Abstract
Purpose This work is devoted to increasing the effectiveness of a mathematical modelling lesson with the help of mobile devices. It verifies the authors' hypothesis which states that enabling students to solve mathematical models on mobile devices improves their academic results in the discipline. Design/methodology/approach The paper describes an experiment conducted among 38 college students in an extracurricular mathematical club where they solved mathematical models with the help of their own smartphones. The authors describe the mathematical models assigned to students, analyse their academic performance and gather their opinions. Findings The usage of mobile devices in the mathematical modelling class positively affects students' scores and interest in the subject. The percentage of positive grades among students working on mobile devices is higher than among students working on desktop computers. Originality/value The authors discover that in the context of the college-level mathematical modelling course, mobile devices can be successfully used as an alternative replacement for traditional desktop computers.