Beyond the laptop: apps and mobile technology based online education

As a design intent of my courses I focus on ways to deliver content, assignments, and assessments via mobile technologies, specifically apps that run on smartphones. Some students lack laptops, some students depend on cellular connectivity. Both drive the idea of using apps to deliver online education. These are some of the apps I am deploying at present. 


In the lead position is a learning management system with a capable mobile app. Not all learning management systems have a fully capable app. Instructure Canvas does have an app that provides full support for content delivery, assignment submission, and online assessments.


Assignment completion and submission requires a mobile friendly office suite. Google Docs provides good support for document production.


Teaching a basic introductory statistics course online is made possible by Google Sheets. One can do more with a spreadsheet than one might expect. 



Such as this 95% confidence interval chart for a linear regression demonstrating that the slope is not statistically significantly different from zero. On a mobile device.

Assessment thoughts


No office suite would be complete without the ability to produce presentations, Google Slides has some limitations, but remains quite functional on a mobile device.


Physcial science uses Desmos to run arbitrary regression functions against data gathered in the laboratory.


YouTube playlists deliver content for courses such as this playlist for the ethnobotany course.



In this day and age, students need more skills than just the ability to write up reports and make presentations using slides. This is the video age and students should know who to assemble a professional looking video. This is another toolset to be mastered, here the video editing screen for YouCut, a free editor I have recommended to Android using students because of its availability here overseas. The editor is basic but functional and produces videos without a watermark. The more developed sibling app InShot is available for iOS and some Android phones. Both work well for preparing video presentations. 


In ethnobotany plant diversity and plant collecting is done using iNaturalist. This serves both the learning outcomes in the course while also documenting global biodiversity. My students, working from home, have access to plants in locations outsiders could not easily access - if at all.


In online exercise sport science Strava documents student walks or runs. Strava also supports comments, providing an interactive exercise experience. The students can also connect to the other students in the course. 

These tools provide the support necessary for ethnobotany, exercise sport science, physical science, and statistics courses on a mobile platform. Put that laptop away and untether from the need to lug one around. Design for mobile. 

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