Mobile applications for quality improvement in technical and vocational education: A case study of Saudi Arabia

Mobile applications are becoming ubiquitous in modern organizations in both services and manufacturing. With an increased number of smartphone applications and the benefits acquired from them, many private and government organizations tend to use this service. In developing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, this service has been introduced in order to keep pace with the development of the world's change. In fact, mobile applications have been adopted among the strategic objectives within "Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030" and the National Transformation Program launched recently by the country's leadership. However, many organizations, including Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC), started to implement smartphone applications as a part of their services. Hail College of Technology (HCT) has launched a smartphone application called "Tahseen App" to improve quality practices. The approach was quantitative in nature as it looks for customers' opinions and thoughts about this service to help HCT to develop solutions and recommendations for the future of "Tahseen App." The data gathering was conducted through a questionnaire to analyze the features and the effectiveness of the "Tahseen App." Also, to analyze consumers' perceptions and needs regarding smartphone apps. This paper stated that "Tahseen App" has some good features and impact on quality improvement; however, one of the most important issues is the fact that users tend to likely prefer to participate and engage in apps more often than the traditional ways based on suggestions or complaints box. Moreover, the findings have estimated that leadership is a key factor in the successful path of organizations. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by IASE.