Investigating on mobile usage patterns and reasons by university students in the UAE inside classrooms

Nowadays, mobile phones have become a significant part of our lives and is no longer limited to a specific age group. Due to its ease of usage, most age groups own and are capable of using smart phones, mostly for entertainment and social purposes. In educational institutes, universities for instance, mobile learning (also known as e-learning) is growing widely, reducing the usage of traditional paper books. It can be accessed through numerous ways like, mobile phones, tablets or laptops. There has been multiple controversies whether e-learning has a positive impact on education or do some students abuse this equipment by accessing non-educational websites during class time. The aim of this paper is to quantitatively investigate the reasons and patterns of mobile usage (in specific) inside classrooms through a survey done by 167 students, males and females, ranging from freshmen to seniors from different universities across the UAE. The participants were students from the following universities: UAE University, Abu Dhabi University and the American University in Sharjah. The survey questions focused on reasons of mobile usage during class, reaction of instructors, concentration level in class post mobile usage. Mobile devices have a great positive impact on the educational process however, it has another face which includes distraction during class time disrupting the teaching-learning process. A small part of the survey included questions about the illegal use of mobile phones inside educational institutes (included in Appendix). Results have been coinciding with previous research papers. The survey is then concluded by the students' point of view on two options to enhance the e-learning experience.