Awareness and Use of Innovative Educational Mobile Applications among Students of Rivers State University

Abstract

Engaging students online has proven to yield positive outcomes in their performance mainly because learners do not have to worry about getting to a physical classroom to participate in the class activity. This study seeks to find out students’ awareness and use of innovative educational mobile applications that can help improve their productivity academically in Rivers State University. The study adopted a descriptive survey and interview methods. Three research questions guided the study. 260 students represented the sample of this study. The instrument that was used for data collection was a questionnaire with 41 items titled “Students’ Awareness and Use of Innovative Educational Mobile Applications”. The instrument comprises a 4-point Likert type rating scale which ranged from one (lowest response) to four (highest response). Data gathered was analyzed using mean and thematic interpretation. The results showed that students in Rivers State University have a low awareness and usage level when it comes to mobile applications that can improve academic performance and students use social /entertainment mobile applications than they use academic oriented mobile applications. Based on the findings it is therefore recommended that workshops should be organized to demonstrate how several mobile applications can be used to enhance academic productivity and lecturers should introduce the use of academic oriented mobile applications when delivering instruction to foster meaningful usage by students.