Mobile learning
N. Saeid; A. Jadidi mohammadabadi
Abstract
Background and Objectives:Today, traditional and old methods of teaching and learning are losing their effectiveness with the advent of new technologies and methods. Learners need to find new ways to transfer knowledge and enhance learning to keep up with the ever-changing environments around them. The ...
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Background and Objectives:Today, traditional and old methods of teaching and learning are losing their effectiveness with the advent of new technologies and methods. Learners need to find new ways to transfer knowledge and enhance learning to keep up with the ever-changing environments around them. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of mobile education on students' learning, concentration and academic satisfaction.
Methods:The present study is applied in terms of purpose and quasi-experimental in terms of method with pre-test- post-test control group. The statistical population includes 56 medical students of Kerman Azad University who were examined through a test in relation to the relevant course content and concentration and among those with lower scores, 44 students were selected. Then, they were randomly divided into two groups of control (n=22) and experimental (n=22). The two groups were also homogenized as much as possible in terms of semester, age, and level of learning and concentration. The educational materials prepared by the experts were weekly sent to the students via whatsApp and short message service (SMS). In this way, an educational video about the mentioned lesson, including theoretical and practical cases, was sent to students in 8 sessions through WhatsApp, and in session 8, students’ problems were questioned and answers were provided through WhatsApp and SMS service. The research instrument included a learning questionnaire in which 35 questions related to the curriculum were prepared and its validity was confirmed by the instructor. Savari and Oraki Concentration Skills Questionnaire (2015) which consists of 13 items and two factors, namely voluntary concentration and involuntary concentration was used. The voluntary concentration subscale consists of 8 items and the non-voluntary concentration subscale consists of 5 items. In order to determine the reliability of the above-mentioned questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha method was used and it was found to be 0.74 for the whole scale and 0.72 for the subscale of voluntary concentration skills and 0.70 for involuntary concentration skills. Moreover, the validity of the aforementioned questionnaire was examined and confirmed using Factor Analysis. The content and face validity of a researcher-made academic satisfaction questionnaire consisting of 11 items was confirmed by the opinion of 10 professors, and its reliability of 0.85 was determined by Cronbach's alpha and 0.82 by retest method. Data collection was performed in two stages before the teaching began and after the termination of teaching the entire content. The experimental group received training in 8 sessions of 2 hours. Descriptive and inferential statistics in the form of tables and figures as well as MANOVA, Analysis of Covariance-Levene’s test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were used to analyze the data.
Findings: The results showed that mobile learning has a significant effect on an effect on students' learning, concentration skills and academic satisfaction. This means that mobile learning can increase students' learning, concentration skills and academic satisfaction.
Conclusions: Based on the findings, mobile learning due to its availability, portability and easy access to the content at any time can be a good way to teach different educational topics to students. Mobile learning also allows people to access learning content anytime anywhere. Individuals can also have access to valuable educational materials that enhance their learning quality and academic satisfaction. Due to the high flexibility of this type of education, students can learn according to their circumstances and based on their mental readiness which, in turn, prevents distraction and reduces interfering factors in concentration.
