The Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing implemented a mobile strategy to improve distance education for their rural and working adult students. They received a grant to develop mobile content and provide iPod Touches to students. Faculty created podcasts, videos, and narrated PowerPoints for downloading. Most students occasionally or often used their mobile devices to access school materials. While students found the resources helpful, some had technical difficulties or wanted more training. The school plans to further develop mobile learning through an app and other formats.

1. Leading the Way with Mobile TechnologyImplementing a Mobile StrategyBillie Anne Gebb, MSLS; Zach Young, MSLS; Julie Marfell, DNP, FNP-BC; Kelley Cruse, MSFrontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursingwww.frontierschool.edu

2. “Our aim is to see ourselves surpassed…”– Mary Breckinridge,Founder, Frontier School

3. The Frontier StudentIs a working adultLiving in a rural and/or health professional shortage areaFemaleLate 30s

4. Working with adult, distance education studentsDiscussions arose regarding the best use of technology for our studentsStudents expressed a lack of time to meet school obligationsFaculty expressed desire to address emerging technologies

5. NEPR GrantFSMFN received a Nurse Education, Practice and Retention (NEPR) grant from HRSA The overarching goal of the grant was to graduate technologically competent advance practice nursesAmong the objectives were:Improve student learning outcomes by introducing new technologies for delivery of didactic educational contentIncrease study opportunities for working adults by converting current and creating new media rich lecture content and learning activities that can be consumed from students’ desktops or from a mobile media device Introduce iPod Pilot Project which will provide iPod Touches to 150 new students

6. Mobile Device CommitteeCommittee was formed to carry out the grant objectivesmade up of representatives from across the institutionplans are in place to make it a standing committee with a broader scope

7. Mobile GrowthCurrently 5.3 billion mobile subscribers (http://mobithinking.com/stats-corner/global-mobile-statistics-2011-all-quality-mobile-marketing-research-mobile-web-stats-su)85% of Americans 18 and older own a cell phone (http://www.pewinternet.org/Infographics/2011/Generations-and-cell-phones.aspx)40% of American adults use the internet, email or instant messaging on a mobile phone (http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Mobile-Access-2010.aspx)Global mobile data traffic nearly tripled in 2010 (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.pdf)Mobile internet usage is projected to take over desktop usage in 2014 (http://tag.microsoft.com/community/tag-blog-item /11-021/The_Growth_of_Mobile_Marketing_and_Tagging.aspx?category =industry%20news)

8. Mobile GrowthGrowth in mobile learning:Abilene Christian University - http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/iphone-university-abilene/ACU Connected Blog: http://blogs.acu.edu/connected/University of Missouri Journalism School - http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2009/05/07/missouri-journalism-school-requires-iphoneipod-touch.html Monterey College of Law - http://campustechnology.com/articles/2011/01/31/law-school-extends-ipad-program-to-faculty.aspx

9. Our Mobile StrategyPutting media into coursespodcasts of lecturesclinical videosnarrated PowerPoints

10. Course MediaEach course has a Media Folder with instructions detailing how to get this content on their mobile devices

11. Course Media

12. Our Mobile StrategyMaking faculty aware of different tools available to create mobile contentGabcast, AudacityCamtasia

13. Our Mobile StrategyLibrary resources available on mobile platformsClinical reporting software for mobile devices

14. Our Mobile StrategyProvided iPod Touch to pilot group of students (n=150)As of June 2010, all incoming students are required to have an Apple mobile device.

16. During the last 12 weeks, how often did you use your mobile device to access information to assist you with schoolwork? Percentage of students answering “occasionally,” “often,” or “very often”:

17. Comments“Absolutely fantastic. I carried my iPod with me everywhere.”“Awesome!! With the audio and visual I felt like I was sitting in a class.”“I am a big fan of audio lecture. Allows for listening during exercise and other activities.”“I enjoyed listening to the iPod lectures both for course content but also because it made me feel more connected to hear the instructor’s voice.”“I have used the downloaded media in every course. Being able to download the media on my iPad and taking it with me gives opportunities to study anywhere.”

18. Comments“I loved being able to listen to the media on my ipod while I was vacuuming, doing dishes, driving, etc. and loved being able to listen to it over and over.”“I think the downloadable media is critical. I am able to take it everywhere with me and listening while driving helps with time management.”“LOVE all the downloadable media!!! This is an EXCELLENT learning resource!!”“The iPod videos were very helpful as I was on the go a lot and couldn’t be tied down to the computer for lectures.”

19. Student Concerns“The only issue I had with downloadable media has nothing to do with the program. I just happen to live [in] a rural area where I can either get dial-up or satellite for my internet connection and neither of these options are truly “high speed” so I experienced lags in videos which makes it a bit difficult to watch what is termed as a short video.”“WiFi not available in most places here in rural area making in not useful.”

20. Student Concerns“It would be helpful to have inservices from IT on how to use the apps on our phone with the course.”“I need assist [sic] with learning how to use it.”“If I had instruction on how to use it with school work I would have used it.”“I couldn’t figure out how to download the information to my iPhone.”“ I think a class in downloading to iPods during Frontier Bound would be extremely helpful.”

21. Future ImplicationsIssues to work ontechnical problemstrainingstaying currentCMS integrationE-textbooks Future plansUse iTunes U epub format Institutional App

22. Comments, Questions, Discussion?Slides available:www.slideshare.com/Frontier_LibraryBillie Anne Gebbbillieanne.gebb@frontierschool.eduZach Youngzach.young@frontierschool.edu