Use of smartphones by art and design students for accessing library services and learning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore art and design students’ use of smartphones for accessing library services and learning at the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI). Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey involving 51 HKDI students was conducted to examine the students’ utilization of apps and the internet on mobile devices to find information for the purpose of academic learning, social networking, and collaborative learning. Findings – Survey results showed that while the HKDI students were all smartphone owners and active users of such mobile communication devices, only a minority of them “frequently” use these mobile devices for formal learning purposes. They demonstrated a keen preference to use search engines, social communications, and other diverse use of smartphones. Except for research and image/audio-visual needs, the rest of their needs and usage behaviour is similar to mainstream university students. Practical implications – The results suggest opportunities for the libraries to develop services and facilities that could better fulfil students’ information needs, and to improve the network coverage outside the library. Originality/value – This is probably the first study of its kind to explore art and design students’ use of smartphones for learning needs. In particular, the recent capability of smartphones and mobile internet speed are comparable with desktops, it is vital to re-examine the much changed environment and user needs.postprin

Educational Usage of Mobile Devices: Differences Between Postgraduate and Undergraduate Students

The rapid increase of smartphone usage in recent years has provided students the opportunity to participate in mobile learning (m-learning) anywhere, anytime. Academic institutions are also following this trend to launch many m-learning services. This article investigates the differences of the user needs between undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students though an online survey with 140 Library Information Systems (LIS) subjects in a Japanese university in order to provide solid foundations for future m-learning studies. We find that UG and PG students do not show significant differences in adopting m-learning by smartphones despite the fact that they have different learning patterns. The m-learning frequencies of smartphones generally range from weekly to monthly, where using search engines is the most frequent, and reading academic resources is the least frequent. They tend to use these services for handling their daily routines (such as search engine, social networks) rather than their academic activities (such as using online databases to search for academic materials). Further, the results also show that content displaying issues (e.g., small display screen, text unable to enlarge) are barriers for most subjects in using these m-learning services

Educational Usage of Mobile Devices: Differences Between Postgraduate and Undergraduate Students

The rapid increase of smartphone usage in recent years has provided students the opportunity to participate in mobile learning (m-learning) anywhere, anytime. Academic institutions are also following this trend to launch many m-learning services. This article investigates the differences of the user needs between undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students though an online survey with 140 Library Information Systems (LIS) subjects in a Japanese university in order to provide solid foundations for future m-learning studies. We find that UG and PG students do not show significant differences in adopting m-learning by smartphones despite the fact that they have different learning patterns. The m-learning frequencies of smartphones generally range from weekly to monthly, where using search engines is the most frequent, and reading academic resources is the least frequent. They tend to use these services for handling their daily routines (such as search engine, social networks) rather than their academic activities (such as using online databases to search for academic materials). Further, the results also show that content displaying issues (e.g., small display screen, text unable to enlarge) are barriers for most subjects in using these m-learning services.postprin

Educational Use of Smartphone among University Students: A survey of world-ranked universities in Pakistan

The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of smartphones in achieving educational goals. Moreover, this study also explores the required library services that should be accessible via smartphone. A quantitative research approach was adopted and a self-administered questionnaire was distributed among those students who currently using smartphones to answer the survey. Descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the purpose of the students in relation to use their smartphones. The findings indicate that the university students had a positive attitude to use the smartphone for academic purposes on average and across the board. They used the smartphones on the basis of priority to prepare class assignments, searching and reading course-related material, watching online lectures and sharing information with their classmates. They recommended that Information about new arrivals of books, e-journals, library events, e-books, online tutorials, OPAC, and e-databases are preferred services that should be accessible via smartphone. This study provides useful insights for academic institutions to offer the online learning platform supported via smartphone and also helpful for librarians to offer smartphone-based library services to the library patrons

Cummings, Merrill, and Borrelli’s Inquiry into Small Screen Use by Academic Library Users: Timing is Everything

