Evaluating the effects of mobile applications on course assessment: A quasi-experiment on a macroeconomics course

Abstract

[Abstract] Universities are facing the need to rethink their educational strategies, especially due to the emergence of new technologies, such as mobile applications, which have had great expectations. Previous studies have been focused on changes in student engagement from using mobile applications in the classroom, whereas there has been little research on the impact of mobile applications on student assessment. This research uses a quasi-experimental study to examine the relationship between student assessment and the use of a mobile application. Two groups of students (a control and an experimental group) were tested in the same academic semester with the same lecturer. Two analyses were carried out (t-test and difference-in-differences) to evaluate this relationship. Contrary to the general expectations, the results showed that there is no significant difference on assessment when comparing the two groups’ scores. However, students showed a positive attitude in engaging with the mobile application. Although there has been an increase on the use of mobile applications in classrooms, they do not directly affect student scores. This research shows that mobile applications should be used as a complement to traditional education, and not as a substitute to it.