| dc.description.abstract | This study assessed the “awareness levels and the use of mobile devices in the teaching and learning practices in Higher institutions of Learning; a case of Kyambogo University”. The main purpose in this study was to assess the influence of awareness levels on the use of mobile devices to facilitate teaching and self-directed learning among the lecturers and students of the Bachelor of Adult and Community Education of Kyambogo University. The specific objectives were: to assess the awareness levels of the educational role of mobile devices; to examine the ways through which mobile devices were used to facilitate teaching and learning and to establish the factors that determined this usage. A single case study with descriptive statistics guided a mixed methods approach to assess m-learning practices in-depth. The study used interviewed five lecturers using an interview schedule and 100 students using a semi-structured questionnaire. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis while quantitative data was analysed using descriptive, factor analysis, and multiple regression methods. The key findings from the study indicate that; concerning objective 1), Most of the lecturers and students were generally aware of the educational role of mobile devices. The low levels of awareness were registered in using these devices to write down lecture notes, scheduling of academic programs, managing of students’ academic grades, and translate information from one international language to another. Key findings on objective 2) indicate that the use of mobile devices was irregular in teaching practices such as searching for relevant academic information, updating and delivering lecture content, sending coursework to students, and marking assignments online. The usage of mobile devices was also irregular in self-directed learning practices such as surfing the internet to download relevant online academic documents, developing learning schedules, collaborative learning through peer discussions, and classroom learning. Findings on objective 3) highlighted favourable attributes of mobile devices such as inbuilt applications that support online collaborative teaching and learning, portability, and compatibility with teaching and learning practices as the key enablers of m-learning. The limiting factors included the high cost of airtime and data bundles, lack of network and internet connectivity, mobile device affordances, and allocation of inadequate time, lecturers’ and students’ uncertainty concerning the privacy and security of their content, and lack of clarity about KYU policy on the mobile device used to facilitate learning. From these results, the study concluded by stressing the fact there is a ray of hope concerning M-learning practices in KYU BACE if the lecturers' and students’ awareness levels concerning the comprehensive educational roles of mobile devices were high. This would improve the regularity of using these devices. Consequently, the study recommends to KYU BACE Department sensitize lecturers and students to increase their levels of awareness on specific educational functions of mobile devices, and embrace the use of mobile devices regularly. The study also recommends that the University policymakers and administrators address the limiting factors; like strengthening network and internet service connectivity at KYU and students’ places of residence, developing and disseminating the policy on the use of mobile phones in teaching and learning, subscribing to online credible sites so that students are sure of the sources. Further research into the use of mobile devices using objective data exchanged on these gadgets on platforms used for teaching and learning since most of the data collected in this study was highly subjective to respondents’ discretion. | en_US |
