Trends and research issues of mobile learning studies in physical education: a review of academic journal publications

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to investigate the trends of mobile learning in physical education by reviewing the journal publications from the Scopus database. Several dimensions, including application domains, adopted mobile devices, research methods, research subjects, adopted teaching strategies, research issues, and learning locations are taken into account. The results show that the number of mobile learning papers in physical education has increased year after year, and that the integration of new mobile technologies into physical education activities is becoming much more common. The adoption of mobile devices in physical education and professional training, especially for the development of smartphones and wearable devices, facilitates the abundance of physical education and the growth of social physical education; however, the overall usage of such high-tech devices as wearable technologies is still limited. Most attention has been paid to communities on university campuses, but more focus should be placed on junior and senior high school and elementary school students. Currently, the types of sports involved in mobile learning are comparatively few; most focus on dynamic physical education. The application of mainstream teaching strategies of mobile learning in physical education is also limited. Accordingly, several research issues for mobile technologies in physical education are recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobile technology
• mobile learning
• physical education
• ubiquitous learning
• trend analysis
• literature review

Acknowledgements

This study is supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China under contract numbers MOST-105-2511-S-011 -008 -MY3 and MOST 106-2511-S-011 -005 -MY3.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Qi-Fan Yang is a PhD student at the Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. His research interests include mobile learning and digital game-based learning.

Gwo-Jen Hwang is a chair professor at the Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. His research interests include mobile learning, digital game-based learning, flipped classroom and AI in education.

Han-Yu Sung is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Allied Health Education and Digital Learning, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taiwan. Her research interests include digital game-based learning, mobile learning and learning analytics.

ORCID

Qi-Fan Yang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1791-985X

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China under contract numbers MOST-105-2511-S-011 -008 -MY3 and MOST 106-2511-S-011 -005 -MY3.