Using mobile apps and social media for online learner-generated content

Abstract

As part of an evolutionary approach to extending and enhancing the online learning experience for adult students in the LMS-based online college courses that I teach, I have been introducing learning activities that use social media and mobile devices. However, realizing that student adoption of mobile devices with data plans such as smartphones or tablets was still evolving, I focused on the development and use of these resources from a teaching perspective and to test and model it for learner-generated content. With the increasing adoption of mobile devices, I have begun to explore how I can integrate mobile learning activities into the online course assignments in ways that would allow students to use their mobile devices as a means of creating learner-generated content and sharing communications about that process. In this paper, I share my initial, anecdotal findings about this process, identify useful social media and mobile apps for mobile learning, provide examples of their successful integration into online course assignments and activities, and propose methods of further research and development.