 19(1), 2–19.

Baker, O. (2020, March 24). 8 Mobile App Retention Strategies For 2020 [With Examples]. Web Engage. https://webengage.com/blog/mobile-app-retention-strategies/

Bond, M., Buntins, K., Bedenlier, S., Zawacki-Richter, O., & Kerres, M. (2020). Mapping research in student engagement and educational technology in higher education: A systematic evidence map. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 17(2), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0176-8

Brodie, R. J., Hollebeek, L. D., Jurić, B., & Ilić, A. (2011). Customer engagement: Conceptual domain, fundamental propositions, and implications for research. Journal of Service Research, 14(3), 252–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670511411703

Buelow, J. R., Barry, T. A., & Rich, L. E. (2018). Supporting learning engagement with online students. Online Learning, 22(4), 313–340. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v22i4.1384

Chee, K. N., Yahaya, N., Ibrahim, N. H., & Hasan, M. N. (2017). Review of mobile learning trends 2010–2015: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 20(2), 113–126. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/90002168

Chen, R., Wang, Q., & Xu, W. (2019). Mining user requirements to facilitate mobile app quality upgrades with big data. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 38, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2019.100889

Cheung, C., Lee, M., & Jin, X. (2011). Customer engagement in an online social platform: A conceptual model and scale development. International Conference on Information Systems 2011 Proceedings. 8. https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2011/proceedings/onlinecommunity/8

Coates H., & Radloff A. (2012) Measurement of student engagement in learning. In N. M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_923

Cooke, A. N., Fielding, K. S., & Louis, W. R. (2016). Environmentally active people: The role of autonomy, relatedness, competence and self-determined motivation. Environmental Education Research, 22(5), 631–657. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2015.1054262

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Pearson. https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/product/Creswell-Educational-Research-Planning-Conducting-and-Evaluating-Quantitative-and-Qualitative-Research-4th-Edition/9780131367395.html

Davis, T., & Frederick, T. V. (2020). The impact of multimedia in course design on students’ performance and online learning experience: A pilot study of an introductory educational computing course. Online Learning, 24(3), 147–162. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v24i3.2069

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Self-determination theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 49(3), 182–185. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012801

Deb, D., Fuad, M. M., & Kanan, M. (2017). Creating engaging exercises with mobile response system (MRS). Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. https://doi.org/10.1145/3017680.3017793

Freitas, S. I., Morgan, J., & Gibson, D. (2015). Will MOOCs transform learning and teaching in higher education? Engagement and course retention in online learning provision. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(3), 455–471. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12268

Dinner, I. M., van Heerde, H. J., & Neslin, S. (2015). Creating customer engagement via mobile apps: How app usage drives purchase behavior. Tuck School of Business Working Paper No. 2669817. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2669817

Fang, J., Zhao, Z., Wen, C., & Wang, R. (2017). Design and performance attributes driving mobile travel application engagement. International Journal of Information Management, 37(4), 269–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.03.003

Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59–109. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543074001059

Fredricks, J. A., Filsecker, M., & Lawson, M. A. (2016). Student engagement, context, and adjustment: Addressing definitional, measurement, and methodological issues. Learning and Instruction, 43, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2016.02.002

Guajardo Leal, B. E., Valenzuela González, J. R., & Scott, J. (2019). Student engagement as predictor of xMOOC Completion: An analysis from five courses on energy sustainability. Online Learning, 23(2), 105–123. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v23i2.1523

Guenther, C. L., & Miller, R. L. (2011). Factors that promote engagement. In R. L. Miller, E. Amsel, B. M. Kowalewski, B. C. Beins, K. D. Keith, & B. F. Peden (Eds.), Promoting student engagement (Vol. 1, pp. 10–17). Society for the Teaching of Psychology. https://cpltl.iupui.edu/doc/Miller%20et%20al_2011.pdf

Hannon, K. (2017). Utilization of an educational web based mobile app for acquisition and transfer of critical anatomical knowledge, thereby increasing classroom and laboratory preparedness in veterinary students. Online Learning, 21(1), 201–208. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1140261

Harman, M., Jia, Y., & Zhang, Y. (2012). App store mining and analysis: MSR for app stores. 2012 9th IEEE Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR), 108–111. https://doi.org/10.1109/msr.2012.6224306

Harris, L. R. (2008). A phenomenographic investigation of teacher conceptions of student engagement in learning. The Australian Educational Researcher, 35(1), 57–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03216875

Hegarty, B., & Thompson, M. (2019). A teacher’s influence on student engagement: Using smartphones for creating vocational assessment ePortfolios. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 18, 113–159. https://doi.org/10.28945/4244

Hew, K. F. (2016). Promoting engagement in online courses: What strategies can we learn from three highly rated MOOCS: Engagement: lessons from MOOCs. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(2), 320–341. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12235

Hollebeek, L. (2011). Exploring customer brand engagement: definition and themes. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 19(7), 555–573. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2011.599493

Hong, Y., & Gardner, L. (2019). Undergraduates’ perception and engagement in Facebook learning groups. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(4), 1831–1845. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12672

Hwang, G. J., & Wu, P. H. (2014). Applications, impacts and trends of mobile technology-enhanced learning: A review of 2008–2012 publications in selected SSCI journals. International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, 8(2), 83–95. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmlo.2014.062346

IEEE. (1990). IEEE standard glossary of software engineering terminology. IEEE Std 610.12-1990, 1–84. https://doi.org/10.1109/ieeestd.1990.101064

Khalid, H., Shihab, E., Nagappan, M., & Hassan, A. E. (2015). What do mobile app users complain about? IEEE Software, 32(3), 70–77. https://doi.org/10.1109/ms.2014.50

