Objective - Mobile learning had widely impacted higher education, providing technology enabled educational opportunities to the mobile-first learners of the millennium, anytime, anywhere. The adoption of mobile technology rapidly increased among higher education institutions of Maldives, changing the psychological perception of distance learners who were located in different atolls of the country.

Methodology/Technique - This paper was developed to explore psychological readiness of institutional distance learning students to adopt mobile learning in Maldives. Using quantitative approach, the research was conducted among the distance learners from three key higher education institutions of Maldives. Contributing to the e- questionnaire, three hundred and forty-three (n=340) students expressed their psychological readiness to adopt mobile learning in Maldives. Data collected using mobile technology was analysed using the analysis summary retrieved from Google forms and SPSS.

Finding - The analysis revealed that majority of the students of Maldives higher education institutions were acquainted and psychologically ready to adopt mobile learning as a convenient mode of delivery.

Novelty - Thereby, it can be said that students were willing to welcome mobile learning enhanced by mobile technology and were psychologically ready to adopt the emerging shift in the paradigm.

Type of Paper - Empirical.

Keywords: Mobile learning, psychological readiness, paradigm shift, higher education institutions, Maldives

JEL Classification: I21, I23

URI: http://gatrenterprise.com/GATRJournals/GJBSSR/vol9.3_4.html

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35609/gjbssr.2021.9.3(4)

Pages 224 – 232