Interactive Online Activities for Increasing Students' Discipline-Specific Career Knowledge and Readiness

Abstract

As the number of mobile phone users grows and social networking sites like Linkedin.com expand their educational content and e-learning applications, faculty have the opportunity to use M-learning (mobile learning) more actively as a tool to boost studentââ¬â¢s major industry knowledge and career readiness. àThis interactive teaching demonstration presents an innovative assignment that engages students by using LinkedIn.com as a mobile learning (M-Learning) tool. It provides strategies for students to enhance their career readiness by asking them to research, read, consume, and interact with current industry-specific intelligence and news relevant to their major or field(s) of study. àThis assignment also supports research skills by encouraging students to critically consume mobile intelligence. This assignment is informed by best practices in assignment design by Writing Across the Curriculum expert John Bean, author of Engaging Ideas, as well as the Gateway Course Institute, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Transformational Planning Grant, in which the author participated.à A recent paper (not yet published) by Dr. Farrokh Alemi, Professor of Health Informatics at George Mason University, on collecting insights that inform curriculum innovation through Linkedin also informs this presentation. àParticipants will be able to use this type of assignment and its associated mobile platform across disciplines.