Learning with smartphones: a Hong Kong experience

The study provides an overview of smartphone use for academic learning in higher education. The research was conducted on undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in Library and Information Science (LIS) study program at the University of Hong Kong. The research method is survey and an online questionnaire was used to collect data. The study findings show that LIS students commonly use smartphones for communication, socializing, entertainment, casual reading and other daily needs. They use smartphones for academic learning as well. Most frequent learning activities with smartphones are browsing and reading relevant materials on websites, watching videos, searching for information, using productivity tools, and communicating with classmates. Major barriers to using a smartphone for academic learning are the smartphone’s small screen, websites not formatted for smartphones and long loading time.