Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 159, December 2020, 104007
Computers & Education

Analysis of the determining factors of good teaching practices of mobile learning at the Spanish University. An explanatory model

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.104007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • More than 70% of Spanish university teachers use mobile devices in the classroom.

  • The main reasons for non-use of mobile devices are ignorance, distraction, resistance to change and perceived uselessness.

  • Of the sample that applies mLearning as a teaching methodology, only 39.56% carried out good teaching practice.

  • Significant differences were knowledge field, educational technology research, innovations, belief in mLearning expansion.

  • Category, educational technology research, innovations, belief and adequacy of mLearning influenced good teaching practices.

Abstract

The use of mobile devices in education is becoming standardized at the higher education stage. However, it is necessary to evaluate good teaching practices of mobile learning (m-learning) in order to set proper application of mobile devices and favourable learning outcomes for students. The purposes of this paper were, on the one hand, to determine the degree of implementation of m-learning and good teaching practices in Spanish universities; on the other hand, to know the causes that lead university professors not to integrate mobile devices and to determine the socio-demographic factors that influence the development of good teaching practices of m-learning. In relation to the researching method, it was used a quantitative approach focused on the implementation of an online survey. A total of 1544 university professors attached to the Faculties of Education throughout Spain, aged between 20 and 77, participated in the study (M = 45.29; SD = 10.45). The results obtained revealed that: 1) More than 70% of Spanish university professors use mobile devices in the classroom; 2) The main reasons whereby mobile devices are not used in the classroom are ignored, belief that they are a distraction, resistance to change and perceived uselessness; 3) Only 39.56% carried out good teaching practices; 4) The main and possible influential factors good teaching practices of m-learning were professional category, line of research in educational technology, other teaching innovations, believes in the adequacy of mobile devices and the expansion of m-learning in the coming years. Finally, the practical implications of this study are discussed, highlighting the wealth of collected data from this pioneering research on the evaluation of good teaching practices of m-learning.

Introduction

Nowadays, it is a well-known fact that, mobile computing has advanced at a relentless pace in recent years. The development of the functionalities of mobile devices has been exponentially, since start making a simple call and sending of Short Message Service (SMS) to the arrival of Internet to the devices and the commerce of mobile applications. This evolution in their functionality has increased the use of mobile devices by educational context as another tool available for teachers. Furthermore, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is linked to educational paradigm of the 21st century, where the role of teachers was defined as a learning guide, the main figure to be followed by the students.

This implementation of ICT in education is supported by different organizations. Firstly, European level, the Digital Agenda 2020 includes in its actions research and innovation with ICT and the promotion of literacy, skills and digital inclusion (European Commission, 2019); secondly, the Horizon Reports, a global benchmark in the analysis of trends and adoption of technology in higher education, have highlighted since 2012 the integration of mobile devices in the university classroom (Adams et al., 2017; Adams et al., 2018; Alexander et al., 2019; Johnson, Adams, & Cummins, 2012; Johnson, Adams, Estrada, & Freeman, 2014; 2015; Johnson et al., 2013; Johnson et al., 2016). However, this prediction is still remains to be seen as consolidated fact, since every year some trends related to mobile learning (m-learning) continues to stand out (Table 1).

As for the Spanish context, data from the Mobile Report in Spain and the World in 2019 showed that the most widely used Internet access device in Spain was the smartphone, with a penetration rate of 96% (Ditrendia, 2019). In addition to these data, in 2016 Spain became the country with the most smartphones per inhabitant and was the fifth country in the world with the most hours of Internet use through the smartphone (Atresmedia, 2019). Thus, as some theories state “technostress” is a present problem in the reality of university students, but the academic use of mobile devices does not cause this type of stress (Cong, 2019). Therefore, the academic integration of mobile devices in the university classroom allows the establishment of new scenarios and possibilities that can have a positive impact on improving the teaching-learning process. It should also be noted that the educational context where m-learning has been most developed is higher education (Crompton & Burke, 2018), being a useful resource to expand the capacities of university students (Fox, 2019; Pinto, Sales, Fernández-Pascual, & Caballero-Mariscal, 2020).

For all these reasons, this paper proposed an analysis of the application of m-learning in Spanish universities. At the same time, the causes of non-application and the factors that influence the development of good teaching practices with mobile devices were also examined.

Section snippets

Background

M-learning in Spain has experienced a growing interest from teachers since the beginning of 2009 (Brazuelo & Gallego, 2014). It is clear that, the emergence of implementation experiences at different educational levels and the configuration of a theoretical body of knowledge on m-learning (Hinojo-Lucena, Aznar-Díaz, & Romero-Rodríguez, 2018). Specifically, m-learning refers to the use of mobile devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop …) to encourage learning and extend the scope of teaching (Díez,

Participants and procedure

A cross-sectional study design was adopted using a self-administered survey of the population of university professors who teach in the Faculties of Education of Spanish public and private universities (N = 9655). Participant data was collected from the email distribution of an online survey, in Google Forms format. The research was conducted based on a convenience sampling design. In total, professors from 59 Spanish universities participated, of which 40 were public and 19 were private

Results

A content analysis was showed as on the reasons that Spanish university professors do not use mobile devices in the classroom. The responses were coded in four categories: distraction, change resistance, ignorance and uselessness (Fig. 1). Thus, it was gathered that the main causes were: I would not know how to apply them (ignorance) (45.59%; n = 191); I consider that they distract students (distraction) (28.16%; n = 118); I prefer a traditional methodology (change resistance) (14.56%; n = 61)

Discussion

The data showed the wide adoption of m-learning in Spanish universities, confirming the exponential growth that has taken place since 2009 (Brazuelo & Gallego, 2014). Over 70% of the study sample applied mobile devices in the classroom. It reaffirmed that the educational context where m-learning, not only, has been most developed, but also, it has been the higher education stage (Crompton & Burke, 2018). Thus, these data show that the academic use of the mobile devices is much higher than

Conclusions

The analysed results showed important aspects of good teaching practice of m-learning at the higher education stage. It is being a context with full experimentation and expansion of m-learning (Alexander et al., 2019; Kaliisa et al., 2019).

The fact is that this paper is a pioneering study whose data advance the field of knowledge about m-learning. To give a graphic example, it can be seen the possible explanatory model generated on the good teaching practices of m-learning in the Spanish

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Inmaculada Aznar-Díaz: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision. Francisco-Javier Hinojo-Lucena: Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - original draft. María-Pilar Cáceres-Reche: Visualization, Investigation, Writing - review & editing. José-María Romero-Rodríguez: Software, Writing - review & editing, Funding acquisition.

Declaration of competing interest

None.

Acknowledgements

This paper has been funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of the Government of Spain (Reference FPU16/01762).

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