flex-e-bility

In August 2004, Duke University in the USA distributed 20GB Apple iPods to 1600 srtudents entering first year. The Duke University iPod First Year Final Evaluation Report provides an evaluation of the first year experience and can be found at http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf

Each semester approximately 600 unique students enrolled in 15 courses in the fall and 33 courses in the spring. Students were enrolled in language and music courses, theatre studies and information sciences.

Evaluation was conducted by
 Focus groups with faculty and three groups of students
 Over twenty structured observations
 Feedback questionnaires by faculty staff, response rate 13% (n=58)
 Web based questionnaire to approximately 1650 students, overall response rate 28% (n=450)
 Telephone interviews with 27 non respondents

In summary:

Academic uses of iPods
 Course content dissemination tool: lectures, songs language content
 Classroom recording tool: lectures, discussions, verbal feedback
 Field recording tool: field notes, interviews, environmental sounds
 Study support tool: repetitive listening to lectures and other audio, catching up on missed lectures etc.
 File storage and transfer: particularly for large multimedia files.

Benefits:
 Convenience
 Flexible location-independent access
 Effective and easy to use tool for recording
 Greater student engagement and interest in discussions, labs, field research and independent projects
 Enhanced support for individual learning preferences and needs

Whilst there were some technical and institutional barriers experienced these were not significant enough to inhibit the majority of use,