Investigating Students’ and Faculty members’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Learning in Higher Educational Environments at the Gulf Region
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Date
2014-12
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
Recently, the way we learn has been shifted dramatically from traditional classrooms relying on printed papers into E-learning relying on digital/electronic pages. Modern educational technologies attempt to facilitate the delivery of learning from instructors to students in a more flexible and comfortable way. Mobile learning (M-learning) is one of such ubiquitous technologies that has been evolved rapidly to deliver E-learning using personal electronic devices without posing any restrictions on time and location. A review of the state-of-the-art of M-learning regarding the students’ and faculty members’ attitudes towards the use and adoption of M-learning in the higher educational environments worldwide is addressed. We observed that M-learning has not yet been studied intensively within the Gulf Region universities; the reason that motivated us to focus our study on this area and attempt to identify the gaps that have not been covered within the current available research. Understanding students and faculty members’ attitudes within Gulf region countries is the first step towards applying M-learning. Two questionnaires surveys within two neighboring countries within the Gulf region (Oman & UAE) have been conducted in order to examine both students and faculty members’ attitudes towards the use of M-learning in the higher education environments. Data was collected from five universities in the Gulf region, one from Oman and four from UAE. 383 students and 54 instructors took part within the study. Findings give a strong indicator that M-learning can be one of the promising educational technologies to be implemented in the higher educational environments within the Gulf region countries.
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DISSERTATION WITH DISTINCTION
Keywords
mobile learning, higher education, Gulf region, E-learning, educational technology, M-learning