Smartphone use in university students: An opportunity for learning

Abstract

The high level of penetration of the smartphone together with its low implementation cost in the educational field is the reason why m-learning is a growing educational trend worldwide. This article presents the habits of use of applications for communication and mobile learning of the higher education students and identifies factors that can favour the intention of adopting m-learning tools based on the smartphone among university students. To this end, a questionnaire based on the UTAUT2 model of technology adoption was administered to 176 students from different courses of the Advertising and Public Relations Degree at the University of Vigo. The results show the main uses that students make of the smartphone, their preferences regarding the use of the device for learning and the importance of the playful dimension of m-learning in the intention of adopting this model, an aspect that not many researches in the field highlight, but that - conveniently used by teachers- can be a great opportunity for its implementation.