Factors Influencing the Acceptance of Mobile Learning in K-12 Education in Saudi Arabia: Towards a Shift in the Saudi Education System vis-à-vis Saudi 2030 Vision

Abstract

The Saudi Arabian government is committed to updating and improving its education system. Thus, in March 2017, a project was declared toconvert the existing book-based methodology to modern, mobile technology inthe K-12 education space by 2021. As part of this process, a deep-dive literaturereview of student acceptance of mobile learning confirmed that there was limitedresearch into what elements influenced how much students were likely to acceptlearning with mobile applications in the five to 18-year-old demographic of K-12.For this purpose, research hypotheses are developed and questionnaire-basedonline surveys are designed for data collection, which were shared with 295 studentsvia email in the concerned schools at different education levels, out ofwhich 282 students completed the survey. The survey response is analyzed witha measurement model and structural model. A measurement model is performedvia the AMOS tool to measure the average variance extracted, maximum sharedvariance, and average shared variance. Based on the measurement model, thestructure model is built to investigate all the concerning factors. The conclusionof the literature review was that the Saudi Arabian Education Ministry mustacquire an understanding of these elements to strategize the implementation ofthe new technology. This study approached high school students, aged 16 to 18,in Saudi Arabia, to examine the elements which would influence their acceptanceof mobile learning technology. The study combined well-known educational elements,such as learning self-management, system quality, and hedonic motivation,with the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT),to create a significant theoretical model for new technology in a high school setting.Conclusions were drawn that societal influence did not affect the student’sapproach to mobile learning, but that learning self-management, the expectancyof effort and performance, hedonic motivation and the quality of the system didaffect the acceptance behavior of the students. It was also noted that gender wasnot a significant factor in the study