M-learning in Education: Omani Undergraduate Students Perspective ...

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ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 176 (2015) 834 – 839

IETC 2014

M-learning in education: Omani Undergraduate students perspective Mohamed Sarrab* Communication and Information Research center, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

Abstract The purpose of this research is to analyze and evaluate students’ knowledge and awareness about M-learning. This empirical study includes 56 university students from computer engineering and science departments in University of Sultan Qaboos. This study consists of two parts. The first part involved study overview presentation and students’ discussion about M-learning. The second part included survey study that consists of three phases: General information, M-learning knowledge and M-learning perception. Based on the study survey questions regarding the knowledge, acceptance and use of M-learning, the students respond are analyzed and evaluated. The study initial findings indicated good M-learning awareness and acceptance level and show students positive attitude that reflect students interesting in the use of mobile devices as learning tools. © byby Elsevier Ltd.Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © 2015 2015The TheAuthors. Authors.Published Published Elsevier (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Sakarya University. Peer-review under responsibility of the Sakarya University.

Keywords: Learning; E-learning; Mobile learning; M-learning ;

1. Introduction The traditional learning in short T-learning and education systems are normally made in the classrooms in which teachers are responsible for providing students with their study materials. The T-learning has three main components learners, teachers and study materials where all of them must be physically represented in the learning place. The Tlearning has many drawbacks such as learning in specific location and the availability of learning material. Generally, T-learning is not suitable for different learning and education style such as online exams, discussion ports, collaboration, animation, video, listening and knowledge searching (Georgiev, & Smrikarov, 2004, Cavus, &

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1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Peer-review under responsibility of the Sakarya University. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.547

Mohamed Sarrab / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 176 (2015) 834 – 839

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Ibrahim, 2008). These T-learning drawbacks and limitations have led to find new educational and learning methods. The ICT and the use of electronic media in education have introduced the E-learning which allows the educators to learn at any time and in different locations. The E-learning refers to the use of technology in different learning activities and to help people to learn remotely. The E-learning concept covers different models such as web-based learning, virtual classrooms, computer-assisted learning and digital communication (Sarrab, Alalwan, Alzahrani, Elgamel, 2013). Currently, most of education systems prohibit students using their mobile devices during school work and, students are very rarely allowed to use mobile devices web browser to find information during lessens or exercises. Other students may allow using their mobile devices as bilingual dictionary or using their mobile cameras to capture photograph of PowerPoint presentation (Sarrab, Elgamel, & Aldabbas, 2012). In fact, that realize of M-learning is impossible without the use of mobile devices. The very important and common abilities are their mobility, availability and easily wireless connecting. Using modern mobile technology integrated in M-learning, changes the way our students learn and educate to be more interesting, interactive, flexible and widely available and. M-learning is cost efficient technique that encourage students to learn and get knowledge without traditional education system restrictions (Douglas, Matt, & Michael, 2008, Alalwan, Alzahrani, & Sarrab, 2013). The reset of the paper is organized as follows the next four section 2 briefly introduce M-learning. Then, section 6 discusses the literature review and the next two sections present the study and its methodology. Thereafter study results and discussion are provided with a number of findings and implications. Finally, conclusion and limitation of this study and implication for future studies are discussed. 2. M-learning M-Learning can be defined as E-learning using mobile devices (Uhlig, Neiger, Rodgers, Kagi, Leung, & Smith, 2005). In 2001 a Norwegian research group defined this new form of learning as a learning technique using mobile technologies because of the growing demand for flexible learning process and geographic spatial mobility (Perez, Doom, Sailer, IBM, & Watson, 2008). Chabra and Figueiredo in 2002 offered a new definition of M-Learning as learning or education process using a specific device, in anyplace and at any time (Subramanian, 2009). The concept of M-learning combines the advantage of network wireless technologies and mobility to be used in the education and learning processes (Farooq, Schafer, Rosson, & Caroll, 2002). Considering the learning availability anytime and anywhere lead to M-learning as a new model of learning technology. Learning

E-learning M-learning

Fig. 1. M-learning as a subset of E-learning

In fact the use of M-learning is still not very popular. However, mobile devices technologies are becoming more capable of supporting communication services and managing learning contents. Thus, M-learning has the potential to become main stream in the foreseeable future (Tana, & Aib, 2011, Alzahrani, Alalwan, Sarrab, 2014). 3. Literature review With the fast development of the wireless technology, students are exposed to a new educational and learning experience that is led to M-learning. Despite, long history and large amount of mobile technology development, still

