PAPER 
THE READINESS OF APPLYING M-LEARNING AMONG SAUDI ARABIAN STUDENTS AT HIGHER EDUCATION  

The Readiness of Applying M-Learning among 
Saudi Arabian Students at Higher Education  

http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v9i3.4423 

Sulaiman Almutairy, Trevor Davies, Yota Dimitriadi 
University of Reading, United Kingdom 

 
 
 

Abstract—This paper presents study investigating  the ex-
tent to which Saudi students understand and are familiar 
with mobile learning. It investigates students’ use of 
handheld devices and considers the daily activities for which 
they could be used while also evaluating m-learning in Saudi 
Arabia - a topic that has not yet received adequate attention 
from researchers. Initial data was acquired through a ques-
tionnaire carried out among 131 Saudi students at UK uni-
versities in July 2013. The study confirmed that students’ 
are confident using mobile devices in their daily lives and 
that they would welcome more opportunities of mobile 
learning. The findings reinforce the fact that higher educa-
tion policy makers in Saudi Arabia need to consider the 
possibility of creating mobile learning environments at 
academic institutions. 

Index Terms—M-learning, mobile technology 

I. INTRODUCTION  
The process of learning and accessing information has 

undergone rapid changes in the past decade. A global 
technology revolution is taking place, resulting in a transi-
tion from desktop computing to widespread use of mobile 
technology. Technology is changing the way people work, 
learn, conduct business, interact with one another and 
access information [1]. The learning process is no longer 
reliant on traditional teaching methods, but has expanded 
to include new technologies and new forms of learning, 
such as mobile learning (m-learning). Mobile technologies 
offer opportunities to deliver new and interesting methods 
of learning, both outside and inside the classroom.  

M-learning involves the ability to acquire information 
anywhere, at any time, using handheld devices such as 
mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). 
M-learning is defined as: 

Any sort of learning that happens when the learner is 
not at a fixed, predetermined location, or learning that 
happens when the learner takes advantage of the learning 
opportunities offered by mobile technologies (p. 6) [2]. 

New figures released in 2014 by the International Tele-
communication Union (ITU) predict that the number of 
mobile-cellular subscriptions will reach 7 billion by the 
end of the year. Thus, by the end of 2014 there will be 
almost 3 billion Internet users, two-thirds of whom will be 
located in the developing world. The ICT Commission 
states that, by the end of 2013, in Saudi Arabia, which is a 
developing country, the number of mobile phone sub-
scribers had almost reached 51 million. The majority of 
these connect to the Internet using a wireless connection, 
or via a 3G or 4G mobile phone network [3], [4].  

II. THE SAUDI ARABIAN CONTEXT 
Saudi Arabia is currently experiencing a comprehensive 

developmental renaissance in various areas of life. The 
government has established an infrastructure that will 
ensure optimal use of information and communications 
technology in education. The average age of Saudi Arabi-
ans is now 25.3 years and the total population is 
29,994,272. The estimated number of graduates from 
public education institutions is 450,000 students, all of 
whom subsequently attempt to secure a place in one of the 
country’s 25 public universities; thereby, creating a de-
mand for places which cannot be met.  

If an m-learning environment were adopted in higher 
education it could address the issue of large numbers of 
students applying to universities, particularly the new 
generation of students born after 1980 and who grew up in 
the digital age, so-called ‘digital natives’ [5].  

In Saudi Arabia, higher education policy makers should 
also consider the possibility of applying an m-learning 
environment in academic institutions.  

III. REVIEW OF M-LEARNING IN SAUDI ARABIA 
It is necessary to establish a clear definition of m-

learning before undertaking a review of the literature 
regarding m-learning in the context of Saudi Arabia. As 
mentioned previously, m-learning can take place anytime, 
anywhere. M-learning is: 
‘the processes of coming to know through conversations 
across multiple contexts amongst people and personal 
interactive technologies’ p.225, [6].  

Many universities and institutions in Saudi Arabia have 
begun to implement facilities to support m-learning. For 
example, King Saud University has launched a new ser-
vice offering users the opportunity to send text messages 
to the mobile phones of individuals or groups of students, 
directly from their PCs. These messages allow faculty 
managers, schools and administrative divisions to deliver 
timely and relevant information to their students [7]. 

 In addition, a study conducted by Al-Fahad [8] con-
cluded that wireless networks effectively facilitate access 
to resources at anytime from anywhere using handheld 
devices. Additionally, he asserted that SMS can be used 
effectively to support and improve student relationships.  

However, m-learning in Saudi Arabia is still in the de-
velopmental stages [9]. The researchers found that over 
75% of Saudi Arabian students surveyed expressed posi-
tive attitudes to m-learning, due to the flexibility of m-
learning methods, and their scope to improve communica-
tion among learners.  

