Abstract
In the past few years, the emergence of disruptive innovative technologies, such as open online courses and mobile devices, has brought higher education a blend of behaviors from learners as well as opportunities and challenges. However, the related research is still in its infancy. Therefore, this dissertation presented a holistic perspective to explore the effectiveness of integrating open educational resources, platforms, and mobile devices. Six studies were conducted to understand how disruptive innovative technologies could be integrated in various educational settings. Study I and II redesigned and optimized the open online courses platform as well as the learning management system for cross-device learning. Studies III to VI were conducted in four different domains in terms of fundamental subjects (thermal physics), general education (art appreciation), physical education (physical education), and graduate programs (academic writing). The duration of this dissertation was five years. Each study lasted at least an entire semester. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted in the dissertation. The triangulation method was used to improve the reliability of the study. Several valuable findings are concluded as follows: First, the open online course platform provides greater accessibility for learners with any device anywhere. A total of 466,429 visits with 264 different mobile devices from 146 territories have accessed the platform over twenty months. Second, with greater accessibility of open online courses, five different learning patterns, Face-to-Face, Web Facilitated, Alternative Blended, Online Learning, and Flipped Learning, were found in the thermal physics course to tailor the classroom to students’ needs. Third, disruptive innovative technologies could enhance learning performance and motivation in different domains. In the fundamental subjects, the learning performance of the blended learning patterns--Web Facilitated, Alternative Blended, and Flipped Learning--are higher than the tradition learning patterns--Face-to-Face and Online Learning. In general education, tablets could motivate students in art appreciation and motor skills compared with the conventional approach. In the graduate programs, adopting e-readers could facilitate students’ academic writing. Finally, this dissertation explored how disruptive innovative technologies could be applied in the context of higher education. The five learning patterns from the fundamental subject course can be the practical reference for instructors who intend to flip the lecture-based course. The WISER model was proposed in physical education which could further be applied in the related motor skill courses. In sum, the five year research of this dissertation unlocked the hidden potential of the disruptive innovative technologies for the different domain subjects in the context of higher education. This dissertation serves as a systematical and constructive reference for higher education institutes, instructors, students, and platform programmers. It can be further implemented into online degree programs, courses, and virtual universities.