Denise Andersen # 575-574-814

This evidence piece was the alternative and less popular option for the final assignment of 508. I, however, managed
to find much meaning and thoroughly enjoyed the exploration of Quinn's (2011) 4c's mobile learning theory. The
three activities I designed for mLearning illuminated three of the four C's; content, communicate, capture but not
compute. I wove healthcare focused activities around three mobile apps; Socrative, Google docs, and Quizlet.
The learning outcomes this evidence piece supports are;
* Demonstrate basic competency with design and implementation within a variety of mobile learning and gaming
environments
* Develop and design intentional learning activities suitable for the appropriate mobile learning and gaming
environments and the learner
* Integration of current cognitive learning and educational gaming theory
What I grasped during this assignment is that mLearning is an adjunct to learning and isn't expected to be the
learning. This simple but impactive kernel of knowledge was the equivalent of the death knell to the last of my
negative attitudes around mLearning. I now understand that engaging students with mobile technology is taking a
path into the future and potentially turning out riches of learning. It seems so elementary in terms of engagement yet
the energy I have spent trying to extinguish the indiscriminate use of mobile devices in the classroom now seems like
lost teaching and learning opportunities.
The OLTD outcome: Understand, design and work to support student success is what I think I have achieved at this
juncture. My foundational knowledge as an OL teacher has increased exponentially as a result of what I understand of
mLearning. It can be a powerful tool for engagement, connecting and support. I came to this class with a burden of
doubt, but I leave feeling like I have received a gift of insight.

OLTD 508 Assignment 4

Option 2: Application of the 4Cs

The Vancouver Island University (VIU) Health Care Assistant (HCA) program is a skill-based entry- level health care
program focused on older adult care and is twenty-six weeks in duration. Graduates of this high-demand program are practicing at
the bedsides of older adults in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and home care. HCA's are the primary health practitioners that
spend their entire workday engrossed in the minutia of daily living of adults living with illness and disability. Their emphasis is on
supporting personhood, meeting all activities of daily living and observing, and reporting to a Nurse Supervisor. Compassionate
care is the keystone of HCA practice and education.
HCA education is a combination of nursing theory, nursing skill labs, and clinical practice. It is very much a model that
scaffolds learning and skills. Students are in class 7 hours/day x 5 days for 14 weeks. Clinical practice is 7 hours/day x 4 days for
12 weeks. The condensed program is fast-paced, rigorous and every teaching moment is building upon or scaffolding skills and
theory. Maximum class enrollment in Nanaimo is 34 (per session) but on average only 30 students finish.

OLTD 508 April 11, 2015

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The HCA program is a traditional bricks and mortar health program. For 14 weeks, the classroom and lab are where most learning
takes place under the tutelage of nurse instructors. Students are expected to do homework on their own time. Whereas this delivery
model has worked well for most students, it is also a program that lends itself to more creative and technological approaches.
Mobile technologies specific to healthcare are available but have limited or a specific scope. Many healthcare apps are
medical (advanced skill) in nature or non- applicable self-help fitness apps. Medically based apps use simulation, 3D and
specialize in an advanced knowledge of a specific body system. Essential Skeleton 4 and 3d Brain are just two of this genre's
mobile apps. Albeit these apps provide in-depth knowledge of anatomy and physiology, there is little that is applicable to the HCA
program as this skill-based program has more emphasis on "care" than "health'.
Adult students in the HCA program come armed with mobile devices. Years ago they carried laptops but today those are a
rarity in the classroom. Some students use their phones primarily for an emergency contact whereas others spend an inordinate
amount of time engaging in non-academic behaviors such as texting or game playing or surfing the net and even listening to music.
It has only been the last year that HCA faculty has accepted that discouraging in-class cell phone use is counter-productive in
terms of energy spent and class disruption. Faculty hasnt ascertained if cell use in the classroom is boredom, disinterest or if
students are uncertain how to disengage from their devices. Regardless, they all have them and on the occasions students are
encouraged to use their phone there is an increase in palpable energy in the room. Using mobile devices for educational activities
could be meeting students on their turf and have devices actually work for faculty.
Initially, the concept of the 4 C's of mobile learning (mLearning) challenged my nursing focus. However, once I delved
into the suggested readings with more than a surface view, I readily realized that mLearning would work for HCA students. My
pinnacle of understanding was the knowledge that mLearning is an adjunct to learning and isn't expected to be the learning (Quinn,
2011).
The 4 C's of mLearning are the brainchild of Clark Quinn (2011), and they are: Content, compute, communicate, and
capture. Quinn writes that the first three content, compute and communicate are not unique to mobile devices whereas the 4th C,
capture combined with the other three sets the mobile device apart in uniqueness. Content on mobile devices means the delivery of
media, documents, audio, and video. The Google it phenomenon captures the intent accurately. Compute on a mobile device is
performing calculations, running programs or having programmatic responses to queries. Quinn likens it to having an interactive
wizard directing the action. Communicate, the ubiquitous function of mobile devices means having the ability to reach others
through voice, text or video. Capture, the newest action of mobile devices is the ability to capture data from the environment, such

