A Case Study of Learners’ Engagement in Mobile Learning Applications

Abstract

Although mobile learning applications play a crucial role in today’s education and can support learning, the low retention rate is a prevalent challenge in mobile learning. Existing studies have found that interpersonal interaction, high expectations, and supportive environment (from an educational perspective) as well as compatibility, interactivity, and usability (from a marketing perspective) can impact learners’ engagement in learning activities and customers’ engagement in mobile applications. However, comprehensive studies investigating learners’ engagement in mobile learning applications from educational and marketing perspectives are rare. To fill the research gap, we analyzed learners’ reviews on five top-ranked lifelong learning applications (Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, edX, and Skillshare). Inductive coding was used to identify critical factors impacting learners’ engagement in mobile learning applications, such as usability, availability of learning experiences, features to facilitate learning, interpersonal interaction, and incentives for completion. We further explored specific engagement strategies displayed in the analyzed applications through an analytical evaluation. Besides, this study expands Hew’s model of learners’ engagement and suggests new conceptual relationships between critical factors impacting learners’ engagement, self-determination theory, and learners’ engagement.

Influence of OTC on OLE for college students: mediating effect of academic emotion and moderating effect of gender

“…Perceiving teachers' caring behaviors especially the supportive and inclusive teachers' caring can significantly positively predict students' learning engagement, which shows that teachers' emotional care, such as encouragement, support, respect, and acceptance, can significantly enhance students' confidence and enthusiasm and thus promote their learning engagement (Huang & Meng, 2017). It is consistent with Liu et al (2017)'s study that verified the positive predictive effect of teacher support in OLE, the traditional environment (Fredricks et al, 2004), and the effect of teacher support on adult learners' learning engagement in the online environment (Wu et al, 2017). The caring behaviors of online teachers not only has a direct impact on OLE, but also has an indirect impact through some intermediaries, such as academic integrity (Wang, 2021).…”

“…First, male and female students have different expectations for intimacy and care which can give them a sense of belonging when facing teacher-student relationship. From the perspective of psychology, sense of belonging is also summarized as an emotional experience (Liu et al, 2017). Students with a sense of belonging feel more positive emotions from their academic life, so that college students have an optimistic attitude towards life, a healthy and stable social circle to improve their sense of happiness (Feng et al, 2020).…”

University Students’ Engagement in Mobile Learning

“…One of the main challenges that educators are confronted with is student engagement, which has to be resolved if educators want to enhance the quality of education while utilizing mobile learning [15,16]. Learners' engagement plays a crucial role in any learning experience in higher education institutions.…”

“…After reviewing the literature, it is clear that there is a lack of intensive research and studies looking at the impact of implementing mobile learning to enhance students' engagement [5,16,[22][23][24], particularly in Palestinian schools [25]. Hence, this study will add to previous studies by exploring the impact of m-learning on student engagement in higher education institutions.…”

Need Analysis of Mobile Learning at Junior High School in Indonesia: A Bliometric Study

“…Critical factors influencing learner engagement in mobile learning applications include usability, availability of learning experiences, features to facilitate learning, interaction between individuals, and incentives to complete learning (Liu & Correia, 2021). Mobile learning has transformed traditional education into a more accessible, interactive, and engaging experience.…”