Investigating the Effect of a Mobile Learning Application for Graph Theory Education on Academic Performance

Abstract

In this study, the effectiveness of using a mobile learning application developed for graph theory education is investigated by evaluating its impact on the academic performance of students for three academic years. The mobile application supports graph operations such as creating/editing graphs, running basic graph algorithms on graphs, and observing their step-by-step execution. Students can also test their knowledge level by using the quiz section of the mobile learning application. The study is conducted at a public university in Turkey with the participation of voluntary freshman students that take the Discrete Structures course. Graph theory is lectured for three weeks as the final subject of the course. Various features of the mobile application were introduced to the students by the lab assistant at laboratory sessions of 45 min that were conducted for a period of three weeks after the theoretical lectures in which the graph theory topics were covered. After these introduction sessions, students were able to use the mobile application as a supplementary tool any time they want. In order to investigate the effect of using the mobile learning application on the academic performance of students, a quasi-experimental research design with experimental and control groups was utilized. Quantitative data were collected by using the grades students achieved from the questions related to graph theory in the final exams of the course. The data for each year was analyzed by performing independent groups t-tests. The results of the statistical analyzes indicated that the usage of the mobile learning application contributed statistically significantly to the grades of the students in the experimental group for each year it was applied.