Assessing Tablets’ Adoption by ODL Learners: A Mauritian Case Study

Assessing Tablets’ Adoption by ODL Learners: A Mauritian Case Study Perienen Appavoo and Premanand Koonjal

Open University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius

[email protected] and [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Mobile learning technologies have great potential

to transform the learning paradigm. The Open

University of Mauritius offers a free tablet to all

learners reading for a degree course. This paper

investigates the extent to which these tablets are

contributing to the learning experience of the

learners. Hundred and fifty learners studying in

different courses at the University agreed to

complete a questionnaire. Focus group discussions

were held with four groups of 4-5 learners in view

of triangulating the data and unveiling other details

that could not be captured in the questionnaires.

Data analysis reveals that learners, mostly working

adults, are frequent users of technology with many

of them using the computer for more than an hour

daily; learning being one of the common activities.

Learners demonstrate a positive perception of the

pedagogical worth of ICT. The major obstacles to

tablets use is also highlighted and include the

following: frequent breakdowns, small screen size,

slow processing power and short battery life.

Despite these obstacles, learners value the

flexibility tablets offer to learn anywhere, anytime

and at their own pace. This combination of

technology provision and perception of use as

revealed in this paper shows that learners are well

poised to embrace tablet use in their learning.

Keywords

ODL, tablets, learning, technology, ICT.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The advent of computers has brought

innovative changes in various sectors of the

economy and has altered the way business is

being done including the educational sector,

which is also undergoing a lot of

transformations. Nowadays, students grow up

amidst technology from a tender age and their

learning expectations at school are high. They

are the ‘digital natives’ who mandate the use of

technology to complement their learning

activities, and if educators or institutions do

not bend to this trend, they will miss a golden

opportunity to address learning demands with

the new Information and Communication

Technology (ICT) tools already flooding the

market and making a difference in other

spheres of life. The present ‘grammar of

school’ will thus keep the system lagging

behind and stagnating in the archaic den.

Today tertiary level education is witnessing a

tremendous boom, with Open and Distance

Learning (ODL) becoming a preferred mode of

study for the many learners who are opting for

qualification upgrade while keeping their jobs

or doing some other activities. There is

definitely scope in the delivery of courses

through ICT tools, and coupled with the

affordability and portability of tablets, this

integration of technology in learning holds a

promising future. The prevalence of ICTs and

its far-reaching effects can, therefore, have a

profound impact on the ways teaching and

learning will evolve. At the Open University of

Mauritius (OU), which is a young and fast

growing university, with a population of

around 4000 students in the last 2 years, the

policy has been to maximize on the

affordances of ICT for the effective delivery of

course content, for interacting with and

mastering the learning content, and for learner

Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Digital Information Processing, E-Business and Cloud Computing, Reduit, Mauritius 2015

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mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

support as well. In this endeavour, more than

3000 tablets have been distributed freely to all

learners enrolled on a degree course.

Expectations are high, but to what extent are

these tablets fulfilling the demands and needs

of tutors and learners? Has the integration been

a smooth process or are learners still struggling

to make good use of this tool. Success with

mobile-learning initiatives requires a close fit

between the instructional design of the

learning content and the affordances of

technology. This research study attempts to

zoom in the intricacies of this integration and

bring to the surface perceptions and even

apprehensions regarding the effective usage of

tablets for learning purposes.

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Due to increasing longevity, extended age of

retirement, coupled with the need for ongoing

professional training in a dynamic labour

market, the focus on ODL as a mode of

learning and training is being accentuated

every year. Calvert [1] purports that ODL is

considered nowadays as the most

viable means for broadening educational

access while improving the quality of

education, advocating peer-to-peer

collaboration and giving learners a greater

sense of autonomy and responsibility

for learning. ODL favours ubiquitous learning

that can meet the needs of the emerging digital

learning society, providing in the same breath

greater learning opportunities to the non-

traditional student segment of the learner

population. Massive Open Online Courses

(MOOCs) offer high quality courses at

affordable cost to reach nearly every corner of

the globe, and a serious enabler of this exciting

venture is none other than technology itself.

Today there are flooding studies purporting

that technology is becoming a strong driver of

the educational process, providing an

abundance of learning opportunities for a wide

spectrum of learners coming from all walks of

life [2], [3], [4], [5]. Mobile learning is already

a grounded concept where learning takes place

with the help of a mobile/handheld device [6].

