M. Amaad Uppal, Zunaira Zahid & Samnan Ali
Abstract
The evolution of mobile technology and its widespread use has prompted educators to research the use of mobile phones for education. Students of all ages use mobile phones not only for communication but also for entertainment, storage of data and accessing information. Many activities like photography have shifted to mobile, data storage has moved to mobiles, watching TV/movies is done on mobiles, internet is mostly accessed from mobiles. However, for learning purposes, use of mobile phones seems to be low. In this research, we identify factors that impact the perception of students towards use of mobiles for learning. These factors include ‘knowledge on mobile learning’, ‘learning method issues’, ‘device issues’, ‘financial issues’ and ‘readiness for mobile learning’. Applying Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), a model is presented based on data collected from 200 business and engineering students, through a questionnaire. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is conducted to examine the reliability and validity of this model. Our findings reveal that all five variables of this study have correlation with ‘perception of students’, however, ‘financial issues’ and ‘device issues’ have been found to create significant impact on student perception. If these two issues are addressed, student perception towards mobile learning would improve.