Objective – The authors undertook this study to understand the relatively new phenomenon of handheld computing and the use of small-screen devices among academic library users. They sought to determine if users would be inclined to search the online library catalogue on their devices and, by extension, if there would be a growing demand for small-screen compatible library services. Design – Online and paper surveys were used with both closed and open questions. Respondents included students, faculty, and staff at Washington State University (WSU). Setting – Washington State University Library, Pullman, Washington, United States of America. Subjects – The survey was open to any user of the Washington State University (Pullman) Library. The 206 respondents included 126 (61.2%) undergraduates, 26 (12.6%) graduate or professional students, 32 (15.3%) WSU employees, and 15 (7.3%) faculty members. Methods – A survey was distributed both online and on paper. The online version used Surveymonkey.com and participation was solicited through various social media. It was open for three months during the Spring semester, 2007. The paper version was distributed to all library users on two days in June 2007. Eighty-four online and 122 paper responses were received. Main Results – Most of the respondents (58.4%) who owned a personal digital assistant (PDA) or Web-enabled cell phone (WECP) indicated that they would search the library catalogue on a small-screen device. Responses to the open question “How would you use the OPAC [online public access catalogue] if it was available on a PDA or WECP?” were mixed, both positive and negative. The positive responders noted the possible time savings associated with the availability of more information on their devices. The negative responders noted the cost of data, the annoyance of public phone use, and the complex format of the current catalogue that would not transfer to a small screen. Conclusion – The authors cited the growing usage trends in handheld devices, along with the willingness of current owners to use their devices, to predict an increase in usage of small screen searching. They speculated that further research should investigate how small screens would be used and what would that experience look like, rather than if patrons would use them

Perception Of Students On Mobile Technology Based Library Services

Introduction: Emerging trends in library and information space especially in the academic environment requires remote and boundary less access to library services. Mobile technology has been recognised as the single most embraced technology in the world. Implementing this technological innovation will bring a lot of relief to students in University of Cape Coast and the University community in general. The study attempts to investigate the perception of students of University of Cape Coast on mobile technology-based library service. The pilot study involved six management members from the library and fifteen students comprising ten undergraduate and five postgraduate students

Perception Of Students On Mobile Technology Based Library Services

Introduction: Emerging trends in library and information space especially in the academic environment requires remote and boundary less access to library services. Mobile technology has been recognised as the single most embraced technology in the world. Implementing this technological innovation will bring a lot of relief to students in University of Cape Coast and the University community in general. The study attempts to investigate the perception of students of University of Cape Coast on mobile technology-based library service. The pilot study involved six management members from the library and fifteen students comprising ten undergraduate and five postgraduate students

Awareness and access to mobile applications in an Academic Library

Smartphones and Mobile applications are considered as one of the dominant communication tools in every walk of life whether it is for general or professional communication in education domain. The smartphone of different kinds with powerful features through applications is available in the market; which can also be used in an academic library to promote library activities and services for the benefit of fraternity and research output. To enable such services, mobile applications related to library play a vital role in disseminating information to the users over smartphones. The purpose of this study is to find out the awareness, access, and usage of mobile application among the users of technical institute library using the survey method in National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. From this study, it enumerates that mobile application and its functionality significantly enhance the use of library resources and services more effectively and efficiently

OER in the Mobile Era: Content Repositories’ Features for Mobile Devices and Future Trends

Learning objects and open contents have been named in the Horizon reports from 2004 and 2010 respectively, predicting to have an impact in the short term due to the current trend of offering open content for free on the Web. OER repositories should adapt their features so their contents can be accessed from mobile devices. This paper summarizes recent trends in the creation, publication, discovery, acquisition, access, use and re-use of learning objects on mobile devices based on a literature review on research done from 2007 to 2012. From the content providers side, we present the results obtained from a survey performed on 23 educational repository owners prompting them to an- swer about their current and expected support on mobile devices. From the content user side, we identify features provided by the main OER repositories. Finally, we intro- duce future trends and our next contribution