Stationary vs. Non-stationary mobile learning in MOOCs

Abstract

Mobile devices enable users to access information ubiquitously, including in the online learning scenario. This though requires users to multitask and divide their attention between several tasks at once whilst "on-the-go" (e.g. watching a video, walking down the street and keeping track of the traffic at the same time). In order to accommodate learners in this situation, most of today's Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms provide mobile access to their content. Prior works have conducted lab studies to investigate the impact the learning condition (in particular stationary vs. onthe-go) has on mobile MOOC learners. User studies beyond the lab setting though are scarce. We here describe a study in a more realistic setup where 36 participants each participated in two mini-MOOCs while in a stationary and real-life mobile learning situation. We find participants' learning gains slightly lowered in the on-thego condition (-7%).We also find that on average participants spend 10% more time on video-watching and 23% less time on questionanswering in the learning on-the-go compared to the stationary condition.