IMPROVING INTERACTION AND COMMUNICATION IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS THROW THE USE OF MOBILE APPS

Nowadays technologies and smartphones are well known as essential tools to communicate, interact and exchange ideas. This is particularly relevant in the university context, which is increasingly focused on the application of technologies both in teaching and administration practices. Accordingly, in the field of education we cannot neglect the increasing relevance of this type of digital innovations. For this reason, we can consider these tools as crucial resources to improve the current teaching methodologies. However, beyond the digital revolution, many students show passive attitudes when the technological resources provided by the university are more complicated than the apps the usually use. On the basis of the above, this research is aimed at developing a mobile app to connect university students and teachers in a simple and direct way, avoiding the need to use to more complex tools. The main objective is, therefore, to increase the quality of the relations both in terms of interaction and communication among professors and students, leading to higher levels of participation and involvement with the subject. This will entail better understanding of the contents, promote better learning skills and ultimately will improve student academic performance. In order to check the usefulness of the app, a survey has been carried out. Results reveal that 87% of 295 students confirm the utility of this tool when communicating and interacting with professors and classmates. Moreover, 93% would like to use the tool for another subjects. On the other hand, 22 professors have also responded to another questionnaire, from which 95% point out that it improves quality of relations and academic performance.