Investigating attitudes towards the use of mobile learning in higher education

Mobile learning (M-learning) has become an important educational technology component in higher education. M-learning makes it possible for students to learn, collaborate, and share ideas among each other with the aid of internet and technology development. However, M-learning acceptance by learners and educators is critical to the employments of M-learning systems. Attitudes towards M-learning technology is an important factor that helps in determining whether or not learners and educators are ready to use M-learning. Such attitudes will serve to identify strengths and weaknesses and facilitate the development of the technology infrastructure. This paper aims at exploring students and educators' attitudes towards the use of M-learning in higher educational universities within Oman and UAE; two neighboring countries in the Arab Gulf region. To serve this purpose, two survey questionnaires were conducted: one for students and another for educators. The participants of this study are 383 students and 54 instructors from five universities. Different factors have been examined to test where there is a significant difference among students and educators' attitudes towards the use of M-learning, such as 'gender, age, country, level of study, smartphone ownership, major in terms of students and age, country, academic rank, academic experience and smartphone ownership in terms of educators. Findings revealed significant differences among the students' attitudes towards M-learning with regard to their smartphone ownership, country and age. Furthermore, results indicated that M-learning can be one of the promising pedagogical technologies to be employed in the higher educational environments within the Arab Gulf countries. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.