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THE READINESS OF APPLYING M-LEARNING AMONG SAUDI ARABIAN STUDENTS AT HIGHER EDUCATION  

IV. METHODOLOGY 
The research method adopted for a study refers to the 

means through which a researcher intends to gather data. 
A survey based methodology is commonly used to collect 
results obtained from interviews and questionnaires. This 
reflects a specific approach which seeks to establish the 
relationship between variables and influential factors and 
trends. 

This study acquired initial data during two weeks in Ju-
ly 2013, using an online survey comprising 30 questions. 
This data collection phase took place at a UK university 
with 131 Saudi Arabian students. The questionnaire col-
lected information to provide general information regard-
ing Saudi students employment of handheld devices in 
different settings, and to explore Saudi Arabian students’ 
readiness to engage in, and familiarise themselves with, 
m-learning. It also examined and measured the extent of 
Saudi Arabian students’ acceptance of the notion of an m-
learning environment  being formally introduced by high-
er education institutions. The research took the form of a 
descriptive study. The questionnaire was divided into four 
sections namely: (1) demographic data; (2) personal atti-
tudes; (3) definition of m-learning; and (4) opportunities. 
A five point Likert Scale was used to measure the re-
sponses to the main questions, ranging from: strongly 
disagree; disagree; agree; strongly agree and not sure.  

As mentioned previously, there are currently 51 million 
mobile phone subscribers in Saudi Arabia and between 
110,000 and 125,000 male and female Saudi students are 
studying abroad [10]. The majority of these are able to 
connect to the Internet. Thus, a survey is therefore an 
appropriate research tool for such a study.  

V. RESEARCH SAMPLE 
The participants in this research are Saudi Arabian 

higher education students studying in UK universities. 
The sample comprises higher education students of both 
genders, aged 18 to 45 years.  
The quality of a piece of research not only stands or falls 
by the appropriateness of methodology and instrumenta-
tion, but also by the suitability of the sampling strategy 
that has been adopted. (p. 92) [11]. 

The sample was selected randomly, from different insti-
tutions and levels of study, in order to involve a wide 
range of Saudi Arabian higher education students, who 
use handheld devices for learning purposes.  

Table 1 presents the distribution of the study sample 
according to demographic variables. It reveals that out of 
a sample of 131 students, 42 were female and 89 were 
male. It also reveals the age distribution of the sample 
with the majority being in the age group 18-33 years. In 
addition, the majority are educated to either Masters’ or 
PhD level. 

VI. FINDINGS 
This study initially aimed to investigate the extent of 

Saudi students’ understanding of and their readiness to 
use the m-learning environment formally. It investigated 
the students’ habits of use, preferred knowledge of 
handheld devices and the daily activities to which 
handheld devices can contribute.  

Figure 1 reveals that Engineering, Education and 
Health Science are the three disciplines, which are most 

popular among Saudi Arabian students at universities 
around the UK. 

All the Saudi students selected for this study had mo-
bile phones. Of the 131 Saudi students, 130 had access to 
a 3G mobile phone network. Figure 2 shows that the ma-
jority of the Saudi students (119) ‘always’ and ‘usually’ 
carry their mobile phones with them and only 12 students 
only carry their phones with them ‘sometimes’. Based on 
the answers to question 8, 130 students have access to 
resources using 3G mobile phone networks, which means 
that they are able to use their mobile phone as a tool to 
gain knowledge and information online.  

TABLE I.   
THE DESCRIPTION OF DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION OF THE STUDY 

SAMPLE 

 Gender Age Educational level 
Female 42   
Male 89   
18-23  3  
24-28  25  
29-33  49  
34-38  37  
39-44  15  
45+  2  
Bachelor   14 
Masters   57 
PhD   58 
Vocational Training   1 
Professional Train-
ing   1 

Total 131 131 131 

 
Figure 1.  Subject distribution 

 
Figure 2.  How often do you carry your mobile phone? 

If yes, how often do 
  you carry your mobile 

  phone with you?   

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34 http://www.i-jim.org



PAPER 
THE READINESS OF APPLYING M-LEARNING AMONG SAUDI ARABIAN STUDENTS AT HIGHER EDUCATION  

Table II shows that the majority of participants ‘al-
ways’ or ‘usually’ uses mobile phones at home, at the 
workplace, at university and during leisure time. It is clear 
that Saudi students are used to using their mobile phones 
at university.  