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there is not comparable development with what can be seen in D-learning, E-learning and in internet innovations overall. Several researches and developments have been carried out on M-learning including requirements analyse (Oulasvirta, Wahlström, & Anders, 2011), architecture design (Haag, 2011), proposed models (David, Gary, Roure, & Victor, 2010), current and future trends (Minutoli, Fazio, Paone, & Puliafito, 2010). There are many M-learning applications in market today such as, Alykko which is an intelligent mobile tutoring application for instructors to manage their tutorial material using mobile and web technologies (Hofmann, Labs, & Woods, 2010). Active campus is another type of M-learning application used as a context-aware organizer to manage and support some learning activities (Mallikharjuna, Sasidhar, & Satyendra, 2010). MOODLE (Kasi, Kusuma, & Kumar, 2012). is a learning management system and POODLE (Uhlig, Neiger, Rodgers, Kagi, Leung, & Smith, 2005) is a form of MOODLE after redesigning to be compatible with wireless networks and suitable for hand-held devices. A group of Malaysian researchers proposed M-learning approach that uses mobile graph to trace students' performance and progress (Wasserman, 2010). Their proposed system is to complement and improve the Malaysian learning process. The Mlearning is still in its infant age, thus, it has not standard developed similar to desktop or PC application development (Arno, 2011). 4. The study Most of the M-learning mechanisms are concentrating on students of different higher education providers. The article reports an empirical research study about student’s’ M-learning knowledge that was conducted with the purpose of defining the meaning of M-learning and evaluates the student’s acceptance of M-learning within university undergraduate students. This research study was conducted on undergraduate students in departments of computer engineering and computer science at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. The main contribution of this article is the discussion of M-leaning concept, providing some examples of M-learning and empirically studying students’ knowledge and perspective of M-learning and how students see Mobile tools incorporate into their study classes as M-learning tools. 5. Methodology In order to accurately analyse and evaluate student’s knowledge and perspective about mobile device as M-learning tools in the learning process this research was designed depending on the students’ action (Brydon-Miller, Greenwood, & Maguire, 2003). The study methodology is consisting of two phases: First phase (Formal Discussion) x M-learning Concept x Study aim x Study procedure

1

Second phase (Survey) x Gender & College. x M-learning knowledge x M-learning perception

2

Fig. 2. Exploratory Study steps

The first phase includes three parts, the first part involved introduction of M-learning and discussed this research study purposes and steps. On the time of this research study there were 29 female and 27 male students with the age range between 18 to 26 participated. The second part introduced the target of the study and showed the importance of this empirical experiment study. The third part is about the study procedure, in which, a set of methodology steps are explained to the participated students. The second phase is the survey study which includes five parts. The first


part is the general information part. The second part is E-learning knowledge part. The third part is about E-learning perception and the fourth part is about student’s’ M-learning knowledge. Finally the fifth part is about M-learning perception. 6. Discussion This research study discusses in details the student’s knowledge and ability to move from D-learning and E-learning into M-learning by empirically study and evaluate the students level of knowledge about different learning processes and facilities. The following sections cover the discussion parts: x

M-learning knowledge

Fig. 3. M-learning Knowledge Students Response

As indicated in Figure 3 that, number 1 indicates the use of mobile device to access internet, 2 indicates the students ability to download mobile applications, 3 indicates the use mobile devices to send and receive emails, 4 reflects the use mobile device to translate sentences. 5 indicates the use of mobile devices to search word meaning and 6 the use of mobile device to access social networks. The majority of responded students use different mobile tools to access the Internet in different purposes. Moreover, 42 students claimed that they use different mobile tools for sending and receiving emails. However, a small number of engineering students answered that they use their mobile devices as translator tool to translate words and search for their meanings on the Internet. In addition to that, only 15 engineering students responded that they can download the needed mobile applications. In fact, in the all options of M-learning knowledge science students are much better than engineering students. x

