Vol. 32 No. 1 (2017)
Research Articles

Mobile Phone Usage and Students’ Perception towards M-Learning: A Case of Undergraduate Students in Pakistan

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  • Shakeel Iqbal

Published 2017-09-12

Keywords

  • m-learning,
  • mobile phones ownership and usage,
  • undergraduate students,
  • perceptions towards m-learning,
  • developing countries

How to Cite

Iqbal, S. (2017). Mobile Phone Usage and Students’ Perception towards M-Learning: A Case of Undergraduate Students in Pakistan. International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education Revue Internationale Du E-Learning Et La Formation à Distance, 32(1). Retrieved from https://ijede.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/1036
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Abstract

Mobile phones are increasingly becoming part of the daily life of today’s youth. This widespread usage of mobile technology has attracted the attention of researchers and academicians to explore the ways and means of using it in formal and informal education. This study investigates the mobile phones ownership pattern and usage among undergraduate university students in Pakistan. Moreover, students’ choice of mobile service provider is explored. The objective of this study is to investigate m-learning potential among university students and their perceptions towards this emerging learning technology. Quantitative data is collected by means of a survey in which 320 undergraduate students enrolled in four academic disciplines (Business, Engineering, Arts and Medical) participated. SPSS software is used for data analysis. Primarily, descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, and pie and line charts) is used for describing the data on different attributes obtained from the questionnaire. Besides, to check the significant difference between the students’ perception towards m-learning ANOVA followed by Post Hoc Tucky test is used. The results indicate that overall students’ have a very positive attitude towards m-learning; however, the perceptions of Arts and Engineering students were found significantly different from those of Medical and Business students. The results of this study have practical implications for the policy-makers, educators and developers of m-learning programs specifically in case of developing countries.

Résumé

Les téléphones portables occupent une place de plus en plus grande dans la vie quotidienne de la jeunesse actuelle. La diffusion de l’usage des technologies mobiles  a attiré l’attention des chercheurs et universitaires et les a amenés à explorer les manières et moyens de les utiliser dans l’éducation formelle et informelle. Cette enquête porte sur les types d’usages des possesseurs de téléphone portable parmi les étudiants de premier cycle universitaire au Pakistan. De plus, le choix de l’opérateur de téléphonie mobile fait par les étudiants est exploré. L’objectif de cette étude est d’enquêter sur le potentiel de l’apprentissage mobile parmi les étudiants universitaires et leurs perceptions de cette technologie émergente. Des données quantitatives sont collectées par le biais d’une enquête à laquelle ont participé 320 étudiants de premier cycle inscrits dans quatre disciplines universitaires différentes (commerce, ingénierie, arts et médecine). Le logiciel SPSS a été utilisé pour réaliser l’analyse de données. Tout d’abord, des statistiques descriptives (fréquences, pourcentages, diagrammes circulaires et graphiques linéaires) sont utilisés pour décrire les données résultant de différentes catégories du questionnaire. Puis, pour tester les différences significatives des perceptions des étudiants concernant l’apprentissage mobile une ANOVA suive du test post-hoc de Tukey est utilisée. Les résultats indiquent que, dans l’ensemble, les étudiants ont une attitude très positive envers l’apprentissage mobile. Cependant, les étudiants en arts et ingénierie sont apparus significativement différents de ceux en commerce et médecine. Les résultats de cette étude ont des implications pratiques pour les décideurs politiques, les éducateurs et les développeurs de programmes d’apprentissage mobile, tout particulièrement dans le cas des pays en développement.

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