Hutchison et al. [7] found that iPads have

learning affordances to enhance engagement

and motivation, improve face-to-face and

online collaboration amongst students and

personalize learning while improving learning

outcomes. These gains were ascribed to the

features of the device, and to teachers’ ability

to differentiate instruction to cater for mixed-

ability groups, and the ease with which

learners could personalise their learning

experience. Moreover, Clarke and Svanaes [8]

reported that students described the main

benefits of a Tablet as having ‘everything in

one device’, which was felt to make it easier to

organise their learning. Tablets are also

bringing a new learning experience to adults.

To ensure that technology-based instructions

can benefit this category of learners, Wolfson,

et al. [9] report that such instructions must:

1. Be highly structured

2. Provide feedback and guidance

3. Include metacognitive prompts

4. Incorporate principle derived from

cognitive load theory and cognitive theory

of multimedia learning.

5. Include a user interface that is simple and

consistent throughout the course.

Tablets have been touted as “revolutionary

learning devices” holding huge potential to

reconstruct our educational system. A study by

Shuler [10] has revealed that 10% of the

650,000 applications (Apps) on Apple store

and 300,000 on the Android market have been

designed for educational purposes. He posits

that mobile Apps will unlock new avenues to

support the learning process. He does,

however, draw attention to the dearth of

research to back the educational worth of these

apps. In 2014, tablet ownership reached 350

million and this number is expected to treble

by 2017, reaching 15% of the world population


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[11]. By 2015, one third of the US population

will be iPads and other tablets users, with a

large majority involved in learning activities,

thus making these devices the fastest growing

technology in education [12]. A new frontier is

being crossed and the trend is towards the

concept of “Bring Your Own Device

(BYOD)”, where individuals take their

personal (usually mobile) devices to

workplaces or schools and university campus

[13].

Due to its affordability, portability and

functionalities, educationalists are nourishing

great hopes to see this device revolutionize the

educational world. There is a novelty value in

the introduction of tablets for learning

outcomes. Their viability as a response tool to

the emerging learning demands of a digital

society makes it a compelling choice for many.

The multi-touch interface is probably the

greatest draw of tablets as compared to laptops.

In 2011, South Korea announced its $2.1

billion initiative to transfer all of its school

textbooks to digital form by 2015 [14], with

students accessing their needed texts using

tablet computers [15]. Using cloud computing,

it is expected that users would be able to access

a database of all digital textbooks and choose

what they want from their tablet PCs. Thailand

has initiated the world’s largest tablet

experiment project to provide One-Tablet-Per-

Child (OTPC) with the intention to deliver

more than 800,000 tablets in schools [16].

Among the developing countries, Kenya is at

the top of the league with the “Kids on the tab”

project instigated in 2012 [17]. It includes pre-

loaded materials in compliance with the school

curricula on a tablet given to students to assist

them in their learning activities as well as to

help them improve their e-literacy skills.

Furthermore, the free laptop project in Kenya

has been the largest such project in the African

continent with 400,000 laptops distributed to

first graders, while Rwanda has already

circulated around 200,000 laptops [18]. In

2014, in its endeavour to transform the island

into an intelligent nation in the vanguard of

global process and innovation, the Ministry of

Education of Mauritius has distributed some

26,000 tablets to secondary school Form V

students (age 15-16 years) and teachers. A

similar number has been earmarked for

distribution in 2015. At the Open University of

Mauritius, management has initiated the

swapping of traditional learning materials for

digital ones, thus anticipating the future,

whereby the global surge of tablets will

revolutionize the way learning takes place.

Investigating the contribution of tablets in the

context of ODL has significant importance for

Africa, which has great potential to expand its

e-learning market [19]. Both the affordability

and portability of this tool line up with the

concepts of ODL which are grounded in

flexible delivery and learning, whereby the

latter takes place anywhere, anytime, -

seamless learning.

Today there is mounting pressure on school

administrators and teaching staff to embrace

technology for boosting learning performance

and addressing varying learning styles. But

how far are we from technology provision to

knowledge acquisition? Both the South Korean

and Thai projects have received comments and

critics worthy of our consideration. We cannot

afford to repeat the same mistakes and carry

false hopes. Despite what numerous studies

reveal about the potentiality of tablets to

educate, we must caution “exaggerated trust”

in digital education and investigate if wireless

education means better quality. That

technology offers affordances for pedagogical

gain is beyond doubt; but how is the

integration implemented, remains the true

dilemma? This research study at the Open

University will bring to the front some key

findings of tablet usage by ODL learners,

which can fuel further research in this area and

help guide the implementation of similar

projects, so that learning expectations do not

remain a disappointed dream.


