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In an educational environment, mobile devices are those which facilitate ubiquitous learning, including mobile phones, tablets and laptops (Wallace, Clark, & White, 2012). The earlier definitions of mobile devices did not include laptops (Shearer, 2010), but in recent years laptops have transformed from bulky, heavy devices to sleek, light and highly portable computing devices (Jeng, Wu, Huang, Tan, & Yang, 2010; Motiwalla, 2007). For example, laptops such as the Macbook AirTM (Apple Corporation, CA, USA), which are very commonly used by students, weigh less than 1.5kgs. Modern laptops have an advantage over tablets, being only slightly heavier but having vastly greater functionality.
The popularity of mobile handheld devices has increased dramatically in recent years, with device penetration now exceeding 100% among students in higher education (Brooks, 2016), reflecting the ownership of multiple mobile devices by many individuals. Many secondary and tertiary education institutions now encourage students to bring and use their own devices (Afreen, 2014), enabling users to have familiarity with their chosen device whilst adding a degree of seamlessness to the learning process (Andrews, Davidson, Hill, Sloane & Woodhouse, 2009). A personalised mobile device also permits access beyond controlled learning environments, allowing students to actively partake in independent learning both on and off campus (Afreen, 2014). Students’ choices regarding the use of mobile learning are dependent on many factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic. In making choices, students use agency, which arises from their ability and desire to set goals and act on them (Bandura, 2002).
Vogel and colleagues (2009) stated that effectiveness of mobile learning is shaped by three dimensions, the human, design and institutional dimensions. However, most studies to date have focused on the institutional and design dimensions, such that there was a lack of knowledge regarding the human dimension (Sha, Looi, Chen, & Zhang, 2012; Wali, Winters, & Oliver, 2008). The course that was the subject of this study had no learning tasks which specifically required mobile devices, allowing the human dimension to be examined. This meant the impact of students’ application of agency and their motivations in choosing learning behaviours, specifically those related to their use of mobile learning, could be evaluated. Motivation directs students towards their goals and affects the learning strategies and cognitive processes they employ (Pintrich, 2003), it can originate intrinsically or extrinsically (Hartnett, George, & Dron, 2011; Orsini, Evans, & Jerez, 2015). With this course design, there was little extrinsic motivation for mobile device use, so the use of mobile devices by students was likely to be intrinsically motivated.