Educator Attitudes
Al-Emran, M., H. M. Elsherif, and K. Shaalan,
"Investigating Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Learning in Higher Education",
Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 56, pp. 93-102, 2016.
AbstractMobile learning (M-learning) has become an important educational technology component in higher education. M-learning makes it possible for students to learn, collaborate, and share ideas among each other with the aid of internet and technology development. However, M-learning acceptance by learners and educators is critical to the employments of M-learning systems. Attitudes towards M-learning technology is an important factor that helps in determining whether or not learners and educators are ready to use M-learning. Such attitudes will serve to identify strengths and weaknesses and facilitate the development of the technology infrastructure. This paper aims at exploring students and educators' attitudes towards the use of M-learning in higher educational universities within Oman and UAE; two neighboring countries in the Arab Gulf region. To serve this purpose, two survey questionnaires were conducted: one for students and another for educators. The participants of this study are 383 students and 54 instructors from five universities. Different factors have been examined to test where there is a significant difference among students and educators' attitudes towards the use of M-learning, such as gender, age, country, level of study, smartphone ownership, major in terms of students and age, country, academic rank, academic experience and smartphone ownership in terms of educators. Findings revealed significant differences among the students’ attitudes towards M-learning with regard to their smartphone ownership, country and age. Furthermore, results indicated that M-learning can be one of the promising pedagogical technologies to be employed in the higher educational environments within the Arab Gulf countries.
Al-Emran, M., and K. Shaalan,
"Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Learning: A Case Study from the Gulf Region",
International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM), vol. 9, issue 3, pp. 75-78, 2015.
AbstractIn the last few years, the way we learn has been shifted dramatically from traditional classrooms depending
on printed papers into E-learning depending on digital pages. Mobile learning (M-learning) is a recent technology that has been developed rapidly to deliver E-learning using personal mobile devices without posing any restrictions on time and location. In this work, we investigate students and faculty members’ attitudes towards the use of M-learning in higher educational institutions within two countries in the Gulf Region (Oman & UAE). Two questionnaire surveys have been conducted: one for students and another for faculty members. In these surveys, 383 students and 54 instructors have taken part within the study. An independent sample t-test was performed to examine whether there exist a significant difference among the students’ attitudes and the faculty members’ attitudes towards the use of M-learning with regard to gender and country. Results indicated that students in the UAE were more positive towards the use of M-learning than those in Oman. Moreover, results revealed that 99% of the students own mobile devices, in particular smartphones and tablets, while only 1% has not. Results of this study could help policy makers for better decision making in building the M-learning infrastructure in the higher educational institutions in general and specifically within the Arab Gulf region.
Al-Emran, M., and K. Shaalan,
"Learners and Educators Attitudes Towards Mobile Learning in Higher Education: State of the Art",
Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI), India, 11 August, 2015.
AbstractIn the last few years, the way we learn has been significantly changed from traditional classrooms that depend on printed papers into e-learning relying on electronic teaching material. Contemporary educational technologies attempt to facilitate the delivery of learning from instructors to students in a more flexible and comfortable way. Mobile learning (M-learning) is one of such pervasive technologies that has been evolved rapidly to deliver e-learning using personal electronic devices without posing any restrictions on time and location. Literature that sheds light on using M-learning in various institutions of learning is beginning to emerge. The work in this paper demonstrates the state of the art of the M-learning. It discusses learners’ and educators’ attitudes towards the use and adoption of M-learning. Advantages and disadvantages of M-learning were also presented. The integration and implementation of M-learning with other technological resources has been described. Factors affecting the students’ and faculty members’ attitudes towards the use of M-learning have been demonstrated. Moreover, the new trends and challenges, which are evolved while conducting this survey, are explained.
