Abstract:

In the context of mobile learning research an emerging area is the mobile-based assessment (MBA), representing the assessment delivered with the support of personal electronic mobile devices, e.g. smartphones and tablets. Most of available empirical studies in his research area have reported significant positive impact on student learning performance, motivation and attitudes when using MBA. Cheung and Hew (2009) asserted that only 7% of the studies that examined the use of mobile devices in education had focused on the potential of mobile-based assessment, and therefore not enough information has been provided so far, regarding mobile assessment practice, so it is room for new research. This paper responds to Nikou (2018)’s call for further research on how mobile assessment may influence learning process, in non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines in higher education environment. To establish valuable solutions to students, developers of mobile learning technologies need to be aware not only of the solution attractiveness, but also of their quality from both technological and pedagogical perspectives. This paper introduces a new mobile-based assessment solution, as the first step in the attempt to design an effective mobile learning framework for economics higher education setting. For the purposes of evaluation, the mobile application was integrated into an existing full-time learning process through Moodle, the e-learning management system (LMS) available at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (BUES) from Romania. An experiment was conducted and solution was tested by students in Marketing, to estimate mobile solution usability, its impact on fostering students’ motivation and their academic achievements.