Resumen de A mobile-based approach to assist learning in a polymer technology course

C. Roman, Moisés García Morales

• Recently, Student Response Systems have gained increasing interest in terms of assessing their effect on students’ engagement in the learning process. On these grounds, a research was conducted targeted to find out whether the use of Mobile learning might enrich the teaching-learning process during the lab work in a Polymer Technology course within a Chemistry Bachelor’s Degree. The study was two-fold: first, to evaluate the students’ performance through multiple-choice questions tests, and second, to explore whether the approach enabled a change in the students’ motivation and predisposition to learn. The experience has been carried out over the academic year 2019-20, and the mobile phone Socrative app was used for that purpose. The class of 2018-19 was established as the control group, given that no mobile-based approach was implemented in the lab at that time. A two-tailed hypothesis test allowed concluding that the use of Socrative had a significant effect on improving the students’ average grade (nearly 1.5 points higher, in a 0-10 grading scale) in polymer characterization practical sessions. Moreover, a survey was administrated to the students via GoogleForms upon completion of the lab period. The survey results demonstrated that the use of Socrative had helped both capture students’ interest and create a more pleasant learning environment. Hence, more than three fourths of the students admitted that the app made the laboratory work more engaging and fun. As a conclusion, the Socrative app has proved successful at improving the students’ academic performance and getting the most out of the lab work.