The table above illustrates how familiar the Saudi stu-
dents are with using different applications on their mobile 
phones. It shows that students ‘very often’ use different 
mobile applications (such as SMS, email, social networks, 
etc.). This means that the students are accustomed to mo-
bile phones and their applications. This fact is highly 
conducive to m-learning.  
Table IV reveals that more than 87% of the students are 
using mobile phones for Internet browsing ‘very often’ or 
almost ‘always’. This is of note as it shows that students 
are using mobile phones in the same way that they use a 
laptop computer and therefore they have the ability to use 
mobiles instead of a computer to support learning pro-
cesses. 

The information given in Table V indicates that Saudi 
students are willing to accept m-learning as a formal 
method for future study. The majority of the students 
‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ that they like to use mobiles 
phones for learning and are confident about such use. 78% 
of the participants believe that m-learning can provide 
new methods to acquire knowledge. 

The level of understanding of m-learning from the Sau-
di students’ perspective can be deduced from the results 
presented in Table VI. The majority of students agreed, or 
strongly agreed, that mobiles can be used to (1) read lec-
tures from the university website using mobiles; (2) learn-
ing without a teacher; (3) listening to audio lectures; (4) 
reading e-books; (5) just-in-time learning; (6) 
knowledge/thought sharing; (7) learning and communi-
cating at any time and from anywhere; and (8) an exten-
sion of e-learning. 

The majority of the students who were surveyed are in-
terested in owning a new mobile device with advanced 
features if this could improve their learning and perfor-
mance at university. This is an important point, as m-
learning requires the use of advanced mobile devices 
which can assist the learning process. 

Table VII shows that the majority (80%) of students be-
lieves that m-learning will increase the opportunities for 
learning and can save time. It shows that students think 
that m-learning is easy, as it is possible to learn, meet 
needs and interests and  gain feedback from lecturers 
more quickly than through traditional methods. A unique 
feature of m-learning is that learning can occur when the 
learner is not in a fixed location, as can be seen in Table 7 
with rates of use of handheld devices equalling 86%: 
hence m-learning can be used anytime and anywhere. 

TABLE II.   
WHERE DO YOU USE YOUR MOBILE PHONE MOST OFTEN? 

 Always Usually Sometimes Almost Never Never 

Home 87 (66%) 
31 

(24%) 
12 

(9.2 %) 
1 

(0.8 %) 0 

Work 
46 

(35%) 
38 

(29%) 
42 

(32%) 
5 

(4%) 0 

University 49 
(37%) 

38 
(29%) 

34 
(26 %) 

10 
(8%) 

0 

Leisure 56 (43 %) 
31 

(23%) 
36 

(28%) 
8 

(6%) 0 

TABLE III.   
WHERE DO YOU USE YOUR MOBILE PHONE MOST OFTEN? 

 Very 
Often Sometimes 

Almost 
Never Never 

Call 77.1 % 22.1 % 0.8 % 0 
SMS/MMS 37 % 50 % 13 % 0 
Email 63 % 31 % 6 % 0 
Camera 50 % 46 % 4 % 0 
Entertainment 29 % 39 % 32 % 0 
Podcast 38 % 38 % 14 % 0 
Social Network 72 % 21 % 7 % 0 
Weather 40 % 41 % 19 % 0 
Reminder 49 % 35 % 16 % 0 
Translate 45 % 39 % 16 % 0 
Calendar 57% 36% 7% 0 

TABLE IV.   
MOBILE PHONE USE AS AN INTERNET BROWSER 

 
Very 
often Always 

Some-
times 

Almost 
never never 

I use my mobile 
phone for Inter-
net browsing. 

42 
(32%) 

70 
(54%) 

15 
(12%) 

2 
(1%) 

2 
(1%) 

TABLE V.   
ACCEPTANCE OF M-LEARNING 

Statement Positive responses 
I like to use my own mobile phone for my own 
learning. 

97 
(74%) 

I am confident when using my mobile phone for 
learning. 

90 
(69%) 

M-learning will increase the quality of e-learning. 98 (75%) 

M-learning provides me with new methods to learn. 
102 

(78%) 

TABLE VI.   
M-LEARNING FROM THE SAUDI STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVE 

 strongly 
agree agree Not sure disagree 

Strongly 
disagree 

Reading lectures 
from the universi-
ty website 

17 
(13%) 

66 
(51%) 

28 
(21%) 

17 
(12%) 

4 
(2%) 

Learning without 
a teacher 

17 
(13%) 

62 
(47%) 

41 
(32%) 

9 
(7%) 

2 
(1%) 

Listening to audio 
lectures 

32 
(24%) 

76 
(58%) 

20 
(16%) 

3 
(2%) 0 

Reading e-books 33 (26%) 
60 

(46%) 
29 

(22%) 
8 

(6%) 0 

Just-in-time 
learning 

19 
(15%) 

60 
(46%) 

45 
(3%) 

