Mobile Learning Ecosystem to Enhance Students Learning - Lessons Learnt from an Empirical Study at NTNU

Technology constitutes a huge part of our everyday lives and there has been an increased demand towards mobile applications, also known as apps . A category of applications that are increasing in importance are the educational applications. Institutions are increasing their use of educational applications and applications that meet the needs of students are covered and necessary. Every year there are new students arriving at NTNU and as a new student, he or she arrives without any knowledge about what study tools are available or could be helpful for their study. Even students that have been at NTNU for some time, do not know all of the tools that are available. This study aims to identify the interrelations performance expectancy, effort expectancy, enjoyment, and satisfaction in order to predict intention to use a mobile application for educational services. The study intends to determine if a mobile application for educational purposes can meet the NTNU student s needs and improve their everyday academic life with easier access to important and desired content. A mobile application was developed which includes important services for students in one place. The application was tested through a feedback functionality within the application itself, feedback from questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. The results of the feedback showed how users with different perceptions towards the application may have either high or low/medium intentions to use it. Female participants showed a high intention of use after identifying how the application could increase their performance and discovering how useful the application can be for them. Male participants, showed that for those who found the application useful resulted in having a high intention of use on condition that the application provided them enjoyment or satisfaction. In the case where enjoyment was nonexistent, there would be a low probability of using it regardless of any factors. It is concluded that all of the participants indicated that up to now, the tested application was their best experience amongst other mobile learning applications. The satisfaction and effort expectancy was high among the participants, indicating that they were pleased with the services of the application since they found it useful and easy to use. Lastly, it was discovered that there was an increase of interest in mobile PLEs amongst students, and that the retrieval process of desired information and tools was improved with the developed application