Learning through mobile devices: leveraging affordances as facilitators of engagement

Abstract

With the continued and growing popularity of learning through mobile devices, the need for identifying facilitators of effective learning remains critical. Learning through mobile devices is unique in that it presents new challenges, such as the small or limited screen size for presenting learning content and the need for adaptive interface design. Hence, one needs to identify and develop positive affordances that can facilitate learner engagement and address negative affordances to generate the most positive learning and performance outcomes. This paper provides theoretical perspectives as well as reviews the literature to identify the most relevant considerations of design affordances in a mobile learning context. We synthesise the findings from the literature to propose an affordance-centric development framework to guide future research and practice, as well as put forth recommendations for learning through mobile devices.