Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Learning: A Case Study from the Gulf Region

Abstract

Abstract-In the last few years, the way we learn has been shifted dramatically from traditional classrooms depending on printed papers into E-learning depending on digital pages. Mobile learning (M-learning) is a recent technology that has been developed rapidly to deliver E-learning using personal mobile devices without posing any restrictions on time and location. In this work, we investigate students and faculty members' attitudes towards the use of M-learning in higher educational institutions within two countries in the Gulf Region (Oman & UAE). Two questionnaire surveys have been conducted: one for students and another for faculty members. In these surveys, 383 students and 54 instructors have taken part within the study. An independent sample t-test was performed to examine whether there exist a significant difference among the students' attitudes and the faculty members' attitudes towards the use of Mlearning with regard to gender and country. Results indicated that students in the UAE were more positive towards the use of M-learning than those in Oman. Moreover, results revealed that 99% of the students own mobile devices, in particular smartphones and tablets, while only 1% has not. Results of this study could help policy makers for better decision making in building the M-learning infrastructure in the higher educational institutions in general and specifically within the Arab Gulf region.

Students' Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Technologies in e-Evaluation

“…In the last few years, an increased number of research studies were conducted to examine the utilization of mobile devices in several sectors; one of them is the higher education [2], [3], [1], [4], [6], [5]. M-learning has a great influence on the students as well as researchers for developing a robust educational infrastructure.…”

Academics' Awareness Towards Mobile Learning in Oman

“…Similarly, the study by [16] indicated through the use of an independent t-test that female educators' perceptions were more positive than males towards the use of M-learning. In contrast, a study by [11] found that male educators' perceptions were more positive towards M-learning than females, while findings by [13] and [6] didn't reveal any significant difference among the academics' perceptions towards the utilization of Mlearning with regard to their gender.…”

“…As a limitation, this study has been conducted in order to compare the students' and academics' perceptions towards the utilization of Mlearning within two countries (Oman and UAE) by examining only two factors (gender and country). Due to the reason that there is a limited number of available articles related to educators' attitudes towards the utilization of M-learning in the higher educational universities around the world in general and specifically within the Arab Gulf countries, and as an extension to the work published by [13], this study has been conducted.…”

“…Another study by [13] conducted a study regarding the students' and academics' perceptions towards the utilization of M-learning in the higher educational contexts of the Arab Gulf region with two neighboring countries (Oman & UAE). Two questionnaire surveys have been used for data collection.…”

“…According to the studies ( [14], [15], [13] and [6]), reliability measurement test was performed for the ten variables that characterize the academics' perceptions via measuring the Cronbach's Alpha. The Cronbach's Alpha value for the academics' perceptions (Alpha = 0.918) is greater than 0.7.…”