Perceptions of Mobile Technologies and Associations with Attitudinal Outcomes in a Tertiary Environment

From extensive research conducted over the past 40 years it is clear that there is a connection between the quality of the learning environment and student learning. The learning environment can have a strong influence on students’ attitudes and learning outcomes. Attitudes have also been shown to be improved when there is a similarity between the actual classroom environment and students’ preferred classroom environment. Given the increased use of instructional technology and technology rich environments, it is important to gain an understanding of how the use of these technologies is influencing students’ attitudes towards learning. This paper describes the results of a study carried out from 2009 to 2011 in a New Zealand tertiary institution to investigate associations with the mobile learning environment and attitudes using a newly developed and validated Mobile Enhanced Learning Environment Instrument (MOBLEI). The analyses showed a strong association between students’ perception of their learning environment and their attitude to their course along with a positive association between students’ perception of their learning environment and their attitude to technology. The association of students’ perceptions of their learning environment with self-efficacy was reasonably strong indicating that students’ perceptions of how they feel about the course, in terms of enjoyment and satisfaction, had an impact on their self-efficacy.