iBus

Perceptions of the rise of mobile learning in a business degree

Abstract

Wireless mobile devices (WMD) introduced in the first year of a tertiary business education programme at a tertiary institute in Auckland gave students the opportunity to experience mobile authentic learning as part of an initiative called iBus. Students were provided course material in an interactive iBook format, encouraged to engage in collaboration through authentic activities and utilised the device’s capability for a range of study related tasks. Their responses to this experience were recorded by anonymous online survey at the end of the semester. Responses were positive with high use rates recorded for students accessing course material (91% used ibooks) and lower yet positive rates (67%) for interactive use of the WMD in class. This paper reports on the initiative to date and the feedback provided by students on its impact upon their learning experience.