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as videos, images, sounds and store it or share with others. Delineating the functions of mobile devices into their components
(4C's) allows digital neophytes like myself to visualize the use of mLearning in the classroom.
To demonstrate my understanding of mLearning, I chose HCAS 106, a HCA course that is complex in nature and
demanding of student understanding. The course topic is cognitive impairment (dementia) and mental health issues. These two
health concerns are 21 century health scourges and for a myriad of reasons quite possibly overrepresented in our island population
(VIHA, 2012). The established learning activities lend themselves to mLearning in that there can be a substantial amount of
homework within this course. The course requires approximately 70 hours of coursework and assessments, which includes an outof-class group project worth 30% of the final mark.
I applied mLearning to the group project mentioned above. This assignment requires a group of 3-4 students to research a
mental health condition, submit a document that demonstrates their learning as well as create and implement a dynamic
presentation to teach their peers. It is a complex undertaking but straightforward when all group members buy-in and contribute.
Traditionally, a significant barrier to group workflow has been the coordination of the information/research and its manipulation
into a document and presentation. Invariably one or more students procrastinate thus leaving the 'leader' scrambling to pull it all
together. Because students are using different digital tools and platforms, there has been numerous challenges for the collaborative
and cohesiveness of this group project. I believe a simple tweak to the assignment may eliminate some of these challenges.
I chose to re-figure the assignment prescribing Google Docs as the collaborative document tool that each group will use.
Submission of all documents will be via this tool too. I believe if every student has the entire group has unencumbered access to
the document and editing privileges there will be less drama and better collaboration. Since Google Docs is accessible on all
digital devices, it increases the likelihood of success for the team.
Google Docs is a simple but robust word processing tool that is popular and accessible on all digital devices.
Unfortunately, all students will have to create a Google account in order to use Google Docs but I don't foresee that as an issue for
this group. I am unsure of how much time the project will take each group of students, but I anticipate that with the group using
Google Docs the written assignment will take less time than previous years. Google Docs is a web app that embodies 2 of the 4
C's of mLearning. Content delivered in the form of documents (text) and communicated to anyone with a link. Google Docs does
not use the capture or compute functions of mLearning.

Mental Health Disorder Assignment

The second HCAS 106 assignment that I envisioned for mLearning concepts is a quiz that I refigured using the native app
Socrative. This app is free, versatile, and easy to use for both teacher and students and takes an anxiety-producing task like a quiz
and infuses it with game-like fun. This app easily untethers students from the classroom.
In my experience, adult students are not at all comfortable with learning assessments in the form of quizzes or tests.
Alternative options for assessment are not always possible, but I can see where changing the dynamics of the delivery of the quiz
may work to minimize the angst. Changing the dynamics of where and when they take the test may ameliorate some of the test
anxiety and contribute to a better performance. In addition, the immediate feedback option can provide support as the test unfolds
or conversely defeat efforts. I have had enough distraught students at my door believing they failed a test to know that immediate
feedback, like all immediate gratification, does have a calming effect. Socrative has teacher options to scramble the order of
questions and answers, which minimizes concerns about students collaborating on the test via multi-tasking mobile devices.
I can envision using this app in other capacities especially when the learning concept is multi-faceted or challenging. An
anonymous 'check-in' of understanding using Socrative and a mobile phone as a "clicker" would be quick and illuminating in
terms of student comprehension as well as fun and different.
Socrative can be used comfortably on mobile devices and is structured to have any time, any place application. The
principles of mLearning that this app reflects are capture and communication. Real-time data from known or anonymous mobile
users can be captured by Socrative and stored &/or shared. Password access to a teacher's room is all a mobile user needs to
participate. Communication is possible albeit not as direct as it can be with voice, video or even text. Communication with
Socrative is indirect yet intentional as students are communicating with teachers with every activity they embrace.
Mental Health Quiz using Socrative
The third HCA assignment that lent itself to mLearning is the learning of medical terminology, specifically abbreviations.
Abbreviations account for the majority of what passes as 'healthcare speaks'. Functioning effectively in healthcare requires

