A Mobile Learning Journey in Pacific Education

Sharma, Bibhya N.; Kumar, Raneel; Rao, V. Chandra Sekhar; Finiasi, Rona W.; Chand, Sanjeet; Singh, Vineet; Naicker, Ravishel

doi:10.1007/978-981-10-4944-6_28

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Having benefits through ICT is obvious in HEI but with technological enhancement comes challenges, which need equal consideration as well. Factors such as effective presence of the facilitators, feeling of segregation, lack of student incentives, frequent inclusion of new tools, ICT competencies, and student uncertainties about their learning led to high dropouts [6]- [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many HEI around the world, including The University of the South Pacific (USP), are investing substantially to harness the potential of ICT in providing quality education equitably to all their students. Being the lead academic institute in the Pacific region, USP has not failed to embrace the ubiquitous technology to provide better services through e-learning, allowing students to access the course notes and required deliverables, submit assignments, raise queries, take part in forums and e-mentoring, as well as check their exam timetable and grades; all possible via ICT [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Smart Learning in the Pacific: Design of New Pedagogical Tools

Sharma

Nand

Naseem

et al. 2018

2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE)

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Smart learning ecosystems leverage on state-of-theart tools and technologies to help students learn better with Information Communication Technologies (ICT). The ubiquity, innovations and advancements of ICT have transformed pedagogies and approaches to content facilitation and delivery in higher education worldwide, the Pacific region being no exception. The paper essays a number of learning and support tools designed in-house or adopted (or outsourced) recently by a higher education institution in the Pacific contributing to the smart learning ecosystem. The institution has integrated these ICT driven tools to its academic and support programmes, and more recently the in-country science programmes introduced in its member countries. The strengths and challenges from the implementation of these new adaptive tools are highlighted with recommendations to the wider academic populace.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart Learning in the Pacific: Design of New Pedagogical Tools

Sharma

Nand

Naseem

et al. 2018

2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE)

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“…The flexibility and convenience of bite-sized mobile self-directed learning ensure learners could stay engaged with technologies regardless of their personal context. Previous studies have pointed out the importance of bite-sized learning thanks to their flexibility and convenience (Fletcher, 2010;B. Sharma et al, 2017).…”

Section: Bite-sized Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Flexible and convenient learning with mobile technologies, therefore, can facilitate just-in-time, just-for-me and just-enough learning that suits any groups of learners (B. Sharma et al, 2017). However, to provide a smooth and positive learning experience, mobile technologies should meet certain standards and be compatible with a variety of platforms.…”

Section: Flexibility Convenience Standards and Compatibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While bite-sized learning was considered an advantage of mobile technologies (B. Sharma et al, 2017) since it enabled anywhere, anytime learning (Fletcher, 2010), it was understudied as a strategy to facilitate self-directed MALL for PD. This study, therefore, confirmed the significance of bite-sized learning in personalised self-directed MALL in Vietnamese context.…”

Section: Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mobile learning for professional development: Significant factors, attitudes, behaviours and engagement patterns

Tran¹

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Despite the importance of professional development (PD) and recent government efforts, PD provision for Vietnamese teachers living outside major cities remains a challenge due to distance and costs. Mobile learning offers a potential solution thanks to its capacity to enable learning anytime, anywhere, and this study investigated its use to provide pronunciation PD for Vietnamese tertiary TESOL teachers, since the development of oral skills is considered problematic in this context. This study aimed to identify the essential conditions and principles for mobile learning as an effective PD provision method in the Vietnamese context. To do so, it investigated: 1. factors influencing participation and learning experience; 2. attitudes, behaviours and engagement patterns regarding self-directed mobile assisted language learning; and 3. strategies to facilitate learning for different groups of learners. Design-based research was employed as the research paradigm and data collection involved iterations of an online PD pronunciation course over a two-year period through a questionnaire, pre and post test, interview and records of app usage, with the interview being the primary and most important source for data analysis. The participants were 57 TESOL teachers from 46 Vietnamese higher education institutions. Data analysis revealed five groups of factors influencing participation and learning experience relating to the learner, personal context, peers, instructor and technology. The learner-related factors were found to be the most important in motivating learners to initiate learning and persist in their engagement with technology. While contextual factors were influential, they did not always play a decisive role in determining learners' behaviours, which differed from previous findings on the significance of personal context (Gao & Krogstie, 2010; Terras & Ramsay, 2012). Peer interaction and instructor support were critical in sustaining learners' efforts and positive experience as they helped address issues in learning with technologies. The Factor Relationship and Interaction model was proposed to explain the complexity of the influences on self-directed mobile learning, contributing a synthesizing model to the fragmented literature on this topic. The study also identified five learner profiles-Tasters, Steadies, Players, Hard-workers and Perfectionists-according to their attitudes, behaviours and engagement patterns with technologies. Learners were found to hold different attitudes and behave differently with the same technologies at different times, producing overlaps and movement between the profiles. These resulted in the Other publications during candidature pertaining to this thesis Refereed Conference Papers • Tran, T. L. N. (2019). Mobile apps and pronunciation training: A self-directed learning approach. In T. Pattison (Ed), IATEFL 2018 Brighton conference selections (pp. 159-161).

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