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2.1 Aims and Objectives

The aim of this research paper is to investigate

the extent of tablet usage for learning benefits

by ODL learners of the Open University of

Mauritius reading for a degree program,

following the policy of free distribution of this

device over the last two years. The findings

are expected to help review or revisit this

policy in order to maximize on the much

acclaimed attributes of mobile technologies for

learning.

The research objectives will be addressed in

the following four main questions:

1. What is the current usage of technology by

ODL learners at work and/or at home?

2. What is the current usage of tablets by

ODL learners for learning purposes?

3. How do ODL learners perceive the

pedagogical worth of ICT?

4. What are the most common barriers in the

successful integration of tablets for

learning?

3.0 METHODOLOGY

A mixed method approach, both quantitative

and qualitative in nature, was adopted in the

collection of data. A questionnaire comprising

52 items, was designed and distributed among

learners of the Open University. Thirty four

items, using a three-point Likert rating scale,

covered such aspects as learners’ demography,

daily use of technology, the types of activities

most preferred, computer-related learning

activities, perceptions of the pedagogical

worth of tablets for learning, and the barriers to

the effective integration of tablets in ODL. The

Cronbach Alpha analysis was carried out to

validate the items testing a particular construct.

The option “frequent use” for some of the

items implied the device was used for more

than three times in a week, and “moderate use”,

1-3 times per week. In the initial stage, a pilot

testing of the questionnaire was carried out

among 15 students and the final questionnaire

was accordingly modified to take on board the

suggestions and remarks made by the

respondents. Stratified sampling was used to

ensure that both female and male students from

all major courses offered at the university,

participated in the survey. Two hundred and

thirty questionnaires were distributed to

students following courses in Finance,

Management, Education, Humanities and IT.

Focus group discussions were held with 3

groups of 5-6 learners over approximately one

hour. Focus group research is “a way of

collecting qualitative data, which—

essentially— involves engaging a small

number of people in an informal group

discussion (or discussions), ‘focused’ around a

particular topic or set of issues” [20, p.177].

Such group interaction can be productive in

widening the range of responses, activating

forgotten details of experience, and releasing

inhibitions that may otherwise discourage

participants from disclosing information [21].

Focus groups produce data rich in detail that

are difficult to achieve with other research

methods. So using semi structured questions,

more in-depth information were sought on the

aspects mentioned above. Data collected were

then recorded and analysed using statistical

tools like SPSS 21.0 and Excel 2010. Various

analyses, like Mann Whitney U and Kruskal

Wallis tests were carried out to investigate any

correlation between the items of the

questionnaire. The major findings of the group

discussions were also compiled to support,

where appropriate, those derived from analysis

of the questionnaires.

4.0 DATA ANALYSIS

4.1 Descriptive Analysis

Hundred and fifty participants studying at the

Open University successfully completed the

questionnaires. The majority of them were

female learners (68.7%). Most of the

participants (93.3%) were below 45 years, with

around two thirds in the 19-35 age group.


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Many learners were already graduates

(68.7%), and were currently working full-time

(96.4%). They were studying to upgrade their

qualifications for professional development.

Data collected revealed that 98% of learners

rated their ICT skills as excellent or average.

Most of the participants (80.1%) stated that

their job required mastery of computer skills.

The respondents therefore demonstrated a high

technological profile, with nearly all of them

having access to the Internet. In fact most of

OU learners (71%) were using the computer

daily for more than one hour.

4.2 Computer-related Activities

The first section of the questionnaire sought to

investigate the popular computer-related

activities performed by the respondents. The

high Cronbach Alpha value of 0.743 validated

the reliability of the items measuring the

construct of computer usage. Respondents

were regular users of technology, and among

the most common activities were learning,

online communication, Internet search, office

work and entertainment (Figure 1).

Finding 1: Use of computers (or computer

usage) was very high among ODL learners.

Using technology for learning purposes was

reported by 97% of respondents, hence

confirming that technology has already paved

its way in the learning process of the large

majority as reported in numerous studies [2],

[3], [4], [5].

Figure 1: Use of Computer/Laptop/Tablets

A Mann Whitney U test was carried out to

investigate if there was gender bias in the

practice of various computer-based activities

and analysis revealed p values higher than

0.05 for all the items, except for “searching

general information” where female were more

frequent users (U=2046, p=0.04).

