Analysis of the essential factors affecting of intention to use of mobile learning applications: A comparison between universities adopters and non-adopters

Although mobile learning systems offer several benefits for students, academic staff and universities, from easily access and learning anywhere and anytime, the use and acceptance of this new technology in Jordan still very low. However, acceptance of mobile learning by students is crucial to the success of mobile learning. The factors that affect the use and user acceptance of mobile learning are still controversial. Thus, this study mainly proposes an integrated model, with the aim of identifying the most influential factors that may encourage or impede students and universities in Jordan in moving towards acceptance and adoption of mobile learning applications. The proposed model was evaluated empirically with 1200 students from both two groups of universities that already used the mobile learning technology and non-adopters universities in Jordan. The model aims to examine the impact of 11 factors on the adoption of mobile learning applications that were categorised based on four fundamental constructs are: (i) technological factors (security, privacy, compatibility, relative advantage and trust), (ii) organizational factors (resistance to change and technology readiness), (iii) cultural factors and (iv) quality factors (quality of system, quality of content and quality of service). The key findings include: (1) resistance to change, security and privacy concerns still limit mobile learning acceptance and adoption in Jordanian universities; (2) some factors like compatibility, technology readiness, and culture were found to have a negative effect on the intention to use of the mobile learning; (3) five factors (relative advantage, trust, quality of system, quality of content and quality of service) were found to have a positive effect on the intention to use of the mobile learning; and (4) our research also found that the effect of these factors differed in universities that already used the mobile learning and non-adopters. Finally, it is expected that the findings of this research can assist university decision makers, mobile learning application providers and the research community in introducing better strategies for encouraging adoption and acceptance of this technology.