Learners' and Instructors' Views on Technology Supported Engineering Education: Initial Outcomes in a Cross-cultural Study Sample

Abstract

This exploratory and cross-cultural mixed method study aimed to understand the perspectives of learners and instructors in engineering education on mobile learning and information and communication technology (ICT) tools in different countries. A total of 197 participants attended the survey for understanding perspectives of mobile learning in engineering education: 54 participants from Belgium, 36 participants from the Netherlands, 41 participants from Spain and 66 participants from Turkey, respectively. Data was collected via (i) surveys, (ii) open-ended questionnaires, and (iii) semi-structured focus group interviews, respectively. The results showed that most of the learners preferred to use a mobile education application in their native language. The learners mentioned that they preferred to learn by videos and audios; similarly, according to the instructors' data, most of the instructors preferred to teach with videos as their favorite learning tool. However, using educational technological tools is limited by instructors' lack of experience. It is very important to overcome the fear related to using new technologies in the classroom and increase the readiness of using educational tools by integrating them into their courses effectively. It is strongly recommended that digital learning materials collected in a virtual environment should be accessible to instructors and learners.