Enhancing teaching and learning through the use of mobile technologies in Zimbabwean universities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish mlearning infrastructure and resources available in Zimbabwean universities, determine the level of mobile learning activities in Zimbabwean universities, identify challenges faced by Zimbabwean universities as they implement mobile learning in teaching and learning and to come up with recommendations that were possible solutions to the challenges faced by Zimbabwean universities in implementing mobile learning. The participants of this research were university lecturers, students, the ITS directors and the Librarians. The research adopted the descriptive research method and the triangulation methodology to draw conclusions from the data collected. Random sampling was used to select the respondents to the questionnaires. Tools for data collection included a questionnaire (with both open ended questions and closed questions) targeted to the lecturers and the students, as well as interviews with the ITS directors and the Librarians. The research revealed that students and lecturers have mobile technology devices to use for mlearning. There are some mobile learning activities that are already happening at universities which include uploading of material on electronic learning platform, downloading learning material, browsing the internet for research, students’ online discussions and access of electronic resources from the universities’ elibrary, amongst others. Network infrastructure is available at the universities but some of the equipment needs to be upgraded and some needs replacement as it has been in use for many years. There were a number of challenges highlighted by the participants of this study that were affecting the implementation of mobile learning which included access to internet, high cost of mobile devices, high broadband costs, lack of a mlearning management system, resistance to change, negative attitude of lecturers and WI-FI connectivity amongst others. The research recommended the adoption of a mobile learning management system, the upgrade of firmware of some access points that are not working, acquisition of new routers to enable fast internet speeds and training of staff amongst others so as to overcome the challenges to the implementation of mlearning in Zimbabwean universities.