Non-repository Uses of Moodle through Mobile Access: Students’ Usage Patterns and Perceptions

Abstract

Learning management systems (LMSs) (e.g. Moodle, Desire2Learn, Blackboard, etc.) have been adopted by a large number of higher education institutions around the world. Moodle, one of the most commonly used LMSs, has been registered in more than 1,800 sites in over 120 countries (Hajjar, 2014). The LMS possesses various features and functionalities for educators to employ in the flexible learning environment. In a nutshell, LMS serves as a learning platform that can incorporate rich multi-media resources as well as a wide range of activities such as databases, forums, quizzes and wikis.

Despite of the rich functionality of LMS, in universities around the world, LMS has been used primarily as a repository of contents, assignments and other online resources shared by students and instructors (Susana et al., 2015). Recent studies have been advocating using LMS beyond merely a repository, for supporting more interactions, collaborations and learning community (Cho et al., 2014). Moreover, following the rising popularity of hand-held mobile devices among different stakeholders in higher education, it is not uncommon for instructors and students to access LMS using mobile devices such as smartphones.

Prior reviews of mobile learning (m-learning) research offer reassuring results in the use mobile devices for supporting teaching and learning (Rath, 2015), but there seems a lack of empirical research on the use of mobile LMSs in teaching and learning, particularly on students’ perception on mobile access to LMS and students’ mobile access to the LMS for non-repository uses.

In view of these gaps, this study attempts to gather quantitative and qualitative evidence in students’ patterns of mobile access to LMS (i.e., Moodle) for non-repository uses (e.g. test-taking, interaction, collaboration, etc.) and their opinions on these uses in terms of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT), in the context of higher education in Hong Kong. This study adopted a mixed method, utilizing both questionnaire surveys and interviews for data collection. Students and instructors from four Faculties at HKU (Arts, Education, Engineering, and Social Sciences) were involved. Questionnaires were administered to students during the start of a semester, followed by the instructors’ intervention, meaning their Moodle implementations combined with corresponding pedagogical strategies. Next was the post-intervention questionnaires distributed to students and follow-up semi-structured interviews with both instructors and students towards the end of the semester. Whilst the data analysis and interpretation is still in-progress, it is expected that findings would reveal the relationship between students’ opinions on mobile access to Moodle and their usage patterns, so that recommendations can be devised for improving teaching and learning through integrating m-learning with LMS. It is also hoped that higher education institutions around the world would extensively adopt the non-repository uses of LMS, fully realizing the potential of LMS.

References:

Cho, W., Jung, Y., & Im, J. H. (2014). Students' evaluation of learning management systems in the personal computer and smartphone computing environments. International Journal of Mobile Communications, 12(2), 142-159.

Hajjar, S. T. E. (2014). An Empirical Study about the Influence of Moodle on the Teaching–Learning Process at Higher Institutions. Advances in Educational Technologies, 182.

Rath, P. (2015). Digital Literacy and Usage of Mobile Learning Among the Students Community: A Study. Science, 4(3), 264-267.

Susana, O., Juanjo, M., Eva, T., & Ana, I. (2015). Improving graduate students learning through the use of Moodle. Educational Research and Reviews, 10(5), 604-614.