Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Nov 20, 2019
Date Accepted: Jan 26, 2020
A Blended Learning System to Improve Motivation, Mood State and Satisfaction in Undergraduate Students: a Randomized Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Mobile or smartphone-based learning (M-learning) has become a popular idea among educational environments. Blended learning, which combines strategies such as M-learning with conventional learning to offer a continuous training (anytime and anywhere) using innovative learning activities.
Objective:
The main aim was to examine the short-term effects of a blended learning method (2 weeks) using traditional materials and a mobile application (iPOT Mobile Learning App) on outcome measures as knowledge, motivation, mood state and satisfaction in undergraduate students enrolled in a first Health Science degree.
Methods:
A two-arm, prospective, randomized, controlled, single-blind design was used. Subjects who met the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to either the intervention arm (blended learning involving traditional lectures plus M-learning via the use of the iPOT Mobile Learning App) or the control arm (traditional on-site learning). For both arms, the educational program involved 13 lessons on basic health science and lasted 2 weeks. The iPOT app is a hybrid, multi-platform (iOS and Android) smartphone application with an interactive teacher-student interface. Outcome measures included multiple-choice test (knowledge), Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (motivation), Profile of Mood States (mood state) and Likert-questionnaires (satisfaction and linguistic competence). ANCOVA was used as main analysis with SPSS statistical software.
Results:
Ninety nine students were finally enrolled, with 49 in the intervention arm and 50 in the control arm. There was no difference between the two arms in terms of theoretical knowledge gain (p=0.928). However, the intervention arm subjects returned significantly higher scores than the control arm subjects for all items assessed post-intervention by the motivation questionnaire (all p<0.001). ANCOVA revealed a significant difference in confusion/bewilderment component in favor of intervention arm (p=0.010) and only trend towards significance in both components anger/hostility and total score. Finally, the intervention arm subjects were more satisfied than the members of the control arm for five out of six items evaluated: general satisfaction (p<0.001), clarity of the instructions (p=0.002), clarity with the use of the learning method(p<0.001), enough time to complete the proposed exercises (p=0.008) and improvement in the ability to learn content (p<0.001).
Conclusions:
The blended learning method led to significant improvements in motivation, mood state and satisfaction compared to traditional teaching. Moreover, the intervention arm subjects who belonged to the “users” subgroup showed stronger motivation and greater perceived gains in their English linguistic competence than non-users. Clinical Trial: NCT03335397
Citation
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