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Research Trends in Mobile Learning in Higher Education:

A Review of 2011-2015

Greig Krull & Dr Josep M DuartUniversitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

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• Increasing variety of wireless devices and technologies

• Need to successfully integrate new technologies into higher education

• Growing body of knowledge in mobile learning

• Need to understand how the research field is changing

Problem

Image: Mobile Geräte

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Mobile Learning “any sort of learning that happens when

the learner is not at a fixed, predetermined location, or learning that happens when

the learner takes advantage of the learning opportunities offered by mobile

technologies”

O’Malley et al. (2005)

Image: Google Nexus One with Evernote

Previous Studies: 2001-2010

Hwang & Tsai (2011) Hung & Zhang (2012) Wu et al (2012)

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Research Questions

Question 1What research methods have been used in

mobile learning articles

published from 2011 to 2015?

Question 2What are the

research trends in higher

education?

Question 3How do the

findings relate to previous mobile learning reviews

from 2001 to 2010?

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Methodology

• Keyword• ERIC, EJS,

DOAJ• >700 articles

1. Literature Search

• Only higher education

• 2011-2015• Peer

reviewed

2. Select Articles (244) • Bibliographic

• Categories• Reviewed

3. Organise & Code

• Content analysis

• Compare to previous

4. Analyse

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Findings

Research Categories

BibliographicData

Purpose & Theme

Method & Design

Discipline

Population & Setting

Device

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Country Frequency

USA:43

CAN:14

AUS:15

TAI:23

UK:20

MAL:15

TUR:14SPA:13

SA:10NZ:10

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Research Purposes

Design a system

Develop Theory

Evaluate effectiveness

Explore Potential

Influence of learner char-

acteristics

Investigate the affective domain

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Themes

User studies

Tools & technologies

Strategies & challenges

Socio-cultural context

Research methods & implementation

Pedagogical approaches & theories

Social media & user generated content

mlearning: where to next & how?

Learning analytics

Learner mobility & transitions

Innovative approaches

In & across formal & informal settings

Evaluation & assessment

Applications & systems

Cloud computing

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

9%

9%

10%

3%

8%

10%

10%

0%

0%

5%

5%

6%

3%

23%

2%

Case Study: 43%Design-based: 26%Action Research: 12%

Survey: 40%Experiment: 32%Correlational: 24%

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Research Methods & Design

Sequential Explanatory: 50%Sequential Exploratory: 25%ConcurrentTriangulation: 21%

Quanti-tative44%

Qualitative46%

Mixed

10%

of 20

Data Collection

14%4%

19%

4%8%7%

44%

Domain/Discipline

37%

12%16%1%

32%

2%

Most Frequent Disciplines Languages (36)

Education (32)

Computer Science (27)

Health Sciences (18)

Business (15)

Setting & Population

Distance

Field

In & Out of Class

Class

Out of Class

Not specified

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

10%

6%

38%

26%

9%

11%

Faculty Students

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

20112012201320142015

Devices

Images: Wikimedia

Across Devices

Summary of Results

• An expanding field with an increasing number of researchers across the world • Most studies are across specific disciplines

General

• Continued focus on the effectiveness of mobile learning, followed by system design

Purpose

• Primary data collection: 1) Surveys, 2) Interviews 3) Experimental data

Design

• Most studies focus across devices• Emerging technologies dominant, such as smartphones and tablets, reflecting

changes in available technologies

Devices

Q1: Where do you think mobile learning is headed?

Q2: How will this impact you & your students?

Final Thought…

Image: Mobile learning smartphone

Questions

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

gkrull@uoc.edu

greigkr

Greig Krull

• Bozkurt, A., Akgun-Ozbek, E., Yilmazel, S., Erdogdu, E., Ucar, H., Guler, E., … Hakan Aydin, C. (2015). Trends in Distance Education Research: A Content Analysis of Journals 2009-2013. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(1), 330–363.

• Hung, J. L., & Zhang, K. (2012). Examining mobile learning trends 2003-2008: A categorical meta-trend analysis using text mining techniques. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 24, 1–17.

• Hwang, G.-J., & Tsai, C.-C. (2011). Research trends in mobile and ubiquitous learning: a review of publications in selected journals from 2001 to 2010. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(4), E65–E70.

• O’Malley, C., Vavoula, G., Glew, J., Taylor, J., Sharples, M. et al. (2005) Guidelines for learning/teaching/tutoring in a mobile environment. Project deliverable from the MOBILearn project.

• Wu, W. H., Jim Wu, Y. C., Chen, C. Y., Kao, H. Y., Lin, C. H., & Huang, S. H. (2012). Review of trends from mobile learning studies: A meta-analysis. Computers and Education, 59(2), 817–827.

References