This longitudinal study explores the effects of tracking and monitoring time devoted to learn with a mobile tool, on self-regulated learning. Graduate students (n¿=¿36) from three different online courses used their own mobile devices to track how much time they devoted to learn over a period of four months. Repeated measures of the Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire and Validity and Reliability of Time Management Questionnaire were taken along the course. Our findings reveal positive effects of tracking time on time management skills. Variations in the channel, content and timing of the mobile notifications to foster reflective practice are investigated, and time-logging patterns are described. These results not only provide evidence of the benefits of recording learning time, but also suggest relevant cues on how mobile notifications should be designed and prompted towards self-regulated learning of students in online courses. Mobile notifications and learning analytics can be used to foster self-regulated learning.Tracking and monitoring learning time on mobile devices improve time management skills.Learning analytics served on mobile devices raise awareness on the learning process.Sporadic contextualized mobile notifications support the competence of learning to learn.

Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet

Smart learning environments (SLEs) have gained considerable momentum in the last 20 years. The term SLE has emerged to encompass a set of recent trends in the field of educational technology, heavily influenced by the growing impact of technologies, such as cloud services, mobile devices, and interconnected objects. However, the term SLE has been used inconsistently by the technology-enhanced learning (TEL) community since different research works employ the adjective “smart” to refer to different aspects of novel learning environments. Previous surveys on SLEs are narrowly focused on specific technologies or remain at a theoretical level that does not discuss practical implications found in empirical studies. To address this inconsistency and also to contribute to a common understanding of the SLE concept, this article presents a systematic literature review of papers published between 2000 and 2019 discussing SLEs in empirical studies. Sixty-eight papers out of an initial list of 1341 papers were analyzed to identify the following: 1) what affordances make a learning environment smart; 2) which technologies are used in SLEs; and 3) in what pedagogical contexts are SLEs used. Considering the limitations of previous surveys, and the inconsistent use of the SLE concept in the TEL community, this article presents a comprehensive characterization to describe SLEs through their affordances, the technologies used, and pedagogical approaches considered in the selected papers. As a result, specific core functions of SLEs are identified and explained. This work aims at ensuring a relevant knowledge base and reference toward the implementation of future SLEs.