Abstract
Many higher education students live and operate in mobile-centric environments. The question is whether the policies of higher education institutions (HEI) are aligned with students’ readiness for mobile technology information access and interaction. To investigate this question from a policy perspective, nine policies from the open and distance learning (ODL) university in South Africa were analysed for providing institutional mobile-centric support. Policy document analysis was used to evaluate five information and communication technology (ICT) polices and four teaching and learning policies. The analysis focused on how the policies support the provision of mobile infrastructure, technical support and learning resources. To investigate from the students’ perspective, quantitative data was captured on Information Systems students’ readiness through a survey of a total of 129 respondents from the same university. The mobile-centric readiness of students was evaluated based on factors that could affect the readiness of students in accessing and interacting with mobile-centric services. The factors investigated were infrastructure ownership, knowledge of mobile phone features and mobile phone Internet activities. The findings revealed that Information Systems students are ready to use mobile phones as tools for information access and interaction, but some inadequacies were observed in the way the policies support the students’ needs. This study proposes some recommendations on how the policies could better support students’ mobile phone information access and interaction.
Highlights
There is compelling evidence to show that higher education institutions (HEI) operate in environments that are ready for mobile technology information access and interaction
POLICY DOCUMENT ANALYSIS RESULTS This section reports on the results of the first research question, namely “What is the status of the university policies in supporting the provision of mobile-centric services in teaching and learning?” The results are discussed under the following themes: integrating mobile technology; providing technical training; providing mobile phone infrastructure; supporting student mobile phone communication; and interacting with and providing access to mobile phone resources
The contribution of the paper lies in identifying the potential mismatches between institutional policies for supporting students in using mobile-centric services and student readiness
Summary
There is compelling evidence to show that HEIs operate in environments that are ready for mobile technology information access and interaction. The evidence is based on statistical reports produced by ICT research organisations over the past years, which show a progression in mobile technology adoption in developing countries (Kearney, 2013; Ericsson, 2015; ITU, 2015). Mobile phones have provided a platform for information access and interaction to people who were previously sidelined by lack of ownership and access to appropriate ICT technologies (Brown, Campbell & Ling, 2011). 9) raised the following questions, “Why has mobile learning not yet emerged from its project status and not yet taken its place in mainstream provision? The slow growth in the integration of mobile phones in teaching and learning has been a cause of concern for the last decade, and Keegan (2005, p. 9) raised the following questions, “Why has mobile learning not yet emerged from its project status and not yet taken its place in mainstream provision? Why does it remain at the research project level and not emerge into a serious form of provision?” To date, the questions have not been sufficiently answered
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