Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

Title

Educational Apps: Using Mobile Applications to Enhance Student Learning of Statistical Concepts

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2014

Abstract

This research sought to understand whether the use of mobile applications (e.g., iPhone apps) had an impact on students’ learning of new statistical concepts. A control group (n = 12) was compared against a group that used a statistical mobile app (n = 13) during a simulated statistics lecture on the topic of normal distribution. Students received a classroom lecture followed by a period of either pencil-and-paper only or technology-assisted examples. They then took a quiz on the material. The overall quiz results showed that the app group outperformed the control group. When learning through examples with the mobile app, students performed better on problems that required them to apply their knowledge, which corresponds to the third level of learning in Bloom's taxonomy. A postexperimental survey showed that students in the app group felt strongly that mobile apps helped them understand the new concepts more clearly and were more confident in their ability to learn the new material more quickly than the control group. Overall, this research demonstrates that incorporating mobile apps into lectures has the potential to positively affect student learning.

Publication Title

Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing

Volume

25

Issue

5

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