Investigating the awareness levels of postgraduate students and academics towards mobile learning

The aim of this study is to explore the awareness levels of postgraduate students and academics in the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology towards mobile learning. The research method of the study was designed as a qualitative method. Data collection was carried out interviews method. Semi-structured interview form consisting of 31 questions was used in this research as a data collection tool. Interview questions were arranged to expose the general awareness of the participants towards mobile learning. Maximum variety sampling method was used for selection of the sample. In order to ensure variety, the sample was selected from postgraduate students and academics in the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology whether who has a paper about mobile learning or not. For this reason, interviews were conducted with twenty participants consisting of professor, associated professor, assistant professor, lecturer, research assistant, and postgraduate students. The interview notes were transcribed word by word from records. Then, the data were analyzed using the NVivo software and interpreted. According to the results, it has been determined that participants have high theoretical mobile learning awareness level. In terms of the awareness level towards implementations of mobile learning, the most of the implementations of mobile learning in the literature were mentioned by participants who have a paper about mobile learning. It has been also determined the awareness level towards implementations of mobile learning of participants who do not have any paper about mobile learning was in the theoretical level and was mentioned presumptively. Depends on the findings, it can be said that postgraduate students and academics in the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology have high level awareness towards theoretical foundations of mobile learning; the fact that a mobile learning research has been applied by a participant is a factor to increase awareness towards mobile learning implementations.Keywords: Mobile learning, awareness of mobile learning, mobile technologies.