Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 128, January 2019, Pages 102-112
Computers & Education

Facilitating professional mobile learning communities with instant messaging

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.09.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Mobile Instant Messaging can support learners in the school-to-work transition.

  • Moderated WhatsApp groups can enhance knowledge and professional connectedness.

  • Informal WhatsApp use is associated with higher levels of professional immersion.

  • Key influencing factor is active (writing) vs passive (reading) engagement.

Abstract

Although Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) is a massive communication phenomenon and its educational use can be seen as a genuine form of mobile learning, it has been studied to a limited extent to date. The present study examined the use of MIM to engage young professionals in mobile learning communities during their school-to-work transition. This transition is one of the most central but also challenging developmental phases marked by the experience of knowledge gaps and a lack of belonging.

To assess knowledge and socio-professional learning effects associated with the use of MIM, this study adopted a quasi-experimental, survey-based approach with an intervention and control condition (n = 114) in the setting of an international research project. In the intervention condition, newly graduated nurses from Nigeria participated in WhatsApp groups in which moderators shared knowledge and stimulated professional discussions over a period of 6 months. Data were collected via online surveys and knowledge tests.

The findings show that participants in the moderated WhatsApp groups had significantly higher knowledge and exhibited fewer feelings of professional isolation compared with the control group, which was not subject of any treatment. The effects were even more pronounced when controlling for active contributions (writing vs reading messages), which also amounted to significantly higher levels of professional identification. In addition, across intervention and control groups, the self-reported general active use of WhatsApp (outside of the intervention) was positively associated with the measures of professional social capital maintained with school connections, professional identity, (lower) professional isolation, job satisfaction, and the perceived transfer of school knowledge to work practice.

Whereas knowledge and socio-professional effects can be triggered through moderated WhatsApp interventions yet the general (and thus informal) use of WhatsApp is associated with socio-professional connectedness. The findings are of particular relevance in the developing context under investigation, which is marked by a lack of alternative support structures.

Introduction

The school-to-work transition is, viewed from educational and professional development perspectives, a pivotal phase (Rudd, 1997). The experience that learners make during this period impacts their work skills and future career success (Koen, Klehe, & Van Vianen, 2012). This transition is not an isolated and narrow phase between the completion of schooling and the beginning of the first job. Instead, the phase is boundary crossing in nature, as it starts already during school and includes the processes of adjustment and habituation in the initial phase of work. This paper focuses on the second aspect, i.e., on the immersion in the professional world upon graduation, and on the learning experience associated with this process.

In health professional education, the domain of the present study, considerable attention has been paid to the period of professional immersion in which graduates start a new job. The experience made during this phase is a determinant of professional success and retention in the job (Christmas, 2008; Clark & Springer, 2012; Rush, Adamack, Gordon, Lilly, & Janke, 2013). Although the phase of professional immersion can offer a broad range of learning opportunities (Clark & Springer, 2012; Meleis, 2010, p. 361), graduates often struggle with high levels of stress and low job satisfaction, particularly in the first six to nine months in the new job (Rush et al., 2013). They also experience professional isolation, i.e., feeling distant from their teams (J. Evans, Boxer, & Sanber, 2008). In addition, the initial work experience after graduation is marked by the experience of gaps in knowledge, especially challenges in the transfer and application of prior knowledge, which Clark and Springer (2012) coined as “not knowing.”

As the literature indicates, the acquisition, transfer and application of knowledge are critical in the school-to-work trajectory. In addition to these cognitive viewpoints, it is the learning as participation metaphor that explains pivotal educational development in this phase. This is a perspective that focuses on the shifting relationships between a learner and a wider collective, precisely, on the process of becoming and being a member of a certain community (Sfard, 1998). This transition involves an individual's progressing from a peripheral to a more central member of a (professional) community (Lave & Wenger, 1991), and, at the same time, the development of a sense of belonging to and identification with this community (Cruess, Cruess, Boudreau, Snell, & Steinert, 2015) which are seen as important aspects of learning (Trede, Macklin, & Bridges, 2012). In the present study, the changing social connections between an individual and the professional community in terms of isolation, social capital, and professional identity are reflective of the participatory metaphor of learning, whereas the measures of knowledge and knowledge transfer address the acquisition metaphor (Sfard, 1998).

The underlying rationale of the present study was to examine the support that can be provided to learners and young professionals by means of Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) groups during this critical phase of transitioning from studentship in the world of work. Despite the fact that MIM is a massive phenomenon that has transformed global communication practice, relatively little is known about its role in education and learning. The burgeoning use of MIM manifests, for example, in WhatsApp user statistics. The platform is the third most popular social media platform after Facebook and YouTube (Statista, 2017). More than one billion active users share 55 billion messages on a daily basis (WhatsApp Blog, 2017).

