EDUCATORS’ PERCEPTION
TOWARDS MOBILE LEARNING
Nor Alley Zulkafly, Ah-Coo Koo, Tengku Putri Norishah
Shariman and Mohd Nazri Zainuddin
Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning SIG, ‘iknowmedia’ Research Centre, Faculty of Creative
Multimedia, Multimedia University.
http://probmobile.com/mulearn/
Date: 19 July 2011.
Introduction

Mobile learning



is defined as teaching and learning through the facilitation of
mobile technology and its environment with portable devices
such as PDA, smart phone and mobile phone
promote active learning.
Extended reach of e-learning (Motiwalla, 2007)

convenience, expediency, immediacy, accessibility, individuality,
and interactivity
Introduction

Learning Management System (Rismark, Sølvberg,
Strømme, and Hok, 2007).



platform for web-based learning environments by enabling
management, delivery and track of learning
offers flexibility and independent learning environment for
students
encourage and enhance self-confidence, self-esteem and also
self-motivation towards learning
Introduction

The LMS suggested were reviewed from existing MMLS system
in MMU and a m-learning framework by Motiwalla (2007)

The suggestions for adoption were: Course Managements,
Assessment, Discussion, Attendance, Advisory and learning
tools
Figure 1: A m-learning framework (Motiwalla 2007)
Introduction

Educators play an important role in promoting quality
education through mobile technology. (Attawel, 2005;
Daniel, 2008; Ferry, 2009)




Building teacher – student relationship
Promote critical thinking skills
Collaborative learning
Improve engagement
Introduction
Figure 2: Components of mobile learning in teaching and learning environment (Danaher et al., 2009
p. 25).
Background
Two factors that contribute to educational technology
which are the technology
resources and the
educators’ perception on how to utilize it.
(Robyler, 2006)
Background
•
A survey conducted at Open University, Malaysia showed
that about 8 in 10 students, are ready to employ
mobile devices in their learning activities and are
expected to be ready for mobile learning within
six months. (Zoraini, 2009)
•
The challenge to educate a new generation of students
who are more technology literate. (Prensky, 2001)
Background

Educators’ experiences in MMU LMS (ie Multimedia
Learning System) system used for teaching and learning.

list of educators who are actively engaged with the
system was acquired from the university’ Multimedia
Product Innovation Unit to ensure that the information
collected will produce a detailed understanding of the
current learning environment.

log in to the system more than twice a week on the
assumption that lecturers have to update notes or give
announcements or contact the students
Purpose & Research Question
To examine the preferences and intention of
educators to implement mobile learning in higher
education. Guided questions are:
What
are the current status of mobile usage among the
educators?
What is the educators’ perception towards mobile learning?
 Perception on mobile LMS in managing their teaching tasks.
What are their intention to adopt mobile learning?
The importance
The results of this study can complement other
studies and provide useful information for mobile
learning developers to design applications which are
useful for both students and educators.
Literature Review
•
•
Anaraki (2006) showed a strong reluctance expressed by 55%
of the educators in Thailand on the idea of recording their
lectures and spreading the videos as notes to students’ mobile
devices.
Reasons are
•
•
•
the lack of self-confidence
more time and effort needed to make appropriate lecture materials.
Educators were also concerned about the cost of networks
and devices that will affect students, besides the availability of
infrastructure and resources to develop materials that provide
the support-Peters (2009)
Literature Review (continue)

There is still no assurance from the educators that
they will integrate mobile phones technologies in
their classrooms because
they feel they have to build a different and new set of skills
and knowledge for using this technology in their
classrooms – Ferry (2009)
Methodology

Setting of the study:


In a media-based faculty at Multimedia University in 2010 (July)
Selection of educators was based on their level of participation
in MMLS.



Selected randomly those who were active and averagely active of
using MMLS.
Email were sent out to invite them for an interview session.
12 educators showed positive response and were interviewed.
On average, each person – 25 minutes.
Interview Questions & Data Analysis

Formation of the questions were discussed and approved
by a research method expert

Examples of question are:





What type of activities do you perform on your mobile device?
Do you like to conduct learning activity with mobile as tools in your
classroom? With the assumption of free service and CMS etc
Do you have any suggestion to integrate mobile learning in MMU?
Full review on question
Data were analyzed using qualitative analysis method, eg.
thematic categorization of the responses.
Findings

RQ1 : What are the current status of mobile usage among the
educators?

RQ2: What is the educators’ perception towards mobile
learning?
 Perception on mobile LMS in managing their teaching tasks.

