Abstract The iPad has significant potential to have a transformative effect upon teaching and learning practices in a higher education context. As evidence of this claim, this paper presents a case study that examines the approach and resulting benefits experienced when introducing the devices within the School of Computing and Mathematics at Plymouth University. The approach taken was a phased introduction of the devices, firstly amongst academic staff, then a subset of first year undergraduate students, leading to adoption across the whole School based upon the success of the earlier stages (with success in this case being judged on the basis of both user engagement – e.g. staff production and student use of materials – and positive user feedback). iPads have been provided to both staff and students, with a range of positive impacts upon the teaching and learning practices that can now be regarded as standard within the School (including podcasting, use of eBooks, and interactive services). The iPad has been key to supporting and integrating the various applications, and has delivered a significant uplift in the technology enhanced learning practices of the staff, each delivering associated benefits in the resulting student experience.

1. USING IPADS TO ENABLE
CULTURAL CHANGE IN TECHNOLOGY
ENHANCED LEARNING
A CASE STUDY
Prof. Steven Furnell
School of Computing and Mathematics
Plymouth University
United Kingdom

2. THE IPAD IN EDUCATION
• Opens up new opportunities for topic
delivery and student learning
• Potential to transform practice in a short
time
• Plymouth University example:
• Institutional priority towards podcasting
has led to a successful establishment of
an iTunes U presence
• Departmental level priority has changed
standard academic practice and resulted
in uplift of e-materials for students

3. OUR CASE STUDY
• Building an iPad-centric
approach to TEL in the School
of Computing and
Mathematics
• Pockets of prior activity in
podcasting and lecture
capture, but not part of the
culture
• iPad (and things that could be
integrated around it) was an
opportunity to:
• change standard practice

4. ENABLING THE CULTURE
Staff
• Provided with iPads to incentivise and enable
engagement
• Spurred many to go produce content that they
would not have previously considered
Students:
• Provided with iPad mini as a technology to
support their learning

5. ENGAGING THE STAFF
From September 2011, all staff were given the
opportunity to receive an iPad 2
The qualifying condition was that they engage in
podcasting or electronic assessment
Spurred many to go produce content that they would
not have previously considered
iPad itself was also one option for creating the content

6. BASIC PODCASTING
• Use the Voice
Recorder App (69p!)
• Put the iPad at the
front of the room
• Record and talk
• Place on portal

7. ELECTRONIC FEEDBACK
• E.g. iAnnotate
• Annotate PDF files
using:
• handwriting
• typed comments
• voice comments
• photos

8. BEYOND THE BASICS
• Many staff quickly went beyond the qualifying
conditions
• Enhanced podcasts, edited video, Explain
Everything
• Some podcast their lectures, some produce lecture
summaries, some do supplementary materials
• ... and some produce materials for iTunes U

9. WHY THE IPAD?
• Aspirational device
• few staff had one at the point of issuing them …
but there was a clear appetite!
• Linkage to iTunes U
• aligned to pre-existing institutional initiative
• Lack of malware
• more responsible to use a platform that would not
increase the threat to its users

10. IPAD MINIS FOR STUDENTS

11. INITIAL ROLLOUT TO
STUDENTS
• Purchase of 380 iPad minis
• Provided to Stage 1 cohort,
midway through the year
• Not advertised to
students in advance
• No expectation of
receiving one, so no
basis to complain about
the choice of device 

12. THE LAUNCH

13. THE „RULES‟
• “The iPad remains the property of Plymouth University
until you complete your programme at the end of
Stage 4
• It must not be jailbroken and must be used for
legitimate purposes only
• You will be required to formally reproduce it once per
year for electrical safety testing
• You are strongly advised to get insurance. We will
not be able to replace lost, damaged or stolen devices”

14. FOR SUBSEQUENT
COHORTS
• Has now become part of the advertised provision
• School has ensured the availability to students at all
stages of study (~1,200 devices to date)

15. LECTURE PODCASTS
• Produced for many
modules
• Full lectures and
supplementary
materials
• New opportunities:
• Increases flexibility for
traditional students
• Updating lectures and
still making older
material available

16. EBOOKS
• Issued to all
students on
computing,
mathematics (and
psychology) …
• Vitalsource
Bookshelf app
• Can also consider
items via iBook
Store

17. ITUNES U
• Collections for all of
our main topic areas
• A number of
specialised
collections (e.g.
security, robotics)

18. ATTENDANCE
MONITORING• Self-registration of
attendance via iPad
direct to S3 system
• also via scanners
or paper lists
• Options time and
password-
protection, and IP
locking
• Enables tracking of
student engagement

19. VOTING AND FEEDBACK
• In-house
development of an
app for Wi-Fi-based
voting and response
• Undertaken after it
was established that
all students would
have an iPad

20. CONCLUSIONS
• The iPad has been a very effective
catalyst for developing T&L practices
• More than just provision of a device
• use of technology as part of an
integrated approach
• Provision of the device creates an
expectation of usage
• only takes a few staff to engage for
the wider expectation to appear

21. CONCLUSIONS
• Lack of staff engagement could cause
student resentment
• Promotion by the School of Computing
and Mathematics leads to assumptions
that we were „bound to find it easy‟
• See the initiative continuing as a key
part of our TEL provision

22. Prof. Steven Furnell
School of Computing and Mathematics
Plymouth University
sfurnell@plymouth.ac.uk
@smfurnell
www.cscan.org/podcasts