Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Developers, Educators, and Learners (Wiley and SAS Business Series)

by Scott McQuiggan

Mobile data analytics also allow you to understand more about your users. Just as Amazon collects data about shopping habits and preferences and makes suggestions for future purchases,9 so too can educational apps collect data and tailor educational experiences towards users.10 One interesting set of analyses is to identify patterns belonging to users who use the app frequently. These users' patterns could be used to guide the behaviors of less knowledgeable users. For example, imagine you have a note-taking app and you notice that regular users of the app tend to organize their notes in a specific way. You could use this information to provide hints to other users that may help them learn more and better use the app. App developers can also tailor information to a specific user's interests, abilities, and learning preferences. Suppose an app provides leveled reading materials to young readers on a variety of subjects. If the app can detect that a particular user tends to read books about animals, the app can continue to recommend more books on animals at higher levels of difficulty to allow individual user interests to guide academic growth. Analytics also allow for powerful understandings of student misconceptions and learning needs. Detailed data on student actions, such as correct and incorrect answers, can be used to build robust models of what students know and do not know. For example, cognitive tutor systems have been used to teach a variety of topics and are based...