Research on Mobile Cloud Computing in Teaching and Learning:

A Conceptual Framework
Judy van Biljon and Ronell van der Merwe
University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
vbiljja@unisa.ac.za
vdmerwer@unisa.ac.za

Abstract: Advances in cloud computing technology coupled with increasing volumes of data has driven the growth and
differentiation of cloud-based solutions in teaching and learning. The cloud computing industry has matured over the past
decade and the number of publications steadily rose, to build on the maturity of the field researchers investigating cloud
computing research in the mobile teaching and learning domain need to be cognisant of the state of the art. The objective
of this paper is to analyse the available literature in the field of cloud computing for mobile teaching and learning to
identify the main categories of research, the prevalent methodologies and research gaps, and then integrate the findings in
a conceptual framework representing the current state of the field in terms of research opportunities. A systematic
mapping study on relevant publications in journals and conferences was conducted. Mapping studies are a suitable
method for structuring a research field concerning research questions about contents, methods and trends in the available
publications. A systematic literature review and mapping was used to select 107 articles from a total of 21 822 publications
in five prominent databases, namely ACM, ERIC, IEEE, Google Scholar and Springer. The analysis was done in October 2017
on papers published between 2013 and 2017. The contribution is to classify existing work and suggest future opportunities
based on a systematic mapping of mobile cloud computing (MCC) for teaching and learning research. The analysis provides
an overview of the field in terms of what is researched, how that is researched and where the future research
contributions may lie. The findings are integrated to present a non-prescriptive, conceptual framework on mobile cloud
computing research for teaching and learning. Researchers can use the proposed framework as a point of reference in
starting or aligning their own projects and establishing where future research opportunities exist.

Keywords: mobile, cloud computing, maturity, m-learning, e-learning

1. Background
Research fields mature over time in terms of the kinds of research that are published; therefore, it could be
argued that the changing nature of the published papers can be used as an indicator of how a field is maturing
(Bødker, 2015). Systematic mapping studies are considered a suitable method for structuring a broad research
field in terms of research questions about contents, methods and trends in the available publications
(Wendler, 2012). The cloud computing industry has matured over that past decade and literature surveys have
been done as exemplified in the following: a general overview (Fernando, Loke and Rahayu, 2013); an
overview on issues, challenges and needs (Gao, Gruhn and Roussos, 2013), architectures, challenges, and
applications (Liu et al., 2013) and state of the art and future directions (Rahimi et al., 2014). There has been
surveys on MCC for education (González-Martínez et al., 2015) as well as on security issues and challenges of
MCC (Shahzad and Hussain, 2013) and many case studies on implementing MCC. What is lacking is a
conceptual framework to represent and connect the research topics, methodologies and opportunities in the
teaching and learning domain. The research is guided by the question: How can research opportunities in the
field of cloud computing for mobile teaching and learning be presented?

The objective of this paper is to analyse the available literature in the field of cloud computing for mobile
teaching and learning to propose a conceptual framework that can be used as a benchmark and a point of
departure in further research on MCC and specialisation within the MCC domain. We investigate some
maturity trends like the number of papers and the citation counts, but the contribution is a conceptual
framework and not a maturity model.

2. Research methodology
A systematic literature review comprises a systematic search for, appraisal and synthesis of research evidence
of comprehensive scope with clear inclusion and exclusion criteria (Pickering et al., 2015). Grant and Booth
(2009) propose a topology including 14 types of reviews to provide descriptive insight into the most common
types of reviews and associated methodologies. According to their topology, the critical review is relevant
since our aim is to identify significant terms in the field. We do that by specifying the time and scope
constraints and also seeks to identify gaps in the literature. The latter resonates with the characteristics of

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mapping reviews and therefore the methodology followed can be described as a critical mapping review. In
this study, the synthesis is narrative with tabular accompaniment. Given the interdependence between the
literature review and the findings from the literature review, a clear separation between methodological
description and findings was not always possible. The methodology will now be presented followed by the
main results from the literature review.

2.1 Systematic literature review

The data capturing was done in October 2017. The search string used to extract the publications were as
follows: mobile AND technology AND ‘cloud computing’ AND (teaching OR learning). The date range was: 2013
to 2017 and we selected only journals and conference papers. The databases searches included the ACM, ERIC,
IEEE, Google Scholar and Springer. The database search results were selected according to relevance. Figure 1
presents the selection process. After the removal of those items that were not conference or journal papers,
165 publications remained. The abstracts of the 165 papers were read and the relevant sections were
extracted into an Excel spreadsheet for content analysis. The publications were combined and grouped by
year. During this revision, 58 of the publications were found to be outside the scope of this study and thus
removed. The main topics of the papers removed are indicated below per publication year. This brought the
number of publications analysed with Atlas.ti to 107. The topics of the papers removed included the following:
health care, physical infrastructure, alternative communication, vehicular cloud computing, networks, cultural
heritage and multimedia, vision-based navigation and authentication.

