Understanding Rural Parents’ Behavioral Intention to Allow Their Children to Use Mobile Learning

Faced with many challenges resulting in learners’ poor performance at the matriculation level, emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is in its infancy in South African’s high schools. However, studies have shown that mobile learning (m-learning) can be used to mitigate the challenges of STEM education. Despite, the benefits of mobile learning to rural STEM learners, its full potential has not been realized because the adoption of m-learning depends on users’ acceptance. Prior studies focused on teachers’ and learners’ acceptance of mobile learning. However, little is known about parents’ acceptance of m-learning, especially in rural areas. This study explores the acceptance of m-learning by parents of rural high school STEM learners. The study proposes the parents’ acceptance of m-learning model, which extends the technology acceptance model by introducing perceived social influence and perceived resources. Stratified random sampling was used to select 200 parents in the survey. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PSL-SEM) was used to analyze data from 129 valid questionnaires. The proposed model explained 41% of the variance in parents’ acceptance of mobile learning. Attitude towards the use was found to be the best predictor and the only factor that have a direct effect on behavioral intention to use mobile learning. However, all other factors have an indirect influence on behavioral intention. The findings revealed that for mobile learning to be successfully implemented in rural areas, resources need to be provided.