Abstract:

Some teachers experience problems with using mobile applications in educational environments. This is either due to a lack of mobile applications that are congruent with the content and objectives of courses or to a lack of knowledge regarding their content and intended uses. This study aims to determine: (i) the categories, (ii) the intended uses, (iii) levels in Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive domains and (iv) the chemistry content of the mobile applications that have educational content related to chemistry in the most popular virtual store, and to provide important information about applications to students and teachers/educators. A total of 138 free mobile applications were included in the study. The data were investigated using document analysis, a qualitative research technique. The study findings identified three categories for chemistry mobile applications: game-based, instruction-based and exam-oriented. The applications can be used for seven different purposes and the applications on the levels of remembering, understanding and applying greatly outnumbered those on the level of analysis. There were no applications on the levels of evaluating and creating. Most of the applications addressed atoms, molecules, compounds, chemical reactions, the periodic table and organic chemistry content. In order to be more beneficial for students and teachers in the distance education process, it is recommended to increase the number of applications that allow students compatible with the curriculum to experiment with simulations.

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