Supporting and Enhancing Undergraduate Learning with m-learning tools: an exploration and analysis of the potential of Mobile Phones and SMS

In this paper we discuss a case study investigating how the academic and personal development of first year students on an undergraduate sports education degree can be supported and enhanced with mobile SMS communication. SMS-based technologies were introduced in response to students’ particular needs (in transition to Higher Education) and characteristics (‘digital natives’). Despite being unaccustomed to using their mobile phones for academic study, students willingly accepted SMS reminders from their tutor via a bulk texting service. Many students particularly valued reminders in support of their time management, an important self- regulating strategy known to be a component of successful transition. Drawing on evidence from two student surveys, focus groups and a tutor’s journal, we illustrate the potential that mobile SMS communication has to extend the tutor’s voice beyond face-to-face teaching sessions, when used in concert and integrated with a more traditional learning and teaching context (lectures and a Virtual Learning Environment). This approach can help reduce transactional distance across psychological and communication space in student-student and student-tutor interactions (Moore, 1997, Laurillard, 2007).