The impact of learners' characteristics on m-learning preferences, and how m-learning preferences form choices in different contexts

Abstract

Students adopt different strategies, show a range of preferences, and make individual choices as they learn to learn effectively and efficiently. Facilitating students to customise their own preferred techniques will maximise students’ learning. Mobile devices allow learning to occur anywhere and at any time. However, the nature of mobile devices, such as the need to access a digital format on devices with small screens, influence students’ e-learning preferences. There is now a growing research effort which aims to understand learners’ mobile learning preferences to deliver digital learning materials that best satisfy learners’ needs. This thesis explores mobile learning (m-learning) preferences and choices in tertiary education to understand the best approaches to deliver digital learning materials (podcasts) in different physical (e.g. quiet, busy, or walking) and social spaces (e.g. alone, family, or with classmates). This study uses two quantitative methods to understand mobile learners’ preferences and choices. First, 345 students completed a survey study concerning the role of mobile learners’ characteristics on podcast preferences in different physical and social spaces. Characteristics which are included in this study are gender, age, nationality (Australian and Saudi), materials status, prior experience of podcasting, learning style, and personality traits. Second, 95 students participated in three experimental studies to examine whether mobile learners’ preferences for podcasts reflect their real choices in two different physical spaces which are quiet (e.g. home or library) and busy (e.g. cafe). Overall, the results show that differences in characteristics affect m-learning preferences in some contexts (the result of overlapping physical and social spaces). On the other hand, preferences were reliable in predicting students’ choices only in limited physical spaces. The reason behind these findings are discussed in this thesis. The approaches proposed in the provide ways to understand mobile learners’ preferences and choices, taking in to account a novel method which is a person’s spatial and social contexts.