Assessing the Potential of LevelUp as a Persuasive Technology for South African Learners

Good study behaviour after school hours is an important way of improving learners' chances of success. Learners, once they reach high school, particularly require support that will assist them to study effectively outside the classroom. South African schools are under pressure to improve results in mathematics but besides the homework that schools set, it is difficult for them to motivate the learner to do any additional study of mathematics after school. This suggests that schools could take advantage of technology to create good study behaviour by introducing mobile phones as a persuasive technology. The ubiquity of mobile phones has raised interest in their usage as educational tools and how best to leverage them both during school hours and outside the classroom. However, research in mobile learning argues that mobile phones might enhance learning but might easily distract learners unless there is some control and structure. This paper is based on preliminary research done for a PhD thesis and does not include all the results of the data already collected. The paper conceptualises the first phase of research to assess a specific initiative incorporating the LevelUp application to motivate good studying behaviour outside the classroom for grade 11 learners studying mathematics using their mobile phones or tablets. [For the complete proceedings, see ED579190.]