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The potential and use of mobile devices in higher education has been a key issue for educational research and practice since the widespread adoption of these devices. Due to the evolving nature and affordances of mobile technologies, it is an area that requires ongoing investigation. This study aims to identify emerging trends in mobile learning research in higher education in order to provide insights for researchers and educators around research topics and issues for further exploration. This study analysed the research themes, methods, settings, and technologies in mobile learning research in higher education from 2011 to 2015. A total of 233 refereed articles were selected and analysed from peer reviewed journals. The results were compared to three previous literature review-based research studies focused between 2001 and 2010 to identify similarities and differences. Key findings indicated that: (a) mobile learning in higher education is a growing field as evidenced by the increasing variety of research topics, methods, and researchers; (b) the most common research topic continues to be about enabling m-learning applications and systems; and (c) mobile phones continue to be the most widely used devices in mobile learning studies, however, more and more studies work across different devices, rather than focusing on specific devices.
Keywords: mobile learning, research trends, research methods, pedagogical issues, higher education
Introduction
Many higher education institutions are implementing mobile learning to provide flexibility in learning. It is expected that this will continue to be a growing trend with the proliferation of wireless devices and technologies. It is expected that the next generation of mobile learning will be ubiquitous and learners themselves will be more mobile and able to learn using multiple devices (Ally & Prieto-Blázquez, 2014). Although there are a number of interpretations of what is meant by mobile learning, this study makes use of the definition by O'Malley et al. (2005) as "any sort of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed, predetermined location, or learning that happens when the learner takes advantage of the learning opportunities offered by mobile technologies." (p. 7).
Mobile devices tend to drive new research opportunities in mobile learning because of the rate of changes in technologies. In addition to devices, communication technologies have also changed, shifting the focus of research...