RQ3: What are their intention to adopt mobile learning?
RQ1: What are the current status of mobile
usage among the educators?
Activities (Y)
Teaching
Shopping
Other
Video Calling
Banking
Email
Social Software
Send File
Internet Browsing
Tools
Organizer
Application
SMS
Call
Numbers of educators(X)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Figure 3: Activities performed using mobile devices by educators
RQ1: What are the current status of mobile
usage among the educators? (continue)

The respondents were between 20-40 years old during
the interview.

Half of the respondents already own an advanced
computing mobile phone (eg. iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia N97
and etc)

These respondents also categorized as active user of mobile
user as they performed more than 6 features/application of
their mobile devices. (eg. call, sms, browsing internet, sending
receiving file via MMS or bluetooth and etc)

Full review on demographic
RQ1: What are the current status of mobile usage
among the educators? (continue)

Another half of the respondents were using Symbian OS
Phone mobile phone (eg Nokia 5330, Nokia 3310)

And they are consider moderate users of mobile device as
they used their mobile devices moderately (less activities).

Types of mobile device owned do contribute to activities
performed by the respondents.

Teaching and learning activities - none
RQ2: The educators perception towards
mobile learning

The educators perceived mobile learning as a useful
approach to facilitate their current teaching environment

Majority of them are likely to use mobile device features
and technologies that were suggested (LMS).
RQ2: The educators perception towards
mobile learning (continue)

The finding shows activities that involve the types of
learning and teaching management more likely to be
preferred by the educators.
Figure 4: Activities preferred/likely to use by educators
Perception on mobile LMS

Activities such as taking attendance and course management
system tasks like sending announcements, notes and updates
appeals as very likely to be used.

Although communication activities with students can be done
through mobile devices, some of the educators did not agree
to use mobile device for discussion


preferred face-to-face consultation.
problem to discuss with a large number of students using the mobile
device small screen.
RQ3: What are their intention to adopt
mobile learning?

Relationship between intentions of adopting mobile
learning with the level of usage
Level of Mobile
Intention of adopting mobile learning
Usage
Active User
Moderate passive User
Positive
Less Positive

RespD

RespI

RespG

RespJ

RespH

RespL

RespA

RespC

RespB

RespE

RespF

RespK
8 (67%)
Total
6(50%)
6(50%)
4(33%)
12(100%)
Table 1 Relationship between intentions of adopting mobile learning with the level of usage
RQ3: What are their intention to adopt
mobile learning? (continue)

Currently the educators are not fully utilizing the full
potential of mobile technology for learning purposes
although there were actively using it for personal used

67% are positive toward adoption of mobile learning

Educators preferred the system to be automated so they
don’t need to re-do their existing lectures notes
Discussion

A framework for art and design subject is rare in this
research field, therefore some of the educators are still
unsure how to utilize and integrate mobile learning into
their current teaching environments.

Passion to enhance teaching and learning does not limit
by the current mobile device used

Cost and type of mobile device are the major concerned
to apply mobile learning.
Conclusion

Educators are willing to update their knowledge and keep
up with the current technologies.

In general, educators perceived mobile environment as
convenient for performing simple tasks like making
announcement, scheduling and attendance taking.

Future research


More mobile learning research into LMS
inclusion of AI into LMS.
References








Attewell, J.: Mobile technologies and learning: A technology update and mlearning project
summary. Learning and Skills Development Agency, London (2005),
Anaraki, R.: Assesment of mlearning: A case Study: Assumption University of Thailand. In:
Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on eLearning for Knowledge-Based
Society 15(SP3), pp. 12.1--6. IJCIM, Bangkok (2007)
Daniel, E.G.S. An Emergent Scaffolding Model Of Tertiary M-Learning: A Case Study Of Science
Teacher Education In: 2nd International Mobile Learning and Edutainment Conference, Kuala
Lumpur (2008)
Ferry, B.: Using mobile phones to enhance teacher learning in environmental education. In:
Herrington, J., Herrington, A., Mantei, J., Olney, I., B. Ferry (eds.)pp. 45-55. University of
Wollongong, Wollongong (2009)
Motiwalla, L. F.: Mobile Learning: A Framework and Evaluation. Computers and Education 49,
581--596 (2005)
Prensky, M.: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On The Horizon 9(5), 1 - 6 (2001)
Roblyer, M.: Integrating educational technology into teaching. Technology in music and art
instruction. Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey (2006)
Zoraini Wati, A.: E-Learning in Malaysia: Moving Forward in Open Distance Learning. In:
International Journal on E-Learning. 8(4), 527--537 (2009)