Promoting autonomous work of students with the MILAGE Learn+ app

In this paper, we present the MILAGE Learn+ app, developed for smartphones and tablets in order to promote autonomous work of students in the process of learning mathematics. With this app students solve mathematics activities and get help by playing videos with problem resolutions. Autonomous learning and effective self-regulatory strategies are very important in learning; without these, students might not be able to exploit learning opportunities outside classrooms. For that, an important way of supporting learning autonomy is to promote student-centered learning approaches. Students can use mobile devices to implement a blended learning model and use the MILAGE Learn+ app that allows the implementation of student-centered learning approaches involving students with different skills. For this purpose, the app accommodates gaming mechanics dealing with complexity and detail. It has three different levels of problems complexity: beginners, intermediate and advanced. On the other hand, each problem can have two levels of explanations/resolutions: detailed and concise. These features provide the same opportunities to all students. So, low-achieving students that may struggle to learn the materials covered in class can watch the video resolution as many times as they want until they understand the subject. But students have also access to complex maths problems that may provide additional stimulation for top performers. In this way, we provide a platform where students can work autonomously, and the app is also capable of accommodating students with different mathematic skills.