Apps for Active Learning - Pilot overview

Students’ expectations are rising year on year and they expect to see digital technologies throughout their journey in ways that are relevant to their academic success (Beetham, 2013). Using active learning apps is an ideal way to address these expectations and raise the digital literacy of both staff and students in the process. As part of the Digital Futures Strategy the Office for Digital Learning, within Ulster University organised an ‘Apps for Active Learning’ pilot for academic year June 16 to June 17.

At Ulster University we are in a period of change, with a new campus under development in Belfast, we are exploring changes to curriculum delivery, there is also the Learning Landscapes project, the Teaching Excellence Framework and the Digital Futures strategy all of which combined have created an opportunity to enhance the student learning experience. This however has a flipped side and brings challenges with it and in particular how to meet the added expectation of technology integration. Our statistics have highlighted that each student has 3 devices on average, they already have the technology in their pockets (BYOD), the pedagogical opportunities that these devices bring to a collaborative and active learning experience are immense.

Apps and in particular Nearpod provide a platform to test technology integration. This webinar provides context for the pilot and explores early interactions with students and academic/professional support staff, their concerns, training needs and case studies of enhancing their teaching for both face-to-face (synchronous) and blended (asynchronous) models using Nearpod.