The Mediating Role of Technological Innovation and Personal Development in M-Learning: The Egyptian Higher Education Sector

 Revolution in mobile technologies and the widespread access to mobile devices can lead to a paradigm shift in education. Mobile Learning (ML) is considered the upcoming trend of education, taking advantage of those mobile technologies and the opportunity to learn regardless of time and place. It is within this context that ML can and should contribute to the quality of education because of the rich communication and interaction environment it provides. Thus, schools and universities have started to realize their potential for solving the educational service problems. This is particularly highlighted in developing countries with very high population such as Egypt. Despite the clear attempts of the Egyptian higher education (HE) sector to utilize business in the learning process, yet it still suffers from declining quality of education; especially due to the overcrowded classrooms, and poor communication. Accordingly, this paper seeks to investigate ML adoption and utilization in the Egyptian HE sector. The current study focuses on exploring students’ acceptance in both; public and private universities. The study achieves its aim through answering the following questions:

How do Egyptian HE students view ML adoption in universities?
What are the main factors that affect ML adoption and utilization in the Egyptian HE?

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was extended, developed and tested with TAM constructs; namely Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived usefulness, Mobility and Compatibility. Two other main constructs were added, which are Economic and Social factors; as they are viewed to currently affecting ML sector in Egypt. Technological innovation and personal development were proposed as mediators  for  the relationship between the research variables and the ML performance.
Questionnaires were designed and randomly distributed over 600 HE students in both public and private sectors, where only 470 valid responses were returned. A comparative study was conducted between public and private universities and the research model was tested twice; once for every sector type. Data was entered and statistically analyzed using SPSS and AMOS to compute the reliability, validity, descriptive statistics and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was also used.
Data analysis brought several findings to light. First, traditional TAM dimensions; Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness are insignificant in the presence of other dimensions in both sectors. A significant effect of Mobility, Compatibility, Economic and Social Factors on the ML performance in both sectors was also found. Comparing the Integrated TAM model in public versus private universities, revealed that the model is able to explain and contribute with higher percentage of ML performance in private universities than in public universities. Technological Innovation and Personal Development were proven to have a full mediation role between Mobility and ML performance in public universities. A partial mediation role was found of both; Technological Innovation and Personal Development between the research variables; Compatibility, Economic factors and Social Factors on ML Performance. Finally, there is a preference towards TAM dimensions and ML performance in private universities than in public ones.