Exploring chinese international students’ acceptance of mobile learning

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Date
2015
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Publisher
University of Alabama Libraries
Abstract

With the rapid development of mobile technology, many colleges and universities plan to incorporate, or have started to explore, the use of mobile technology in academics. To improve the educational use of mobile devices, it is necessary and important to investigate students’ acceptance of mobile learning. As one of the largest groups of international students in U.S. universities, Chinese international students were the major focus of this study. Using the Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and Use (UTAUT) model as a theoretical framework, the researcher explored Chinese international students’ use of mobile learning and examined whether the four UTAUT determinants (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions) affect Chinese international students’ acceptance of mobile learning. Online surveys were used for data collection. The descriptive data indicate that the majority of the participants owned mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, iPads, MP3, and MP4 players. They frequently used these mobile devices for various learning activities. In addition, the results reveal that there was no significant difference of participants’ behavioral intention to use mobile learning based on gender, age, level of experience, and voluntariness of use. Effort expectancy and facilitating conditions were significant predictors of participants’ behavioral intention to use mobile learning. Facilitating conditions and behavioral intention were not significant predictors of participants’ use behavior of mobile learning. However, there was slight interaction between facilitation conditions and behavioral intention. This research provides university administrators and educators information on the factors influencing Chinese international students’ acceptance of mobile learning and their actual usage of mobile learning. The findings also expand the existing body of knowledge in the fields of mobile learning and the UTAUT model.

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Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Keywords
Educational technology
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