In the last 12 months, the Mobile Learn app has been used by nearly 14,000 staff and students, and this timeframe includes the quiet(er) summer months of June – Sept. We’ll need to revisit the data again in September to capture a picture for the full 2012-13 year but already we can start to see cyclical patterns of use emerging throughout the academic calendar: see usage analytics data below in Figures 1 & 2.

Mobile Learn Total Logins Graphic

Figure 1. Mobile Learn Total Logins

Mobile Learn Logins by Day of the Week and by Hours of the Day graphic

Figure 2. Mobile Learn Logins by Day of the Week and by Hours of the Day

At a glance we can see the most active periods are:

  • Term time

Peaks of activity between Sept-1st and Dec 22nd, Jan 2nd and March 28th & April 8th to the present, are all punctuated with a drop-off in use as one term ends and the next begins.

  • The working week

Weekend use is regularly lower than that taking place between Monday and Friday, with the start of the week tending to be marginally more active.

  • The working day

From 7am to 10pm we can see how a rapid rise in use begins and then remains consistently high throughout the day; from the moment we wake and on into the evening the app is in regular use. (Interestingly the small peaks at likely break or travel times, 10 am, 12pm and 16 pm, are even more noticeable in some of the most active monthly charts, than they are in the yearly average graphic shown above).

The usage analytics data alone doesn’t tell us how the app is being used, but further data, gathered via our annual student eLearning survey and a supplementary mobile library services snapshot study, confirms that our EHU students are finding the app useful, primarily for accessing lecture notes, course notifications and grades. The striking spike at the start of January coincides with the release of results for first term assessments- suggesting students are using the app to check their results. I think there is certainly more work we can do next year to make sure all courses know they can use the Blackboard grade book to deliver grades and feedback that can be quickly and easily accessed by our expectant students via the app!

If you’d like help or advice on how to do more with your course to make use of the mobile learn app features contact your learning technologist, come to one of our staff development sessions and browse the Learning Edge: Blackboard Mobile Learn guides available on eShare.

Meg Juss, Learning Technology Development Manager

 

 

 

 

Meg Juss, Learning Technology Development Manager