7 
(5%) 0 

Knowledge 
/thought sharing 

36 
(28%) 

70 
(54%) 

19 
(14%) 

6 
(4%) 0 

Learning and 
communicating at 
any time and 
from anywhere 

66 
(50%) 

53 
(41%) 

10 
(8%) 

2 
(1%) 0 

An extension of 
e-learning 

43 
(33%) 

67 
(51%) 

17 
(13%) 

4 
(3%) 0 

 

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PAPER 
THE READINESS OF APPLYING M-LEARNING AMONG SAUDI ARABIAN STUDENTS AT HIGHER EDUCATION  

TABLE VII.   
M-LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES 

Statement Positive responses 

M-learning will bring new opportunities for learning. 105 (80%) 

M-learning can save my time. 103 (79%) 
I find m-learning easy, as it is possible to learn what I 
want. 

96 
(73%) 

M-learning meets my needs and interests. 82 (63%) 
M-learning enables me to get feedback from lecturers 
more quickly than before. 

78 
(60%) 

M-learning is more flexible than traditional learning; it 
can be anytime and anywhere. 

113 
(86%) 

It is possible to achieve personal educational aims 
through m-learning. 

82 
(63%) 

TABLE VIII.   
APPLYING M-LEARNING ENVIRONMENT INSIDE THE CLASSROOM 

 Very 
often Often 

Occa-
sionally Seldom Never 

Accessing resources 50 (38%) 
46 

(35%) 
23 

(18%) 
4 

(3%) 
8 

(6%) 

Taking notes 26 
(20%) 

42 
(32%) 

38 
(29%) 

14 
(11%) 

11 
(8%) 

Translating 72 (56%) 
41 

(32%) 
11 

(9%) 
3 

(3%) 0 

Texting 26 (20%) 
35 

(27%) 
42 

(32%) 
15 

(11%) 
13 

(10%) 
Asking and answering 
questions 

34 
(26%) 

29 
(22%) 

41 
(31%) 

11 
(9%) 

16 
(12%) 

Exchanging ideas and 
information with 
instructors and stu-
dents  

33 
(25%) 

37 
(28%) 

35 
(26%) 

10 
(8%) 

16 
(13%) 

 
Table VIII shows that the notion of applying the m-

learning environment inside the classroom is welcomed 
by Saudi students in higher education. It shows that  a 
majority of students will ‘very often’ or ‘often’ use their 
mobiles to access resources, take notes, translate, text, ask 
and answer questions and exchange ideas and information 
with instructors and other students. As mentioned previ-
ously, the sample selected for this study comprises Saudi 
Arabian higher education students whose first language is 
Arabic and who are studying at UK universities. It is in-
teresting that the percentage using mobile phones for 
translation in the classroom is 88%, which demonstrates 
that Saudi students are already applying m-learning in 
their learning activities.  

VII. CONCLUSION 
This paper has presented the findings of a pilot study 

exploring the possibility of integrating m-learning into 
Saudi Arabian higher education institutions. It has also 
presented m-learning and the unique opportunities it pro-
vides from the perspective of Saudi students. The analysis 
of their responses revealed that the students are ready to 
use mobile phones for their studies. They believe that it is 
possible to achieve personal educational aims through m-
learning and that using mobile phones in the classroom 
would help to expedite their learning. 

The participants pointed out that the use of mobile 
phones inside the classroom has positive outcomes in 
terms of increasing study skills and knowledge acquisi-
tion. Therefore, higher education policy makers should 
consider the possibility of creating an m-learning envi-
ronment at Saudi Arabian academic institutions. 

VIII. FUTURE WORK  
Because of cultural and religious norms there is gender 

segregation in the higher education system in Saudi Ara-
bia. In terms of access to educational systems unequal 
opportunities and challenges are expected to exist between 
male and female students. M-learning may offer opportu-
nities to tackle this problem, providing equal opportunities 
and bridging the gaps between Saudi male and female 
students.    

The future work for this research will focus on wom-
en’s learning environment in Saudi universities. M-
learning can empower Saudi female students to overcome 
social and cultural obstacles and to claim their rights. 

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http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203224342 

AUTHORS 
Sulaiman Almutairy, Trevor Davies, and Yota Di-

mitriadi are with the Institute of Education, University of 
Reading, United Kingdom (e-mail: s.m.s.almutairy@ 
pgr.reading.ac.uk, t.c.davies@reading.ac.uk, y.dimitriadi 
@reading.ac.uk). 

Submitted 28 January 2015. Published as resubmitted by the authors 
18 May 2015. 

36 http://www.i-jim.org


	iJIM – Vol. 9, No. 3, 2015
	The Readiness of Applying M-Learning among Saudi Arabian Students at Higher Education