Students’ experiences and engagement with SMS for learning in Higher Education

Abstract

This article presents an evaluation of students’ experiences and engagement with Short Message Service (SMS) (text) messages. SMS was used to support learning through engaging students in formative assessment objective questions with feedback, as well as SMS‐based collaborative learning tasks. The rationale was derived from a perceived benefit of amalgamating an all pervasive technology with established pedagogic techniques. Students’ experiences and engagement were investigated through qualitative and quantitative data. Findings showed experiences and engagement to be mixed, the quantitative data differing somewhat from the qualitative. Positive experiences were reported for administrative communications, learning support (in the quantitative data) and suggested uses for student to tutor texts. Negative factors in students’ experiences were: intrusion into personal time; the culture of immediacy in texting; costs; and lack of perceived pedagogic benefit. Implications for the use of SMS for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and for the future of such approaches in making learning mobile are discussed.

Keywords:

• SMS
• text messages
• mobile learning
• blended learning

Notes

1. Quotes from this data are marked (FT), if taken from the free text entry data from the questionnaires, and (FG) when taken from focus groups. Quotes from the data are presented verbatim throughout. Space only allows for one quote to illustrate each theme.