Can I Have a Mooc2Go, Please? On the Viability of Mobile vs. Stationary Learning

Abstract

The use of mobile technology has become an ubiquitous part of our daily lives and enables us to perform tasks on-the-go and anytime that once were possible only on stationary devices. This shift has also affected the way we learn. The use of mobile devices for learning on-the-go requires users to multitask and divide attention between several activities, at least one of which (the learning activitiy) with high cognitive load. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become a popular way for people around the world to learn outside of the traditional and formal classroom setting. While most MOOC platforms today offer specific apps to learn via mobile devices, the learning situation and its effect on learners while using mobile devices on-the-go has not been studied in full. In contrast to most existing mobile learning studies which were conducted in the lab, we focus on real-life situations commonly experienced by learners while they learn on-the-go. In a study with 36 participants and four mini-MOOCs deployed on edX, we investigate the differences in MOOC learners’ performance and interactions in two different learning situations with mobile devices (stationary learning and learning on-the-go) and under two environmental variables (daylight and crowdedness).