A Learning Theory Rubric for Evaluating Mobile Learning Activities

Abstract

Learning theories underpin the expectations of meaningful outcomes that any given learning task should have. However, educators' understanding and application of such theories is likely to vary with their own experience and context. In this article, we explore the potential value of a rubric for the design of mobile learning activities that is based on a core set of six learning theories, which we have identified from the literature as being highly relevant to the context of mobile learning. The key concepts of these theories have been used to create the evaluation rubric, which supports the analysis of learning activity design from the perspective of each of the chosen learning theories. The application of this rubric is explored from two perspectives. First, we apply it to an existing mobile learning activity to evaluate to what extent the activity embodies the theories within the rubric. Then we propose a redesigned activity by using the rubric as a guiding framework for improving the task design. This process demonstrates the potential value of applying such a rubric to designing mobile learning activities, to ensure that they adequately leverage the components of one or more relevant theories.