4.3 Specific Use of Tablets

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

Learning purposes

Searching general information

Communication (Email/Chat/Facebook/Twitter

etc.)

Work (Office) purposes

Entertainment (Music/Video)

Online services (e.g e-banking, tax return, online

applications)

Online shopping

Frequent use Moderate use (1-3 times/week) Never


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The second section of the questionnaire

investigated the specific use of tablets by

learners. The items of this section were very

reliable with a Cronbach Alpha value of 0.9,

hence confirming that all items reliably

measured the construct of tablet usage. Figure

2 shows that the most common use of tablets

was for studying the course materials (81%),

with a more restricted number using them for

assignments purposes (42%). The use of OU

tablets for learning-related Internet search was

reported by 57% of the learners, and around

43% for communication with tutors and peers.

This result aligns with a previous study carried

out by Shuler et al. [22] where they found that

the ease of accessing emails and messaging on

a mobile device enhanced communication

between tutors and learners.

Finding 2: Tablets provided by OU were

significantly being used by OU learners for

learning purposes. This is a positive outcome

of the University’s policy to introduce the free

distribution of this tool to its students. This

finding is in line with the comments of Traxler

[6] which posits that mobile learning is now a

grounded concept in learning.

A Mann Whitney U test yielded p values

greater than 0.05 for all the items, showing that

gender was not an issue in the extent of use of

tablets.

In order to investigate if age group had any

influence on the extent of use of tablets, a

Kruskal Wallis test was carried out and it

revealed that this was not the case - all p values

being greater than 0.05.

Figure 2: Extent of tablet use by OU learners

4.4 Beliefs and Attitude Regarding ICT

as a Learning Tool.

The items of the third section of the

questionnaire, which sought the beliefs and

attitudes of learners regarding technology use

for learning purposes were reliable with a

Cronbach Alpha value of 0.64 when two of

them were excluded from the computation.

Figure 3 shows that learners had a high opinion

of technology as a learning tool. The most

preferred concept (95%) was that ICT offers

flexibility for learning (anytime, anywhere).

They opined that ICT makes course materials

easier to assimilate (90%), namely because it

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

Studying course materials

Downloading learning materials

Downloading general materials

Doing assignments

Submitting assignments online

For online social networking (Facebook, Twitter…

Communicating with tutors and peers

Entertainment (Music/Video/Games)

Frequent use Moderate use (1-3 times/week) Never


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presents the materials through different media;

like graphics, colourful texts, video clips and

animations. They found ICT appropriate tools

for doing assignments (92%) and believed that

tutors should use them to facilitate learning

(85%).

One important implication of technology use is

the need to read on a computer screen. This

aspect was investigated in this section and

surprisingly only 30% of learners preferred the

computer screen to reading on paper (Figure

4). This information was largely confirmed in

one of the focus group discussions.

Figure 3: Beliefs and attitude regarding the use of technology for learning

Figure 4: Computer screen better than paper

Finding 3: ODL learners at OU demonstrated

a strong belief of the pedagogical worth of

ICT in the learning process with more than

70% agreeing to all seven items. They valued

the flexibility offered by tablets for anytime,

anywhere learning. Moreover the Kruskal

Wallis test revealed that age did not

significantly influence responses for most of

the items from respondents regarding beliefs

and attitude. However, the Mann Whitney test

showed that female learners were more in

favour of such beliefs like “Media content

makes learning easier”, (U= 2126, p=0.026)

and “ICT is useful for assignment purposes”,

(U= 2099, p=0.06).

4.5 Barriers to the Effective Use of

Technology for Learning

The last section of the questionnaire

investigated the barriers to the effective use of

technology. With a Cronbach Alpha value of

0.616, the items were found reliable to measure

this construct, when one of them was removed.

Learners were a large majority to concur on the

different barriers, which included frequent

breakdowns (90%), short battery life (87.3%),

lack of tablet printing facilities (86.7%), small

screen size (79.3%) and slow processing power

(69%). The issue of lack of printing facilities

was also reported in a research by Johansson,

as cited in [8]. As regards the screen size

Shuler et al. [22] mentioned the smallness of

tablet screen as a “limiting factor that can pose

challenge to mobile learning”. Nearly 79%

said they preferred the PC/laptop to tablets for

learning purposes.

Finding 4: Although in section two, we noted

a satisfactory use of tablets for learning, yet a

large number of respondents enumerated the

various obstacles standing in the way to the

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

ICT makes learning flexible (anywhere,…

ICT useful for assignments.

