Using Personal Digital Assistants to support students

Abstract

As participation in higher education increases, large numbers of people from non-traditional backgrounds are entering universities such as Wolverhampton. These students are expected to need more support in becoming familiar with the novelty and complexity of studying new subjects as undergraduates in a large university. They are consequently expected to be the students at most risk of failure to progress beyond the first year of their course and hence failing to realise their potential. Universities have attempted to increase the accessibility of higher education by an increased variety of modes and timetables. Whilst this facilitates wider take up, it also increases the logistical complexity of the world that new students enter. This project explores the use of handheld computers (personal digital assistants, PDAs) in addressing some aspects of this problem and also to begin to explore the cost-effectiveness of institutional support for providing these devices.