A Learning Design Studio in Mobile Learning

Mobile learning is a young and vibrant field of research and practice. Teaching a university course on mobile learning is a challenge: how do you connect the theories and case studies to students’ experience, and make them relevant for their educational practice? This paper reports on one such course which was conducted using a Learning Design Studio format: working in groups, students identified an educational challenge, conducted independent search and analysis of the relevant literature, devised an innovative solution and evaluated it. The studio approach has been used successfully by several researchers in the past. The course described here was conducted at the University of Haifa in spring 2012. During the course, students engaged with core literature, reviewed case studies, and designed, implemented and evaluated six mobile learning projects. We argue that the Learning Design Studio format is particularly suitable for teaching about mobile learning, as it situates students learning in a genuine context and allows them to learn through conducting meaningful research. Author