Course materials easier to study.

Multimedia facilitate learning

Tutors should use ICT facilities.

ICT provide feedback.

ICT can help obtain better grades

Agree Uncertain Disagree

30%

24.7%

45.3%



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effective utilisation of tablets in the learning

process.

Figure 5: Barriers to the effective use of tablets

4.6 Comparing Tablet Usage with Other

Computing Devices.

Given the high technological profile of the

respondents and the strong lean towards using

technology for various activities, this section

of the analysis sought to compare tablets usage

with other computing devices like the personal

computer, laptop or smart phone. Where

percentage of users was high, we did highlight

the difference between frequent and moderate

use.

Figure 6 shows that although more than 80%

of respondents used technology for activities

like communication, Internet search and

entertainment, yet a much lower percentage

used the tablet for these activities. A large

number of learners (70%) frequently used a

computing device for communication

purposes, but very few of them (10%) used OU

tablets frequently for communicating with

tutors and peers. To another item of the

questionnaire 84.7% of them agreed that

lecturers should use ICT facilities for teaching.

Regarding Internet search once again, learners

had a greater preference for personal

computers and laptops. Although 92% of

respondents believed that computing devices

are appropriate tools for doing assignment, yet

only 42.6% revealed doing so on their tablet,

confirming that the tablet was not the preferred

tool for this type of activities.

More than 80% of the respondents reported

using the tablet for learning, which met OU

objectives of providing free tablets to its

learners. But once again PCs and laptops were

more frequently used than tablets.

A more detailed analysis was carried out for

the 18.7% of respondents who reported not

using OU tablets for studying course materials.

It revealed that these students were neither

using the tablet for other activities like doing

assignments, downloading learning materials,

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

Frequent technical break-downs.

Short battery life.

Lack of tablet direct printing facilities

Breakdowns cause data lost.

The tablet screen is too small.

PCs/ laptops are more convenient.

Tablets are too slow.

Software incompatibility.

Difficult to transfer files



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communicating or for entertainment. However

these learners rated their ICT skills as average

or excellent, and 88 % of them confirmed using

their laptops and computers frequently for

learning.

Figure 6: Technology-related activities

Finding 5: The large majority of learners

reported frequent or moderate use of

computing devices for different activities like

learning, communication, Internet search and

entertainment but the tablet was not the

preferred choice. Regarding learning many

users mentioned using the tablet, but other

computing devices were used more frequently.

4.7 Group Discussions

As a source of triangulation, focus group

discussions were also carried out to collect

additional data from three groups of learners.

The discussions proved very informative and

confirmed many of the findings revealed so

far. They also brought in some clarification,

deeper insights and additional details to some

of the previous findings:

The first group, comprising IT students, was

initially very apprehensive of the quality and

performance of the tablets. Some common

comments included:

“We do not use it at all; the small screen

freezes too often”

“The battery lasts only for a few minutes after

long hours of charging”

“They are very slow and the touch screen

sensitivity is very poor”

“They are no good for programming, being

incompatible with all programming software”

“We use mostly our PCs or laptops”

However, the participants expressed high

beliefs in the use of technology including

tablets for learning purposes. They purported

that better quality tablets like iPads would

certainly make a difference.

When more in-depth information was sought

from the learners, they finally confessed that

tablets are very convenient for revision

purposes and to access the course materials

especially when “on the go”. All reading

materials in PDF formats were most welcome

for this endeavour. However, further

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Communication Learning Internet search Entertainment

Any computing device

Tablet only


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discussions revealed that they would have

preferred an interactive content to plain text,

with pop-up windows, graphics, 3D

animations and short video clips. Most of the

students expressed their preference for

Facebook as a one-stop-shop, where they

coordinated all their activities, like listening to

music, chatting and communicating with peers

about the course requirements. Facebook was

more commonly used than the University’s

official online platform Moodle for all

communication purposes.

The second group comprising MBA and BSc

Management students were not regular users of

OU tablets, pointing once again to the poor

quality of the tablets, especially their short

battery life and low processing power. Where

available they used mostly the provided

printed learning materials. They did

acknowledge though that tablets did come in

useful/handy to access the learning materials

while they were travelling by bus, saving them

the pain of carrying the numerous textbooks.

