Factors Influencing Mobile Phone Use for Accessing Academic Information in Tanzania

Abstract

Despite the well-known adoption of mobile phone, it has shown that the students’ usage in accessing academic information is low. Using the technology acceptance model (TAM), the study investigated the factors which influence students’ use of mobile phone for accessing academic information in higher learning institutions in Tanzania. The study involved 120 undergraduate students at Sokoine University of agriculture. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was employed to analyze data. The findings showed that age, sex, and experience of owning mobile phone significant influenced behavioral intention (BI). Furthermore, the results also found that behaviour intention (BI) significantly predicted actual use of mobile phone (AU) while attitude (AT)) and perceived usefulness (PU) were statistically significant, as predictor of behavioural Intention (BI), and also perceive easy of use (PEOU) and perceive useful significant influenced students’ attitude (AT) toward use of mobile phone. It is recommended that education practitioners when designing the mobile phone system for learning should consider students socio-economic characters and ensure that it is less complex and useful.