The Determinants of Mobile Learning Acceptance By Chinese Postgraduate Students at Manchester Institute Of Education

Since the COVID-19 epidemic, m-learning has gained a significant degree of development in mainland China. The great potential of m-learning in enabling learners to learn anytime and anywhere, has attracted the attention of academics and governments. University students use mobile devices for mobile learning almost every day, and m-learning has gradually become an important way for students to expand their knowledge. Students have strong autonomy when they are engaged in m-learning, so their acceptance of m-learning will have an important impact on the effectiveness of m-learning. Taking this as a starting point, this study constructed a model containing five variables using the UTAUT model and conducted an empirical test to determine the factors affecting the acceptance of m-learning among postgraduate students from mainland China who study education-related majors in the United Kingdom. This study also examined the mediated effect of perceived satisfaction. Data was collected from 120 students enrolled in the institution of Education at the University of Manchester. The data was analyzed by SPSS 27 and AMOS 26. The result shown that perceived playfulness (β=0.442) and performance expectancy (β=0.353) had a significant positive influence on the acceptance of m-learning, while social influence and facilitating condition did not impact behavioral intention. This paper innovatively introduced perceived satisfaction as a mediating variable into the UTAUT model, and after data analysis, it was found that perceived satisfaction had a mediated effect on the influence of perceived playfulness and performance expectancy on behavioral intention.

This study validates and extends the UTAUT model on the basis of the previous studies and tests the applicability of the model for research in East Asia. The researcher also incorporates the problems that emerged during this study to provide suggestions for subsequent researchers.