Mobile Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education: A Review

Researchers and practitioners agree on the value of student engagement for positive learning outcomes. With the advancement and proliferation of mobile electronic devices there is potential for such devices to further enhance engagement through the mobility of learners and their learning experiences. The purpose of this review is to synthesize mobile learning research and practices in higher education with a focus on its effects on student engagement. Utilizing a three-mobility level framework, extant literature is organized and analyzed with a goal to identify research trends, gaps and opportunities. Although there is a growing interest to study behavioural, emotional, and cognitive engagement, fewer studies considered cognitive engagement of post-secondary students in mobile learning environments

The Role of Competitiveness in the Cognitive Absorption of Video Games

The holistic experience of IT artifacts can be seen in the immersive interaction of video game players. This interaction has been attributed to a State of Flow with the IT artifact. This state, which often results in users devoting a significant amount of time and effort with the IT, has been captured through the construct of cognitive absorption. In this research in progress paper, we describe how interactions with an IT – in particular with video games – can be perceived as being competitive. Moreover, we aim to investigate the process through which emotional responses to a competitive situation emerge and how they influence the experience of cognitive absorption. Further, we aim to examine the role of personality traits on the video game players’ emotional experience. The findings of this research in progress can ultimately highlight the role of emotions for immersive game-based learning environments

Hedonic and Utilitarian Outcomes of Website Social Presence: The Impacts of Framing and Time Constraints

It is now generally recognized that online shopping has both utilitarian as well as hedonic components. In this research we created and tested a model in which perceived social presence resulted in enjoyment (hedonic component) as mediated by involvement, and alternatively perceived social presence resulted in effectiveness (utilitarian component) as mediated by trust. All paths in the model were confirmed. Involvement was found to have a medium effect on enjoyment and trust had a medium effect on effectiveness. In addition, the impact of whether a task is framed to be utilitarian or hedonic in nature was tested. While questionnaire data revealed no significant differences, eye-tracking data indicated that users spent more time viewing hedonic versus utilitarian zones. Finally, time constraints in website viewing were examined and users in an unlimited time group (versus 5 seconds of viewing time) experienced higher levels of involvement, enjoyment, trust and effectiveness toward the website

Instilling Social Presence through the Web Interface

Electronic commerce is more impersonal, anonymous and automated than traditional person-to-person commerce, and as such, typically lacks human warmth and sociability. This paper explores how human warmth and sociability can be integrated through the Web interface to positively impact consumer attitudes towards online shopping. An empirical study was undertaken to investigate the impact of various levels of socially-rich text and picture design elements on the perception of online social presence and its subsequent effect on antecedents of Website attitude. Higher levels of social presence are shown to positively impact the perceived usefulness, trust and enjoyment of shopping Websites, leading to more favourable consumer attitudes. Implications of these finding for practitioners and future research are outlined

Dualistic Model of Passionate Video Gameplay: Addiction or Flow?

The video game industry is expanding rapidly and video games have become an important part of our society. However, it is still unclear if the increasing amount of time spent on playing video games causes positive or negative consequences. This research-in-progress paper proposes a model, rooted in the Dualistic Model of Passion, to explain why video games can create addiction or non-pathological flow in video game players based on gamers’ type of passion for video gameplay. Moreover, this research aims to explain the environmental and personal factors that define different forms of passion towards video games. The findings of this research will also clarify the role of emotional reactions during video gameplay on gamers’ subjective well-being

The Influence of Product Type on Online Trust

Trust is a critical factor in establishing a successful relationship between consumers and vendors. This paper investigates the impact of the product type being sought on consumers ’ trust within an online environment. An empirical study involving 227 online shoppers was conducted to develop and validate a structural equation model for online trust incorporating the factors of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and enjoyment as representative variables of a consumer’s experience within a company’s Website. Results from this study indicate significant variations in the experience and trust levels of tangible versus intangible product shoppers. 1

Understanding the Role of Social Media in Health Attitude Change among Older Adults

The power of social media to connect people and let them share knowledge and information provides a great opportunity for older adults, arguably more so than for other age groups, to take advantage of this technology to improve their health as they are more susceptible to health related issues and complications. In this work-in-progress research we aim to uncover the factors that make social media health interventions effective for older adults to persuade them to change their health attitudes and the relative importance of each of these factor. Based on the principles of the Health Belief Model and the Elaboration Likelihood Model and unique characteristics of social media, our research model proposes that perceived message credibility, attractiveness, and emotional support are more important determinants of health related perceptions and consequently the intention to engage in a health specific behavior than message quality in older adults compared to other age groups

Understanding Student Attitudes of Mobile Phone Applications and Tools

Mobile phone use has grown dramatically throughout the world. While researchers have explored various facets of use and perceptions across age groups, genders and nationalities, segmentation by utility of mobile phone attributes has received little attention in academic research. Further, understanding how antecedent of attitudes differ by utility-based consumer segments has been underexplored. This research helps to fill these gaps by presenting a holistic view of mobile phone user preferences and perceptions among university students by applying methodologies from the marketing and information systems domains. Conjoint analysis provides insights into how students value various mobile phone applications and tools. Cluster analysis extracts salient and homogenous consumer segments from the conjoint analysis output. Structural equation modelling (SEM) then explores how antecedents to attitude may differ by the elicited consumer segments found through the cluster analysis. Implications of this work for theory and practice are presented

Meaningful Engagement in Gamified Online Quizzes: The Role of Students’ Gaming Orientation

Gamification promises to enhance students’ engagement and learning; however, mixed findings are present in the literature on the value of gamification in non-game contexts. In this research-in-progress paper, a framework for meaningful engagement in gamified systems is adopted to examine the moderating effect of students’ gaming orientation (i.e., achievement, social, and immersionoriented gaming) on the impact of gamification mechanics (e.g., points and leaderboards) on engagement and performance. From the perspective of individual-technology fit theory, we suggest that matching students’ gaming orientation with gaming mechanics may influence the effect of the latter on students’ engagement and performance. Hence, a research model and hypotheses were developed, which will be tested using a quasi-experimental method to examine the moderating effect of gaming orientation on the effectiveness of gamified online quizzes. This study is expected to contribute to the literature by shedding the light on the role of individual differences in gamified systems

Online Video Game Addiction: A Review and an Information Systems Research Agenda

Using IT systems for extensive amounts of time can have negative affects on one’s life. In particular, online video games have received recent attention for their potential addictive nature. While most scholarly works in this domain have been performed by psychologists and psychiatrists, this manuscript posits that there is a great opportunity for information systems researchers to provide a unique contribution in understanding this phenomenon. A selective literature review is conducted to develop an information systems-based framework that maps extant video game research and identifies research gaps