4 FIRST DEVELOPMENT CYCLE OF MOBILEEDU
4.6 Discussion of the results obtained from the evaluation of the first version of
This subsection focuses on the discussion regarding the outcome of the experiment conducted to evaluate the initial version of MobileEdu.
The purpose of the experiment was to evaluate MobileEdu. The study was fo-cused not only on the potential of MobileEdu to improve students’ learning achievements, but also their pedagogical experiences and attitudes. The study ex-pects that students’ familiarity and experience with the learning environment is vital to ensuring encouraging practices in computer science education. Consequent-ly, the study examined the possibilities offered by MobileEdu and determined the students’ perceptions.
The results from the experimental study indicated a significant improvement in the learning achievement of students after using MobileEdu. At the beginning of the study, all students had equal knowledge about the course fundamentals. An independent t-test was used to analyze the results of the pre-quiz achievements of the control and experimental groups, and the result showed that they did not differ statistically before the experiment.
Treatment was administered and a post-treatment test was conducted to ascer-tain the effect of the treatment between the two groups. The results of the analysis of the learning achievement scores showed that the experimental group performed better than the students in the control group. The outcome of the investigation is consistent with previous studies in this direction, in which it has been revealed that
the use of a mobile learning environment may improve students’ learning perfor-mance [157, 158].
As envisaged, the use of the MobileEdu learning environment may have aug-mented and eased access to information and learning resources, and aided learning activities, which is consistent with the results in the studies by Jacob and Issac [159].
Moreover, the students attributed an increase in engagement with easy access to learning resources. In addition, the students enjoyed the flexibility offered from using mobile devices for didactic purposes anytime, anywhere, and this could pos-sibly have been beneficial to improving their overall learning interactions, engage-ment, and experiences [160]. Moreover, the contextualized and tailored pedagogical experience that MobileEdu presented might have supported students with organiz-ing and accomplishorganiz-ing a learnorganiz-ing task, even when they had no access to a laptop or PC, thereby increasing their engagement with the learning content. However, there is a need for additional investigation to determine the effect of mobile learning on students’ affective domains and learning achievements, since the outcome of this study indicated a medium effect-size impact on the learning achievements between the two groups.
Furthermore, the study revealed that the students’ learning experiences and atti-tudes while using MobileEdu for computer science education were significantly encouraging compared to the students not using MobileEdu to support their learn-ing. An analysis of the items about the students’ perceptions and attitudes towards computer science education revealed improved perceptions, interactions, and atti-tudes for those in the experimental group. For instance, the first item, which sought the students’ opinions about whether they were more interested in perceiving and analyzing the features of system analysis, those in the experimental group indicated more interest and acceptance (Mean = 4.57 and SD = 1.56), compared to the students in the control group (Mean = 2.59 and SD = 1.44) at a t-value of −7.87. Similarly, the remaining items about the students’ perceptions and attitudes revealed comparable differences between the two groups. Hence, I concluded that the use of the Mo-bileEdu system had a positive influence on the engagement, interactions, percep-tions, and attitudes of the students. The outcomes of the study regarding the stu-dents’ perceptions and attitudes about the use of a mobile learning tool are con-sistent with other studies in the field, particularly about improving their interest and motivation to participate in learning activities, collaborating with peers, and teamwork [161, 162]. Furthermore, I observed that the level of interaction and en-gagement with learning activities greatly increased over the period of usage of Mo-bileEdu. The increase in the learning outcome could be attributed to the increase in the students’ engagement with the learning content and the feedback received from the teacher. Similarly, I observed that the students who used MobileEdu interacted with their peers and the teacher. They were willing to pose questions, request help about unclear topics, and perform activities in groups. The positive attitudes and
experiences shown by the students during the study, indicated that the use of Mo-bileEdu in computer science education proved effective for supporting students’
learning experiences.
4.7 SUMMARY
This section focused on the DSR development process of the initial version of the MobileEdu system, and provided detailed descriptions of the activities undertaken in each of the steps. The first development cycle identified and implemented the functional requirements of a mobile learning system, according to the stakeholders’
needs. The system was leveraged on the mobile phone revolution in Africa, afford-ability, flexibility, and dynamism of mobile technologies to offer students the op-portunity to learn on the go. The problem addressed by this intervention is the lack of interactions and engagement among teachers and students in computer science education because of the large numbers of students in Nigerian university class-rooms. The results from the first design cycle indicated that students in the experi-mental group had good experiences while using the system and learning achieve-ment was better than in the control group. Similarly, the system could be used in a blended learning scenario and to support social learning.