Influencing factors in M-learning adoption in higher education

Abstract

The tremendous and rapid developments in the information and communications technology sector as well as mobile devices have resulted in modern technologies, one of which is Mobile Learning (M-learning). M-learning is a new technique for learning that helps students to do their educational activities and access the learning materials easily without temporal or spatial restrictions, with the help of mobile devices. It is a robust component to make learning easy and flexible. Recently, many applications and services related to it have been developed. Despite the large number of researchers who have dealt with the topic of M-learning, the issue of factors affecting the adoption of M-learning has not been dealt with adequately, especially in Palestine. Therefore, it becomes necessary to explore the factors influencing the intentions of the students of higher education institutions to adopt M-learning. Hence, the goal of this study is to inspect the factors that influence higher education students’ intentions in Palestine to adopt M-learning system in the learning process and use its applications based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and some external factors. Wherefore, built on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) integrated with some external factors (mobility, self-efficacy and enjoyment), this paper proposes a hypothesized model of M-learning in Higher education institutes in Palestine. Relevant data were gathered from a sample of 388 students. Participants, using a self-report questionnaire, reported data. Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to analyze the collected data. Results indicate that perceived usefulness and attitude have significant influence on M-learning adoption intention, while perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived self-efficacy significantly affect the attitude to use M-learning. Perceived enjoyment and perceived self-efficacy are predictors of perceived ease of use. While mobility and perceived ease of use have significant effect on perceived usefulness. These results validate the capacity of TAM constructs and the external variables used in this research for predicting acceptance of M-learning. Limitations and future work are highlighted.