In contrast to MIM, the educational use of social network sites, and particularly Facebook, has been researched widely. As many systematic reviews show, their use has achieved mixed results in general education settings (Manca & Ranieri, 2013, 2016), and in the domain of health professional education (Cheston, Flickinger, & Chisolm, 2013; Pander, Pinilla, Dimitriadis, & Fischer, 2014; von Muhlen & Ohno-Machado, 2012). The most predominant category is “formal use in formal educational settings”, where a social network site serves as a substitute for learning management systems (Manca & Ranieri, 2013, 2016). A key difference between social networking sites and MIM is that the latter allow for forms of intimacy and togetherness, which are not achieved through social network sites, such as Facebook, which favour practises of self-presentation and self-disclosure (Karapanos, Teixeira, & Gouveia, 2016).

Emerging findings of educational MIM use have been summarised in a systematic review, which conceived its central qualities as “temporal [anytime and anywhere], user-friendly, minimal cost, and multi-modality features” (Tang & Hew, 2017, p. 85). The authors also observed six specific purposes for the use of MIM in education, which included “journaling, dialogic, transmissive, constructionist with peer feedback, helpline, and assessment.” (Tang & Hew, 2017, p. 85). The analysis of the literature points to the potential of MIM to enable a social and emotional presence across a range of different education and learning contexts. For example, a study found that students use it as a tool to provide practical, social and emotional support to peers (Timmis, 2012). Intimacy, trust and closeness are enacted through a particular form of social presence labelled as “dwelling”, which is marked by “profoundly small, continuous traces of narrative, of tellings and tidbits, noticings and thoughts, shared images and lingering pauses” (O'Hara, Massimi, Harper, Rubens, & Morris, 2014). In so doing, interactants are dropping in and out, maintaining their digital presence across lengthy periods of time (Timmis, 2012).

Although it can be assumed that the development of closeness, togetherness and the provision of practical and educational support is central in the phases of school-to-work transitions in which graduates are challenged by entering new professional and developmental terrain, no studies on the use of MIM in this particular context could be identified. However, studies on placements are indicative of the potential of MIM in the school-to-work transition because also placement learning is marked by feelings of isolation and the experience of knowledge gaps (Eick, Williamson, & Heath, 2012; Levett-Jones, Lathlean, Higgins & McMillan, 2009). The potential of MIM in these settings has been explored, for example, through a small-scale study in the UK, which reported the use of WhatsApp as a platform to support problem-based learning. The authors concluded that the tool enhanced the coordination of the groups and enabled the development of an extended social presence among the participants (Raiman, Antbring, & Mahmood, 2017).

In addition to the systematic educational deployment, also informal and non-facilitated use of social media, including MIM, was found to correlate with students' personal and group resilience during placements. This association was explained with the technology's capability to allow for the maintenance of social relationships which serve as a resource for feedback and emotional support in stressful placement situations (Sigalit, Sivia, & Michal, 2017). Similarly, another study found that students' informal use during placements was associated with reduced feelings of isolation from professional communities (Pimmer et al., 2018).

In contrast to studies that point to the capability of MIM in supporting an emotional and social presence in learning settings, the literature that confirms cognitive and knowledge outcomes is even more scarce and inconclusive. In the systematic review of Tang and Hew (2017, p. 85), five studies showed positive outcomes whereas two studies found no or even adverse knowledge effects (Tang & Hew, 2017, p. 85). This ambiguity was, for example, reflected in a study in a context similar to the present investigation, in which a training course for health professionals was offered via a moderated WhatsApp group. Although the majority of respondents found the training useful, knowledge gains measured between the pre- and post-test were not significant (Jayarajan, Lee, & Mwaikambo, 2017). This raises the question regarding how MIM can be used to achieve knowledge-related outcomes. In their review, Tang and Hew (2017) suggest that the form of MIM-based engagement could be a key determinant. This argument is supported by the study of Lai (2016): While Lai did not find differences in knowledge gains between a WhatsApp-based learning group and a control group, he observed significant associations between the quantity of engagement and learning outcomes in the intervention group. Using qualitative content analysis, Lai explained these differences also with the mode and quality of engagement, as some participants made low-quality contributions which were not taken up by their peers (Lai, 2016).

