Exploration and practice of the use of mobile devices to assist in general geological field practice

ABSTRACT This paper reports the practice of using the Mobile QQ and Oruxmaps mobile apps to assist in teaching general geology field practice and the results of evaluation experiments. A student subjective judgment questionnaire and a field test were used to obtain the experimental results. The key findings suggest that the proposed method has a significant effect in improving students’ field practice. Both the field test results and subjective judgments of the students who received the proposed teaching method were found to be better than those of the students who received the traditional teaching method. The findings also suggest that the proposed teaching method is simple and easy to use and does not require complicated work, such as software development. Mobile QQ is a real-time communication app that facilitates the exchange of information between teachers and students. Oruxmaps is a navigation app, but it can increase local geological layer information. We suggest that the use of these apps can be promoted in similar fieldwork, as their use has a clear beneficial effect, and the software is free.