Leading by the hand: Exploring the factors affecting individual student engagement with self-directed mobile assessment

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the individual student and his/her engagement with self-directed mobile assessment. The findings presented in this paper are based on the results of the ALPS (Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings) CETL (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) programme, a 5 year examination of the use of mobile technology for interprofessional, formative, work-based assessment among health and social care students. Analysing the results of multiple focus groups across a number of health and social care professions we found that learner engagement with self-directed mobile assessment is dependent on internal and external factors. In this paper we explore the internal factors, namely that of learner goal, confidence and stage of self-direction (Grow, 1991).