ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to measures the student’s perception of using mobile for learning during COVID-19 in Bangladesh especially at the university student’s perspective. During the COVID-19 pandemic period, mobile learning may help the students to fulfill the study gap. Due to COVID-19 pandemic 213 countries, higher education has affected all over the world of June 2020. Although all of the developed countries considered mobile learning as an effective tool for education, it is not used properly in Bangladesh. This survey method conducted on 416 students from different university students in Bangladesh to understand the student’s perception of using mobile phones as a learning system. The findings of this study show that most of the students at the university level have a positive perception of m-learning. This study revealed that m-learning is very helpful to recover the study gap during this COVID-19 pandemic time and the findings of this study will help the education policymaker as well as the educational institutions to incorporate mobile learning technology for the whole system where social media may enhance the process of teaching and learning.
Keywords
mobile learning, students’ perceptions, COVID-19, Bangladesh
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, Mobile learning (m-learning) has become a popular learning system for education especially higher education all over the world because of its multi-functionality characteristic and effectiveness. Bangladesh is one of the fastest countries of mobile spreading in the world has around 8 million smartphone users which ranked out of the 50 countries in the world (Ash, 2019). Bangladesh already initiated a project on National ICT policy-2009 to make the country as a middle-income nation in the year 2021 by emphasizing the application of ICT based education from primary to tertiary level will help to accomplish the goal (“Digital Bangladesh: dreams and reality”, 2015). Under the ICT policy-2009, the government had provided laptops and multi-media projectors around 20,000 institutions in Bangladesh within 2014 (Chandan, 2015). Also, the government has taken the initiative to provide free Wi-Fi connection to all of the public universities. On the other side, the total number of Mobile Phone subscribers had reached 159.780 Million at the end of March 2019 (BTRC, 2019). Most of the students at the tertiary level have a smartphone which they can easily use for their academic purpose both offline and online. M-learning reflects remote teaching tactics for teachers as well as learning strategies for students at the university level because it helps to learn anytime from anywhere. It also may help the students to reduce the study gap that could play an alternative learning methodology during COVID-19 (Naciri et al., 2020). After declaring COVID19 as pandemic disease, many countries including Bangladesh have taken initiative to close their educational institutions to reduce the effect of the virus (World Health Organization, 2020b). Bangladesh had closed all of the educational institutions from the 18th of March, 2020 which became a cause of affecting the quality of education and also the student’s future life (Usak et al., 2020). So for overcoming this situation, an innovative learning methodology becomes very important nowadays (Toquero, 2020) and M-learning could play a vital role for the mobile devices uses in the educational sector (Sönmez, Göçmez, Uygun, Ataizi, & Learning, 2018, Aubusson, Schuck, & Burden, 2009).
For the COVID-19 pandemic time, the education system of the world has affected extremely. Many countries of the world have closed their educational institutions to reduce the spread of this virus which become the cause of many challenges (Naciri et al., 2020). The scenario is not different for Bangladesh. Every educational institution of Bangladesh including the higher educational institutions remains closed from 18 March 2020. So, for optimizing the effects of the pandemic in the education sector, the University Grant Commission (UGC) has opted for online teaching to all the universities. And, some teachers have already started to participate in the online classes to reduce the study gap of the students. At this stage, m-learning might be a helpful tool for both the students and teachers. Before claiming that “mlearning is a helpful tool for learning”, we should know about the perception of mobile learning of students during this pandemic situation. This novel study focuses on the perception of students’ mobile learning during this pandemic situation. This study comes up with various literature on mobile learning in numerous respects. As a developing country, like Bangladesh where the majority belongs to the youth age group, there have a few studies of using mobile phones among university students’ perception of their studies. This study aims to look at the students’ perception of using mobile phones in informal education. Many researchers found that mobile learning always supports teaching and learning. Although many developed countries used to m-learn as an effective tool for education (Fuegen, 2012), there is a lack of studies that focus on examining students’ perceptions of mobile learning, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. Education for all is now a common concern most of the developing countries including Bangladesh.
The governments of Bangladesh are spending and investing a lot of money to develop the use of ICTs at all levels of educational institutions. As mobile devices would be a potential tool for education at the higher studies in Bangladesh so it has now become important and essential to measures the perception of students using mobile phones as a learning tool during this pandemic time. The main objective of the research is to know the student’s perception of using mobile phones as a learning tool during COVID-19 time and also the perception of mobile learning to recover the study gap at this pandemic time and the process of improving their academic performance by utilizing mobile learning.
CONCLUSION
The education sector of Bangladesh has been taken various initiatives to utilize Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) at every stage of education from primary to tertiary levels. The main focus of this study is to measures the student’s perception of using mobile for learning during COVID-19 in Bangladesh especially at the university student’s perspective. The study shows that students are very familiar with mobile learning, have a positive perception of mobile learning, and students used various social media for their study during COVID-19 pandemic time. The findings also demonstrate that mobile learning is a useful tool for this pandemic time where students can learn from outside of the classroom or participate in class from anywhere; improve the relationship with their teacher and also fulfill the long term study gap. The policymaker as well as the educational institutions should consider the opportunity to incorporate mobile learning technology for the whole education system where social media may enhance the process of teaching and learning. In addition, university-level students have positive opinions about mobile learning and willingness to be part of which is very crucial for the institutionalization of mobile learning in the universities in Bangladesh.
About KSRA
The Kavian Scientific Research Association (KSRA) is a non-profit research organization to provide research / educational services in December 2013. The members of the community had formed a virtual group on the Viber social network. The core of the Kavian Scientific Association was formed with these members as founders. These individuals, led by Professor Siavosh Kaviani, decided to launch a scientific / research association with an emphasis on education.
KSRA research association, as a non-profit research firm, is committed to providing research services in the field of knowledge. The main beneficiaries of this association are public or private knowledge-based companies, students, researchers, researchers, professors, universities, and industrial and semi-industrial centers around the world.
Our main services Based on Education for all Spectrum people in the world. We want to make an integration between researches and educations. We believe education is the main right of Human beings. So our services should be concentrated on inclusive education.
The KSRA team partners with local under-served communities around the world to improve the access to and quality of knowledge based on education, amplify and augment learning programs where they exist, and create new opportunities for e-learning where traditional education systems are lacking or non-existent.
FULL Paper PDF file:
Students Perception of Mobile Learning during COVID-19 in Bangladesh: University Student PerspectiveBibliography
author
Year
2020
Title
Students Perception of Mobile Learning during COVID-19 in Bangladesh: University Student Perspective
Publish in
Aquademia, 2020 – Volume 4 Issue 2, Article No: ep20023
DOI
https://doi.org/10.29333/aquademia/8443
PDF reference and original file: Click here
Nasim Gazerani was born in 1983 in Arak. She holds a Master's degree in Software Engineering from UM University of Malaysia.
Professor Siavosh Kaviani was born in 1961 in Tehran. He had a professorship. He holds a Ph.D. in Software Engineering from the QL University of Software Development Methodology and an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Chelsea.
Somayeh Nosrati was born in 1982 in Tehran. She holds a Master's degree in artificial intelligence from Khatam University of Tehran.
