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The mobile assessment project had its genesis
in a strategic direction for Box Hill Institute around
the transformation of the trades area.
We have some exciting new opportunities emerging
which is around the new Integrated Technologies Hub starting
and the transformation of some of our learning spaces.
So one of the things we were
very keen to do is to develop projects that would change
pedagogical approaches and would enable us to
create significant change within the trade teaching centres.
Our aim is to develop a mobile
application that learners could use to undertake
assessment tasks in any location.
We developed four assessment templates, including
a JSA, work diary, demonstration checklist
and procedure process.
These templates could be edited
by teachers using Moodle and they could also be
accessed with the mobile application on learners devices.
Learners can attach photos and input text
and then once completed these can be sent to Moodle
when a Wifi connection is present.
From a teachers point of view
it just is really usable.
It fulfilled the need for something
that was really quick
intuitive for the students to use
could be use in the work place.
It was very easy to demonstrate.
was very pleased that I could go into Moodle
and see the submissions straight away.
The students were very happy with how
quick that was
just from teachers point of view it's really usable.
It's exactly what we needed.
They were all really happy to use it.
Asked them how easy they thought it was
and they didn't seem to have any issues with it at all.
I think the benefit really is that the student will it will be
able to work individually at his own pace
which is pretty important and probably going
to be the way to go in the future.
It will be good for us as teachers to see what they are
doing at work and also for the employers
to be able to see what they're doing at school.
By working closely with the Project Team
I've been able to develop the skills and knowledge
required to design user experience and storyboards
that work within the constraints of mobile technology.
Mobas enabled me to explore how mobile technology
can enhance a students situational and workplace
assessment experiences.
The Mobas Project has thrown us head first into the
world of App development which is very different to
developing online resources.
It's been an ambitious project as we attempt
to pull together many aspects.
Firstly we're integrating into Moodle
finding the right strategy to
create new Moodle assignment sub types. We
are creating multiple templates which are generic and
flexible enough to be useful for teachers and students.
We're uploading and resizing media,
there's offline caching for files,
assessment data and media, which has
been much more challenging than we first anticipated.
The user experience and responsive styling for
different devices and screen resolutions, and finally
wrapping the whole package into an App using PhoneGap.
With very positive feedback from teachers
and students in our initial trials
we can see that there is scope for so much more
that can be done with Mobas.
Some of the outcomes for the learners was obviously a
far greater flexibility for them to be able to work
when and where they want to.
Also for the learners was the ability for us
to personalise and customise.
For the teachers however, there was a twofold effect
one was that we could actually get them, in a very simple
way, to be able to redevelop assessment tools
but also to teach them very clear ways
of developing assessments that would be useable
and appropriate for workplace based development.
For Box Hill outcomes it was around
high completion rates, higher retention rates,
greater engagement of the students and
for the students to be able to make greater choices
around that personalisation and customisation.
For future directions, what we are really excited about
is the ability that these templates can be rolled out
across the whole of the Institute.
We've already been embedding it within existing
programs with great success.
For us, we are now about to develop another
six templates and those templates will continue
to be expanded to be able to increase the repertoire
for our teachers to be able to use mobile assessments
whenever, wherever, they want.