Kim, S., & Baek, T. H. (2018). Examining the antecedents and consequences of mobile app engagement. Telematics and Informatics, 35(1), 148–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.10.008

Kuh, G. D. (2001). Assessing what really matters to student learning: Inside the National Survey of Student Engagement. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 33(3), 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091380109601795

Lele, S. (2015, March 2). 8 Tips for Boosting App Retention: Create an App for the Long Run. Business 2 Community. https://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/8-tips-boosting-app-retention-create-app-long-run-01172687

Martin, F., & Bolliger, D. U. (2018). Engagement matters: Student perceptions on the importance of engagement strategies in the online learning environment. Online Learning, 22(1), 205–222. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v22i1.1092

McLean, G. (2018). Examining the determinants and outcomes of mobile app engagement—A longitudinal perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 84, 392–403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.03.015

Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability engineering. Morgan Kaufmann.

Mobile Operating System Market Share Worldwide. (December 2020). statcounter GolbalStats. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

Noel, D., Stover, S., & McNutt, M. (2015). Student perceptions of engagement using mobile-based polling as an audience response system: Implications for leadership studies. Journal of Leadership Education, 14(3), 53–70.

Pechenkina, E., Laurence, D., Oates, G., Eldridge, D., & Hunter, D. (2017). Using a gamified mobile app to increase student engagement, retention and academic achievement. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0069-7

Pham, X. L., & Chen, G. D. (2019). PACARD: A new interface to increase mobile learning app engagement, distributed through app stores. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 57(3), 618–645. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633118756298

Pham, X. L., Nguyen, T. H., Hwang, W. Y., & Chen, G. D. (2016). Effects of push notifications on learner engagement in a mobile learning app. 2016 IEEE 16th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), 90–94. https://doi.org/10.1109/icalt.2016.50

Pongwat, A. (2019). Investigating the voice of customers for m-learning application quality. Proceedings of the European Conference on E-Learning, 486–494. https://doi.org/10.34190/EEL.19.071

Qiu, J. (2019). A review of mobile learning research at home and abroad in recent 20 years. Journal of Language Teaching & Research, 10(5), 1097–1102. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1005.24

Reeve J. (2012) A self-determination theory perspective on student engagement. In S. L. Christenson et al. (Eds), Handbook of Research on Student Engagement (pp. 149–172). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2018-7_7

Rosson, M. B., & Carroll, J. M. (2002). Usability engineering: Scenario-based development of human-computer interaction. Academic Press.

Sadaf, A., Martin, F., & Ahlgrim-Delzell, L. (2019). Student perceptions of the impact of quality matters-certified online courses on their learning and engagement. Online Learning, 23(4), 214–233. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v23i4.2009

Statista Research Department. (2021, July 6). Mobile app user retention rate worldwide 2020, by vertical. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/259329/ios-and-android-app-user-retention-rate/

Sun, Y., Ni, L., Zhao, Y., Shen, X. L., & Wang, N. (2019). Understanding students’ engagement in MOOCs: An integration of self‐determination theory and theory of relationship quality. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(6), 3156–3174. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12724

Tarantino, K., McDonough, J., & Hua, M. (2013). Effects of student engagement with social media on student learning: A review of literature. The Journal of Technology in Student Affairs, 1(8), 1–8. http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Summer_2013/EffectsOfStudentEngagementWithSocialMedia.html

Tarute, A., Nikou, S., & Gatautis, R. (2017). Mobile application driven consumer engagement. Telematics and Informatics, 34(4), 145–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.01.006

Thomas, D. R. (2006). A general inductive approach for analyzing qualitative evaluation data. American Journal of Evaluation, 27(2), 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214005283748

Trowler, V. (2010). Student engagement literature review. The Higher Education Academy. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/student-engagement-literature-review

Tucker, C., & Kim, H. M. (2011). Predicting emerging product design trend by mining publicity available customer review data. 18th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED11), 6, 43–52.

Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 425–478. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540

Vivek, S. D., Beatty, S. E., & Morgan, R. M. (2012). Customer engagement: Exploring customer relationships beyond purchase. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 20(2), 122–146. https://doi.org/10.2753/mtp1069-6679200201

Wu, W., Wu, Y. J., Chen, C., Kao, H., Lin, C., & Huang, S. (2012). Review of trends from mobile learning studies: A meta-analysis. Computers & Education, 59(2), 817–827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.03.016

Zepke, N., & Leach, L. (2010). Improving student engagement: Ten proposals for action. Active Learning in Higher Education, 11(3), 167–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787410379680

Zhang, H., Lin, L., Zhan, Y., & Ren, Y. (2016). The Impact of teaching presence on online engagement behaviors. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 54(7), 887–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633116648171

Zuniga, A., Flores, H., Lagerspetz, E., Tarkoma, S., Manner, J., Hui, P., & Nurmi, P. (2019). Tortoise or Hare? quantifying the effects of performance on mobile app retention. In Proceedings of the 2019 World Wide Web Conference (WWW ’19) (pp. 2517–2528). https://doi.org/10.1145/3308558.3313428

Downloads

Published

2021-12-02

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 4 (2021)

Section

Special Conference Issue: AERA Online Teaching and Learning SIG

License

As a condition of publication, the author agrees to apply the Creative Commons – Attribution International 4.0 (CC-BY) License to OLJ articles. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

This licence allows anyone to reproduce OLJ articles at no cost and without further permission as long as they attribute the author and the journal. This permission includes printing, sharing and other forms of distribution.

Author(s) hold copyright in their work, and retain publishing rights without restrictions