Understanding Student Satisfaction in a Mobile Learning Environment: The Role of Internal and External Facilitators

Abstract

This paper presents and empirically validates a model of student satisfaction with mobile learning. The proposed model draws on Optimal Stimulation Theory and Learning Approach Theory from the psychology and education literature, respectively, and integrates them with prior findings from the Information Systems user satisfaction domain. The proposed model is empirically validated using a field survey of MBA students participating in a Blackberry mobile learning pilot project at a major Canadian university. The results confirm the theoretical analysis, suggesting that external facilitating factors within a mobile learner‘s environment and internal facilitating factors associated with the mobile learner him/herself influence utilitarian and hedonic antecedents to student satisfaction with mobile learning.