M-learning perception

Fig. 4 M-learning Perception . Students Response

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As shown in Figure 4 that, number 1 represents the students ability to text friends or classmates during class. number 2 indicates the students participation in discussion forums, 3 is the use of mobile devices to read an article or submit an assignment, 4 represents the use of mobile devices to take photos or record videos of the class slides or whiteboard, 5 indicate the student ability to access university LMS using mobile device and 6 represents the use of mobile devices to write note and set alarm as an assignment reminder. Whereas, more than 30 out of 56 students can read an article and submit their assignment using mobile device as learning tool, use mobile device to photograph or record their class presentation slides, Accessing the university learning management system using their mobile device and set alarm or write note as an assignment reminder on their mobile devices. However, less than 30 students were agree that they use their mobile devices to text a friend during class and participate in discussion forums. 7. Conclusion and future work From this 6 months research study it can be concluded that M-learning can be used to solve the T-learning issues and difficulties and both learners or students and instructors or staff members require a proper M-learning system to facilitate and improve their learning process. The M-learning different mechanisms are not designed to replace Tlearning different approaches but M-learning mechanisms can be used to overcome the limitations in the learning process of different learning providers. Although most of the participated students are interesting and familiar with the use of M-learning. The participators were claiming that the study policy of the higher education providers should encourage different M-learning intuitive to provide more interactive and flexible learning process. For future research, more empirical in depth research study needs to be conducted in all aspects of M-learning in Oman. The initial results of this M-learning research study encourage the researchers for more comprehensive study about the acceptance and adoption of M-learning including students from different departments, colleges and universities. References Georgiev, E. Georgieva., & Smrikarov, A. (2004). M-Learning - a New Stage of Е-Learning, International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’2004. Cavus, N., & Ibrahim, D. (2008). m-Learning: An experiment in using SMS to support learning new English language words. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40, 1, 78 –91. Sarrab, M., Elgamel, L., & Aldabbas, H. (2012). Mobile Learning (M-Learning) and Educational Environments. International Journal of Distributed and Parallel Systems (IJDPS).3, 4, 31-38. Douglas. M., Matt. P., & Michael, L. (2008). Mobile Learning in Higher Education: An Empirical Assessment of a New Educational Tool. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology . 7, 3. Alalwan, N., Alzahrani, A., & Sarrab, M. (2013). M-Learning the Next Generation of Education in Cyberspace, World and Academic of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET), Issue. 75, International Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 642-645. Sarjono, H., Candra, S., & Setiadi, N. (2013). From Traditional Learning into e-Learning: Comparing students response to promote e-learning in college education, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE2013), IEEE Xplore, Bali Dynasty Resort, Kuta, Indonesia, 7-11. Sarrab, M., & Elgamel, L. (2013). Contextual M-Learning System For Higher Education Providers in Oman. World Applied Sciences Journal. 22, 10, 1412-1419. Sarrab, M., Al-Shihi, H., & Rehman, O. (2013). Exploring Major Challenges and Benefits of M-learning Adoption. British Journal of Applied Science & Technology. 3, 4, 826-839. Mallikharjuna, N., Sasidhar, C., & Satyendra, V. (2010). Cloud Computing Through Mobile-Learning. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications (IJACSA), 1, 6. Uhlig, R., Neiger, G., Rodgers, D., Kagi, A., Leung, F., & Smith, H. (2005). Intel Corp., USA : Intel visualization technology IEEE Computer Society. Perez, R., Doom, V., Sailer, L., IBM, R., & Watson, T. (2008). Center, Yorktown Heights, NY : Visualization and Hardware-Based Security . Subramanian, K. (2009). How Cloud Computing Can Help School Education?, CloudAve. July, 2009. Available from: http://www.cloudave.com/1790/how-cloud-computing-can-help-school-education/ Farooq, U., Schafer, W., Rosson, M., & Caroll, J. (2002) M-Education: Bridging the Gap of Mobile and Desktop Computing, Centre for HumanComputer Interaction and Department of Computer Science. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1-2. Tana, X., & Aib, B,. (2011). The Issues of Cloud Computing Security in High-speed Railway, International Conference on Electronic & Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology.

Mohamed Sarrab / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 176 (2015) 834 – 839 Oulasvirta, A., Wahlström, M., & Anders, K Ericsson., (2011). What does it mean to be good at using a mobile device? An investigation of three levels of experience and skill. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 69, 3, 155-169. Haag, J., (2011). From eLearning to mLearningL The Effectiveness of Mobile Course Delivery, Proceedings of Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC ), Orlando FL, USA, 3-13. Sarrab, M., Alalwan, N., Alzahrani, A., & Elgamel, L. (2013). Exploring the Advantage of M-learning as a Service Through Cloud Computing: A Survey. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE2013), IEEE Xplore. Bali Dynasty Resort, Kuta, Indonesia. 239-242. David, B., Gary, W., Roure, D., & Victor, D. (2010). A Categorization of Cloud Computing Business Models, IEEE/ACM, Minutoli, G., Fazio, M., Paone, M., & Puliafito, A. (2010). Engineering Fac, University of Messina, Messina, Italy Virtual Business Networks With Cloud Computing and Virtual Machines, IEEE/ICUMT. Hofmann, P., Labs, S., & Woods, D. (2010). The Limits of Public Clouds for Business Applications, Digital Library. Mallikharjuna, N., Sasidhar, C., & Satyendra, V. (2010). Cloud Computing Through Mobile-Learning. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications (IJACSA), 1, 6. Kasi, D., Kusuma, S., & Kumar, S. (2012). Cloud Computing Issues and Benefits Modern Education. Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology Cloud & Distributed, 12, 10. Wasserman, A. (2010). Software engineering issues for mobile application development, in Proceedings of the FSE/SDP workshop on Future of software engineering research - FoSER ’10. 397-400. Alzahrani, A., Alalwan, A., & Sarrab, M. (2014). Mobile Cloud Computing: Advantage, Disadvantage and Open Challenge. Proceedings of the 7th Euro American on Telematics and Information Systems, (EATIS 2014) Article No. 20. Valparaiso, Chile. 1-4. Arno, C. (2011). The Advantages of Using Cloud Computing. SYS-CON Media, Inc. Cloud Computing journal. Brydon-Miller, M., Greenwood, D., & Maguire, P. (2003). Why Action Research? Action Research, 1, 1, 9-28.

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