Improving Students’ Motivation in Learning ICT Course With the Use of A Mobile Augmented Reality Learning Environment

Studies have shown that many Malaysian non-technical students have low motivation in learning ICT course due to a number of reasons, such as a lack of learning practice and effective learning applications. In view of such a problem, the researchers carried out a quasi-experimental study to examine the impact of a novel mobile augmented reality learning application (MARLA) on students' motivation in learning a topic of a university ICT course. The research was based on the pretest-posttest control group design, and the study sample consisted of 120 non-technical undergraduates majoring in social science, with a mean age of 19.5 years. They were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The dependent variable was students' motivation in learning, and the independent variables were learning method and gender. The experimental group used MARLA on their mobile devices to learn one of the topics of the ICT Competency course, namely Computer System; whereas the control group used a similar application on their desktop computers. The Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) was the research instrument used to measure students' motivation before and after learning sessions, which spanned 6 hours. Utilizing the SPSS (version 21), an analysis of covariance was performed, showing there was a main effect attributed to gender only, with male and female students attaining mean scores of 4.24 and 3.90 respectively for the motivation construct. This finding showed male students were more motivated than their opposite counterparts. In contrast, no such main effect attributed to learning method was observed, as evidenced from the mean scores of 4.08 and 4.07 of the experimental group and control group respectively for the measured construct, suggesting both methods were both equally effective. Additionally, there was an interaction effect between gender and learning method, with male students attaining different levels of motivation based on learning method. Arguably, such a mobile learning tool can be used to help non-technical undergraduates learn with greater motivation, but its success will rely on proper planning and implementation by considering students' demographic background.