The educational use of WhatsApp and other MIM platforms in general, and in the school-to-work transition in particular, can be conceived as a genuine form of mobile learning, especially with regard to the mobility and the conversational nature of learning involved. Central definitions of mobile learning put the multifaceted mobilities and the conversational nature of learning in the foreground, describing it as coming to know through continuous conversations across multiple and changing contexts (Pachler, Bachmair, & Cook, 2010; Sharples, Taylor, & Vavoula, 2007). The mobilities that arise from learning across contexts entail different dimensions including mobility in and across physical/geographical, conceptual, social and socio-cultural spaces (e.g. school, work and leisure contexts), mobility of technology, and mobility in terms of learning that is dispersed over time (Kukulska-Hulme, Sharples, Milrad, Arnedillo-Sánchez, & Vavoula, 2010). Mobile learning does thus not only involve informal and workplace learning, which are fundamentally mobile in nature, but also the trajectories between these different contexts (Sharples, Taylor, & Vavoula, 2005). Importantly, mobile learning also includes the mobilities of long-term or life-long learning trajectories and the development of an understanding “how learning can be managed across life transitions” (Sharples et al., 2007, p. 223). This is an aspect which is also at the core of the school-to-work transition, which is marked by very high levels of mobility. Socio-cultural mobilities of this transition include learners who gradually move into new work communities. At this stage, pre-established social ties also have a relevant role. For example, learners do not only maintain but further develop connections with former school mates in terms of maintained social capital, often using digital and, especially, social media (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). Considering the cognitive mobilities of this transition, a key indicator is the “transfer” of school knowledge into practice settings. Acknowledging the complexities and the non-linearity of these dynamics, scholars have conceptualised this process also as a practice of re-contextualisation (K. Evans, 2011) or of the reconciliation of school and practice knowledge (Billett, 2014).

The instructional use of MIM and WhatsApp is also reflective of another central tenet of mobile learning, which is the notion of learning as conversation, as for example highlighted by Sharples et al. (2007). Drawing on Pask (1975), they understand (mobile) conversational learning not as the exchange of messages through an inert platform but as the development and sharing of a mutual understanding (being informed about another), where cognition is distributed among interactions and co-constructed conversations (Sharples et al., 2007). This characterisation mirrors the nature of MIM and WhatsApp communication which are constituted by short and interrupted conversations that, at the same time, can stretch over lengthy periods of time involving distributed interlocutors who co-construct closeness, common ground and a shared understanding (O'Hara et al., 2014; Timmis, 2012). Surprisingly, the communicative and conversational properties of mobile devices have been leveraged and researched to a surprisingly limited extent according to systematic reviews (Frohberg, Göth, & Schwabe, 2009; Pimmer, Mateescu, & Gröhbiel, 2016).

Despite the increasing proliferation and the educational potential ascribed to the use of MIM platforms, findings from existing research are rather inconclusive. Whereas a number of studies point to the potential of facilitated as well as informal use of MIM to enable a social and emotional presence in learning settings, very little knowledge is available about knowledge gains and regarding the ways and modes of engagement through which knowledge gains and socio-professional learning can be achieved. In addition, the majority of the evidence presented to date is qualitative in nature. The gap identified is particularly relevant regarding learners' school-to-work trajectories, which present a highly critical developmental phase.

The conversational nature of MIM-based learning and the mobilities involved in the context of school-to-work transitions make the present study an exemplary case for mobile learning. However, both are aspects to which researchers have paid relatively little empirical analytical attention to date. The present study also seeks to contribute to the emerging field of mobile learning in nursing education, for which a recent systematic literature review underscores the need to further investigate the aspects of peer interaction, synchronous sharing and contextual mobile learning (Chang, Lai, & Hwang, 2018). All these are aspects which are part of the present intervention.

Section snippets

Objectives and research questions

To address the gaps identified, three main research questions were formulated. The first question is centred on the potential effects which can be triggered through the systematic use of MIM in the school-to-work transition: Can the facilitated use of MIM enhance (a) the retention and transfer of knowledge, and, (b) socio-professional connectedness - in comparison with a control group (RQ1)? The dimension of socio-professional connectedness was evaluated through the measures of professional

Results

In the first analytical step, to address RQ1, we compared the intervention condition with the control condition, i.e., the group that did not participate in the moderated WhatsApp spaces (See Table 1). Because most of the measures employed 5-point Likert scales and were not normally distributed, robust Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used for all significance tests (α=.05).

With regard to the socio-professional measures, the feelings of professional isolation were significantly lower in the

Discussion

In essence, the moderated use of MIM during learners' school-to-work transition enhanced both learning in terms of knowledge acquisition and learning as (professional) participation. Precisely, the intervention group had higher levels of knowledge and fewer feelings of professional isolation compared with the control group (RQ1). When controlling for active participation (RQ2), the differences regarding knowledge and professional connectedness were more pronounced and broader, including also

Conclusions

The study examined the educational use of MIM to support learners in their school-to-work transitions. These transitions are one of the most critical developmental phases marked by knowledge gaps and low levels of professional connectedness. Against this background, the findings add to the extant literature by showing the effects of moderated WhatsApp use on knowledge and socio-professional immersion, confirming and extending a number of prior, mostly qualitative studies. The

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the contributions of Mr. Samson Akande, the Project Officer and Mr. Oladipupo Olaleye who created the WhatsApp group chats. We are grateful to the principals and staff of the Schools of Nursing for their permission and to all the moderators and students who participated in the project.

The Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development (r4d programme), which is a joint funding initiative by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Swiss National

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