AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY ON THE USE OF KAIZALA APP FOR THE INTERACTIVE AND COLLABORATIVE M-LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AT MEC, OMAN

Introduction:The effective integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in education, not only improved the quality of teaching but also our students were motivated. Today, mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets have become pivotal in our daily life as these devices have changed the method of interaction with others, tasks completion etc. at work. Hence there is a growing interest in the use of mobile devices in education and training all over the world. In this study, an effort has been made by designing lessons for mobile learning (M-learning) using Kaizala Application for the deep, interactive and collaborative learning, and monitoring students’ progress on their learning activities in engineering education at the Middle East College (MEC), Oman. M-Learning and its initiatives in Oman:M-learning is a new strategy which supports learning through continuous access to the learning contents using mobile devices. A report based on the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Oman says that the mobile penetration in Oman has reached 177% (there are more mobile phone subscriptions than the total population). Also, it reports that 92% of the population own a smartphone and there is a widespread use of the latest smartphone devices, and almost 82% of the respondents have intermediate-level skills with mobile technologies. Despite this rapid growth, the use of mobiles in learning is still in the early stage in Oman. A research study conducted in Higher Education(HE) across Oman, reveals that students are keen and ready to adopt M-learning. However, as many educators are not familiar with the potential use of mobile devices in the teaching and learning process, the M-learning strategy is not being used widely in Oman. Hence, with the aim of nurturing the culture of M-learning in Omani HEIs, the author shares his experiences in designing learning materials using Kaizala App for M-learning. Also, this study explores the effectiveness of the use of Kaizala App in M-learning. Kaizala App, Methodology and Results & Findings:Kaizala, which is a mobile application, is a simple and secure messaging and effective work management application specially developed for very large organisations, However, Kaizala’s unique features, such as training and progress tracking, conducting quiz and polls, collaboration between tutor and cohorts, and easy management of students groups through web and mobile devices etc., have made the author to use this application for M-learning for the engineering students studying Engineering Physics, Engineering Science and Intermediate Math modules during the semester fall 2019 at MEC, Oman as a pilot study. Students registered for each of these modules were grouped as control (CG) and experiment (EG) and the M-learning strategy was adopted only for students of EGs. Assessment marks of EG and CG students were statistically analysed and the result reveals that there is a significant increment in the academic progression of students of experiment group. That is Kaizala based M-learning increased the learning in EG by 11.2%, 12.5 %, and 8.2 %, respectively, in Engineering Physics, Engineering Science and Intermediate Math modules. The result of questionnaire analysis reveals that students are willing to adopt M-learning and they have a positive attitude on the use of Kaizala as it supports flexible learning and helps them to interact with learning contents and collaborate with other learners. Further details will be provided in the full paper.