A Case Study on Utilizing a Mobile Application to Teach Malaysian Governance to International Students

Malaysian Studies is a compulsory course for international undergraduate students in Malaysia. The subject comprises Malaysian history, its governance and administration system. Due to different sociocultural backgrounds and histories, most, if not all, international students, struggled with this subject. This research project aims to create, implement and evaluate a mobile application (app) as a catalyst for mobile learning (m-learning) for one particular topic of the Malaysian Studies course. The increased use of technology in learning environments has changed instructional approaches by making it more accessible and essentially, more student-centered. Using a design-based research approach, the mobile app is aimed to guide students to write their own notes to assist in deeper understanding of the subject. The mobile app was also reviewed by users to gauge its effectiveness and ease of use. Findings from the tests showed the potential to structure the students’ learning from the topic. From the research, there are a few improvements and suggestions that could be implemented for similar future studies and projects.