The Impact of using flipped mobile learning in continuing professional development to develop electronic lecture skills among female university teachers in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Mobile technologies have changed many ways in which entire societies look at and use information. Rapid developments in the field have radically altered how we communicate, collaborate and interact via these technologies and this has had a deep impact on the educational sector, which is expanding almost daily as technologies become increasingly integrated and available to learners and teachers of all ages. Mobile learning (ML) has been increasingly employed both in student learning and in teacher training and flipped learning (FL) has been recognised as an innovative and effective instructional approach that has recently gained prominence. In this era, learning as well as training environments have become more diverse, from traditional classroom environments to the latest online video conferencing applications. Each environment has its advantages and disadvantages, however, and this research examines the potential benefits of delivering mobile learning in a flipped (learner-centred) format. The integration of mobile learning with flipped learning is known as flipped mobile learning (FML) and is an attempt to overcome the disadvantages of each learning method on its own. By combining the advantages of each in a university teachers’ continuing professional development programme (CPD), this research aims to better understand the perceived and actual effects of the FML approach. The study investigates whether FML improves the electronic lecture (e-lecture) skills of university teachers in a leading university in Saudi Arabia, with a view to increasing the use of e-lectures in higher education (HE) institutions in this country. Additionally, this research explores university teachers’ opinions of the concerns, challenges, and affordances of the FML approach to determine whether FML is viable for teaching large numbers of students. It is proposed that FML could make this possible at low cost, thus addressing teacher shortages as well as allowing women to transcend current gender segregation restrictions in Saudi Arabian education. The underpinning theoretical framework for this thesis was based on the concept of Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK), expressed through three groups for FL, ML, and FML. A pragmatic research paradigm and a mixed research approach were employed with a quasi-experimental and multiple interventions approach. Participants were Saudi female university teachers in a range of different academic positions and disciplines. They were each assigned to one of three groups; the first group trained in an FL environment, the second were trained using ML, and the third via FML. This research used multiple methods in order to achieve the aims. Data analysis compared the perceived outcomes of FL, ML, and FML CPD on university teachers’ e-lecture skills through questionnaires before and after the experiment. An evaluation product card was used by the researcher before and after CPD to identify the actual outcomes of FL, ML, and FML CPD on the university teachers’ e-lecture skills. This was followed by semi-structured interviews to record rich data about the university teachers' opinion of FML. Overall, the findings indicate that, first, by looking at the perceived and actual skills of creating e-lectures in general, the findings show there are improvements from pre- to post-measures in favour of the group trained via FML but these differences were not significant. Second, with regard to the three main perceived and actual skills of creating e-lectures, the findings show that there are statistically significant differences in favour of the group trained via FML. Third, with regard to each perceived and actual sub-skill of creating e-lectures, there are statistically significant differences in some sub-skills in favour of the group trained via FML; however, the remaining sub-skills showed statistically significant differences in favour of the groups trained via FL and ML. The qualitative analysis illustrates the teachers’ opinions about FML, which were positive. Data on the benefits and difficulties of applying FML were gathered. The findings presented in this dissertation contribute to our current knowledge of FML and its potential to deliver low cost, effective teacher training which can be implemented easily and with readily available devices. The study also contributes to our knowledge of university lecturer training and, since teacher training is associated with student quality, effective training via FML could lead to obtaining a higher quality for student learning within higher education institutions. The findings could aid in making recommendations to policymakers in higher education in KSA and may contribute new data to the growing body of research on the effects of ML and FL on individual performance.

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ORCID for Christian Bokhove: orcid.org/0000-0002-4860-8723

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