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mastery of this truncated language. Learning medical terminology is an exercise in rote memorization combined with an
understanding of context. For example left, and litre are abbreviated as L, knowing which meaning is correct is totally dependent
upon the context. HCA students are required to know approximately 200 specific abbreviations, their meaning, and their likely
contexts. Simple classroom games like bingo are played to help the tedious memorization process, but mobile apps can continue
the learning outside the classroom.
To assist students to learn medical terminology, I chose a native app called Quizlet. It is a simple, free tool that is
available on the net, as well as a mobile app for iOS and android. The net version has five different games/learning strategies
whereas the mobile version only has three. As a teacher, I set up a "class", input the study data, and students join the class to
access the content. Or students can input their own content and use the available games to study and learn. Flashcard sets are
shareable, but permission is necessary to access classes. Quizlet employs 1 of the 4 C's, content. Inputting content in the form of
study material and students access or interact with the content in multiple ways. This app is not as robust as the other two, but it
serves the purpose of making rote learning more tolerable and perhaps more successful. Their devices allow for more practice,
over more time and at their convenience.
Medical Terminology/Abbreviations Assignment using Quizlet
Beem, 2013 suggests planning curriculum around the 4Cs of mobile learning as it can assist with focusing lesson plans and
engaging students. However, utilizing mobile devices in the adult classroom strictly for education purposes has limits especially as
it applies to healthcare but outside the classroom the idea has merit. An important aspect to remember in designing mLearning is
that eLearning is suited to computers and would be intolerable on a mobile device (Flowers, 2013). Activities for mLearning must
be easy to discover and navigate, quick (in & out) and not requiring long periods of watching the screen. This of course eliminates
any lengthy video viewing or audio clips and reinforces the short chunky blasts of info students have come to relate to on their
mobile devices.

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REFERENCES
Beem, J. (2013). A beginners guide to mobile learning. Retrieved April 2, 2015, from
http://www.teachthought.com/trends/mobile-learning-trends/a-beginners-guide-to-mobile-learning/
Floro, N. (2011). Infoline; tips, tools, and intelligence for trainers. Mobile Learning. Retrieved April 4, 2015, from
http://pages.td.org/rs/astd/images/9781562867966_251110_Mobile_Learning_Floro.pdf
Flowers, S. (2013). Re: Mobile learning best practices (online forum comment). Retrieved April 10, 2015, from
https://community.articulate.com/discussions/building-better-courses/mobile-learning-best-practices
Legault, N. (2014). Best practices for designing mobile learning like a pro. Retrieved April 6, 2015, from
https://community.articulate.com/articles/design-mobile-learning-like-a-pro-best-practices-for-mlearning
Province of British Columbia (2015). Health Care Assistant Program: Provincial curriculum 2015.
Quinn, C. (n.d.). Designing mlearning. Retrieved April 4, 2015, from http://www.worklearnmobile.org/mobileexperts/designing-m-learning-clark-quinn-quinnovation/
Quinn, C. (2011). Mobile learning: Landscape and trends. Retrieved April 4, 2015, from
http://oltd508lewis.weebly.com/uploads/8/2/7/9/8279059/2011report-mobile_learning-_landscape_and_trends.pdf
Vancouver Island Health Authority (2012). 2012/13- 2014/15 Service Plan. Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
http://www.viha.ca/NR/rdonlyres/AADEEF61-F0F4-47F8-B65B-268D2F6D1FDB/0/serviceplan20122013.pdf