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Toward Educational Requirements Model for Mobile Learning Development and Adoption in Higher Education

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Abstract

Mobile learning (M-learning) is a learning paradigm that utilizes the advantages of mobility and wireless technologies in the learning and education process. It can be characterized by the ability to support and provide strong interaction between learners and instructors, offering high levels of learning motivation, collaboration, and flexibility to the learning activities. Despite the increased popularity of M-learning, there is no complete and well-defined set of educational requirements for M-learning in higher education which considers both instructional design and M-learning design. Therefore, this paper proposes a new educational requirements model for M-learning development and adoption in higher education. This set of requirements has been built from a literature study with focus on standards for learning and mobile application software quality and guidelines. This work presents the results of applying the proposed set of educational requirements on three different M-learning systems. Instructional designers and educational software developers may find the requirements useful in the development of M-learning systems. The effort described is part of an Omani-funded research project investigating the development, adoption and dissemination of M-learning in Oman.

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Funding

This study was funded by The Research Council (TRC) of the Sultanate of Oman, under Grant No: ORG/SQU/ICT/13/006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Communication and Information Research Center, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman

    Mohamed Sarrab

  2. Department of Information System, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman

    Hafedh Al-Shihi

  3. Information Security Division, Information Technology Authority, Muscat, Oman

    Bader Al-Manthari

  4. Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman

    Hadj Bourdoucen

Authors
  1. Mohamed Sarrab
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  2. Hafedh Al-Shihi
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  3. Bader Al-Manthari
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  4. Hadj Bourdoucen
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Correspondence to Mohamed Sarrab.

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Conflict of Interest

All authors as one team (Mohamed Sarrab, Hafedh Al-Shihi, Bader Al-Manthari and Hadj Bourdoucen) have received research grants from the Research Council (TRC) of the Sultanate of Oman, under Grant No: ORG/SQU/ICT/13/006, (www.trc.gov.om)

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. Also this article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Sarrab, M., Al-Shihi, H., Al-Manthari, B. et al. Toward Educational Requirements Model for Mobile Learning Development and Adoption in Higher Education. TechTrends 62, 635–646 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-018-0331-4

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