Abstract:

The capstone project is an important piece of writing for final year undergraduate students. It is where they showcase the skills and knowledge they have learned throughout their undergraduate program. Capstone projects and the skills they have developed equip and prepare students as they transition to a professional life or further their academic pursuit; one of these skills is the student’s ability to effectively and appropriately use English in their discipline and for communication. This is challenging in the context of Hong Kong’s tertiary education for two major reasons. Almost all universities mandate that capstone projects be written completely in English although English is not the mother tongue for the majority of students. On top of this, there is a lack of curriculum space in the final year of the undergraduate program to offer specific English language courses to help students face the daunting task of completing their long and demanding capstone project. As campuses lock down under the pandemic, the situation is further exacerbated when the supervisor and supervisee cannot meet in person to discuss the writing and progress of the capstone.

To address this, a project, involving five universities, decided to address the challenges and gaps by developing an in-house mobile app that offers discipline-specific support to final year undergraduate students in the English they need to deliver their capstone project. A mobile application is considered as a most suitable learning support tool for this purpose because today’s students are reliant on their mobile phones. A mobile application can reach students anywhere, anytime, and provides flexibility in learning. The bite-size and micro-learning approach of mobile learning works well in the self-paced and independent work mode associated with capstone projects.

This presentation aims to show how students have used the three major functions of the app: the learning tool as the main function provides discipline-specific English language learning tips, as well as two other functions that were added later to provide opportunities for students to self-manage their project and communicate more efficiently with their supervisors respectively. The app’s main features are designed as a “one-stop” shop to support students in the whole capstone project process, making it easier and more convenient for them to work on capstone project-related matters. We will present findings from a small exploratory case study with data collected from students in two departments, examine students’ perceptions in using the app, and explore some impact on students’ learning process, especially in remote learning situations during the pandemic crisis.

Keywords:

Mobile app, capstone, English, remote learning, higher education, COVID19.