How Do University Students Select and Use their Learning Tools? - A Mixed-Method Study on Personalised Learning

Publication Type

Contribution to conference

Authors

Patrick Gross, Andreas Schmid, Johannes Gettinger, Philipp Melzer, Mareike Schoop

Year of publication

2016

Published in

UK Academy for Information Systems Conference Proceedings 2016.

Editor

Laurence Brooks, David Wainwright, David Wastell

Conference name

Annual Conference of the UK Academy of Information Systems (UKAIS)

Conference location

Oxford, UK

Conference date

11.4.-13.4.2016

Universities often blend traditional learning and e-learning by providing software licenses, electronic learning materials, and access to Learning Management Systems. Following the idea of personalised learning in higher education, students are free to choose between a wide range of learning tools constructing their Personalised Learning Environment. However, the characteristics of the chosen tools need to match the characteristics of the learning tasks to support students adequately. In the present paper, a mixed-method approach is used to analyse which types of tools are used in practice and which types of learning tasks are performed using these learning tools. Furthermore, important factors influencing the decision to select learning tools are identified. This study shows that a wide array of learning tools is used in practice. Although students consider individual factors (such as perceived ease of use and task-technology fit) to be most important when selecting their tools, several exogenous factors such as the lecturers’ targeted pedagogy, social norm and the occurrence of higher order thinking skills limit the range of adequate learning tools.