They voiced their preference for PCs/laptops

when doing and submitting assignments. One

interviewee explained how tablets can be

practical in cases of power cuts at night, when

printed materials cannot be used. When

questioned about the ease of using tablets,

discussants expressed the wish to be provided

with printed instructional manuals on how to

use the device especially for those who could

not even get started with it. When prompted

about the use of technology during tutorials,

they confirmed that many learners brought

their own laptop or tablet.

The third group comprised students doing their

Masters in International and Comparative

education. Most of their comments and

suggestions were practically along the same

line as the other two groups. They were eager

to maximize on the potentiality of technology

to improve their learning. However, they were

often put off by the technical limitations of the

tablet which some found only useful for

accessing learning content while travelling.

In a nutshell, the group discussions confirmed

that technology is a familiar tool and well

poised to become a revolutionary factor in our

fast evolving digital learning society. While

learners are enthusiastic about the integration

of ICT in their learning journey, they are

neither prepared to trade quality and

performance for cheap equipment nor willing

to accept poor instructionally designed

learning content and plain digitized text. The

outcome of the group discussions thus

corroborate to a large extent with the findings

revealed by the questionnaires.

5.0 CONCLUSIONS

The prime finding of this study rests with the

positive perception that ODL learners hold

about the pedagogical worth of technology,

including tablets, in facilitating the learning

process [23]. This belief is possibly related to

the already high usage of technology in the

learner’s daily life, including office work. A

relatively significant percentage of learners

make moderate or frequent use of tablets for

learning purposes, including download of

supplementary learning materials from the

Internet and doing assignments. The

frequency of use would probably have been

higher if the different obstacles to the effective

use of tablets could have been resolved.

Frequent technical breakdowns, short battery

life, lack of tablet printing facilities and small

screen size were among the greatest culprits

pinpointed by the respondents.

Following various analyses, it was found that

responses in general were not gender biased,

be it for various computer-based activities,

beliefs and attitudes towards technology as a

learning tool or extent of use of tablets, where

both sexes expressed more or less similar

opinions. Students also voiced for better tablet

quality which would certainly have cost

repercussions; but cost which can be offset by

the ultimate learning gain. Of the many


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attributes of tablets, respondents highlighted

the “on the move” factor that probably matches

most the flexibility mode of ODL. Because of

the nature of their busyness, learners enjoyed

the possibility to access their learning content

on a single, handy, light tool [8] anywhere and

anytime. This preference for the tablet would

certainly gather more adherents, if only

functionalities like durability, reliability and

processing power could be reviewed for these

devices. The overarching truth of this research

is that ODL learners in Mauritius are well

poised to embrace technology and more

precisely powerful tablets in their learning.

6.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

The findings of this research paper should help

fuel the debate on the distribution of free

tablets to learners. Once again, we see

technology coming a long way to transform the

learning environment. However, we are

certainly still far from maximising on the

affordances of technology to advance the

learning agenda. As Kaganer et al. [24] rightly

suggests, success with mobile-learning

initiatives requires a close fit between course

design and the mobile functionality being

offered so that the benefits of multimedia can

transform learning content into formats which

will make them easier to understand, assimilate

and process. Mobile learning initiatives should

be viewed as long term; expected benefits may

not come quickly, and management must guide

and support learners through the process of

evolving their practices. This research study

confirms this statement which compels us to

depart from the illusion that technology

provision automatically leads to knowledge

acquisition.

On one hand learners are asking for better

quality and hence more expensive tablets,

while on the other hand there is a need to

provide tablets to a maximum number of

learners, which might imply lower quality

tablets. Should we provide more students with

tablets of inferior quality or less students but

with tablets of superior quality? Striking the

right balance is not an easy game. ODL

learners are willing to embrace mobile learning

technologies in their learning, be it

smartphones or tablets; however, they do not

want to be put off by the poor features of low

quality tablets. The focus group discussions

revealed that those who had better quality

tablets demonstrated higher frequency usage of

the device. It is therefore imperative that

proper technical specifications of tablets are

spelt out by the IT department before

purchases are done.

The critics can be many, and rightfully

justified but the good side of the coin indicates

that a journey in technology integration has

been undertaken and now it is important to

map the route properly to ensure we come

close enough to those same learning outcomes

that initially triggered the implementation of

these technology-based projects. Policy

makers and educationalists must combine

efforts and capital to forge the ideal learning

conditions for an emerging digital learning

society.


ISBN: 978-1-941968-14-7 ©2015 SDIWC 45

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Assessing Tablets’ Adoption by ODL Learners: A Mauritian Case Study

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