3. Web-apps for the iPhone in Higher Education. Applications for the Degree in Actuarial Science

Web-apps; interactive tests; m-learning
Annotated 3:

A. Fernández-Morales, and M.C. Mayorga-Toledano. (2009). Web-apps for the iPhone in Higher Education. Applications for the Degree in Actuarial Science. Research, Reflections and Innovations in Integrating ICT in Education. Vol.3. (pp. 1049 ~ 1053).


In this article the authors present the two web-apps designed and developed specifically for the iPhone (andiPod touch) platform in the first course of the Degree in Actuarial Science in the University of Málaga, Spain, and the results of a first evaluation, obtained from a survey to negotiate the effectiveness of any m-learning strategy in the field of small electronic devices and the incentive to develop more resources in this format.

The authors evaluated the opinions of students, who prefer downloading the contents only once, and then executing them off-line and decided the new platform developed by Apple for the iPhone and theiPod touch due to their enormous popularity within students and their ability to access m–learning resources through 3G networks or using WIFI Internet access.

The navigation for first web-app, a micro-test, is deliberately simple, with a link to the next/previous quest.ion, and to the results section. In the results section the student gets the final score, can check his / her answers, and repeat the test. In Second simulator web-app of human mortality model, the student can see how the model reacts to changes in the three parameters that control the shape, location and extension of the accident hump in the early adult ages.

The authors carried out a survey at the end of the first quarter of the first course of the Degree in Actuarial Science in the University of Málaga, Spain.The questionnaire includes items related to course dimension, technology dimension, and design dimension, learner interface, system content, and personalization. The answers were measured in a five point Likert scale. The data collected indicates that students have better valued the micro-tests than the simulator, especially in the responses to the quality of the material, clarity and ease of navigation. All the students answered ‘yes’ to the question ‘Would you like more activities of this kind?’

This article is very help in supporting my argument in the future m-learning by utilizing the full potential of small mobile devices such as iPhone. The smiliar application iStand 2.0, which can be downloaded from iTune store as a free app, is an AT&T award winning simi-web-app to mobilize Stanford's web-based resources and systems. As stated in Stanford Report, March 16, 2009, MICHAEL PEÑA reported that the new application in version 2.0 accesses the university calendar and allows users to browse events by category, day or month. Other improvements include more accurate and dynamic GPS locating on campus with the "maps" etc. This is in the line with my cited article Smart Phone will change the world and demonstrate what is the future mobile device apps would be

One of the limitations of this project is that some students have not a device (an iPhone or iPod touch). Thus the authors suggested designing an html emulator of the iPhone that runs all the web apps in Internet Explorer, and so all the students have access to the available resources of the project. Or, as the ACU (who used iPhone forwould have done, provide the government funded program to supply the iPhone for all the students and prepare them for 21st Century M-Learning literacies.

This example provide the solid proof of that students enjoy the m-learning technology as long as it clearly designed and easy to navigate and it will keep students education-entertained wherever And to take advantage of iPhone sleecky design and user intuitive OS.