ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how University of South Africa (UNISA) harnesses the ubiquity, versatility and availability of mobile phones for student support. It focuses on the experiences of students to develop guidelines for Mobile learning (mlearning) in Open Distance Learning (ODL). UNISA researchers such as M. Makoe, T. H. Brown, Mbati, Letseka and Van Biljon, to name but a few, have conducted research in mlearning, specifically in Southern Africa, and their work is duly acknowledged. Research has shown positive results with the use of mlearning; therefore, the chapter focuses on how ODL students learn with mobile devices. This research was framed within the social, cognitive and teaching presences of the community of inquiry (CoI). CoI was chosen as a theoretical template because it accounts for all the major themes of successful online courses; it is widely used as a framework; and the presences have been confirmed through factor analyses.