ACM ERIC IEEE GS SP

41 15 36 20, 300 1430

Selection of top 50 publications (based on relevance) if more than 50 items were returned.

41 15 36 50 50

Removal of workshop, summary, tutorials etc. to leave only the conference and journal
papers

165

Content review and removal of 58 publications beyond the scope of this focus on mobile
cloud computing for mobile teaching and learning.

107

Figure 1: Systematic literature selection flow diagram

2.2 Text analysis

The papers were read and content from the dataset of 107 papers were abstracted into the following columns:
title, purpose, theories or models applied, methodology, limitations, findings and future research. The
publications are in different formats and the reporting differs in terms of the level of detail. Therefore, it is not
possible to conclude that the lack of reporting a specific aspect implies omission. For example, when people
refer to ‘literature review’ as a methodology, it is not clear if that implies a systematic literature review.
However, if a literature review is specified as a methodology, we assumed that to be a systematic literature
review. Atlas.ti version 8 was used to do the content analysis. The datasheet containing the information
originally extracted for the 107 papers can be downloaded from goo.gl/DjpWSM.

3. Results and findings

The systematic literature review was used to select the most appropriate publications. The content analysis of
the papers revealed the following: 71% (77) of the 107 papers focused on teaching or learning; the rest
referred to teaching and learning in passing. The 107 papers included 40% (43) applications. The content
analysis to identify the topical domains and the methodologies used will be discussed in the next section.

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3.1 Textual analysis

The content analysis (using Atlas.ti software) was done to identify the research types, prioritise the
methodologies according to frequency of use and detect the areas of future research, as explained below.

3.1.1 Research types

A previous survey identified three main domains (types of research), namely the instructional, architectural
and theoretical (Van der Merwe and Van Biljon, 2018) and we used that to classify the publications. The
publications that did not fit into any of those domains were reread and the following keywords emerged:
usability, augmented reality and internet of things (IOT). Going forward, we added Usability as a domain and
grouped the rest under the domain, Next generation computing. Table 1 contains the references of the papers
that received more than ten citations, due to space limitations we could not include all the papers but the full
table with the references is available from https://tinyurl.com/yd2y85rv .
Table 1: Summary of the findings
Domains References
Instructional (new teaching (Fernando, Loke and Rahayu, 2013), (Ally and Samaka, 2013), (Gibson,
approaches), i.e. how to use the 2013), (Liu et al., 2013), (Despotović-Zrakić et al., 2013), (Herro, Kiger and
cloud to support teaching and Owens, 2014), (El-Sofany et al., 2013), (Wang, Chen and Khan, 2014), 5),
learning in practice (Sun and Shen, 2014), (Meske et al., 2014), (Wang, Chen and Khan, 2014)

Architectural (portability, (Jararweh et al., 2013), (Butoi, Tomai and Mocean, 2013), (García-Peñalvo
interoperability and integration et al., 2014), (Abolfazli et al., 2014), (Wong et al., 2015), (Lane, Georgiev
of teaching resources towards and Qendro, 2015)
building the platform

Theoretical (models, frameworks (Selviandro and Hasibuan, 2013), (Fulantelli et al., 2013), (Bora and
and taxonomies for Ahmed, 2013), (Choi, Park and Jeong, 2013), (Shahzad and Hussain, 2013),
understanding MCC and (Gao, Gruhn and Roussos, 2013), (Macario and Srirama, 2013),
theorising the opportunities, (Kaewpuang et al., 2013), (Zhu et al., 2013), (Ratten, 2013), (Zhang &
challenges, and benefits of using Zhou, 2014), (Rahimi et al., 2014), (Alzahrani, Alalwan and Sarrab, 2014),
the technology) (Park and Joon, 2013), (Cochrane, 2014), (Zu et al., 2015), (Nguyen,
Nguyen and Misra, 2014), (González-Martínez et al., 2015)

3.1.2 Methodologies
Figure 2 shows the most prevalent methodologies based on word frequency counts of the terms
(methodologies) extracted. In some publications, the methodology was simply indicated as qualitative (11
papers) or quantitative (5 papers) but most authors provided a more detailed description. The term
"questionnaire" describes the tool used in surveys, but the term is also used as a synonym for a survey and
therefore the studies reporting survey and questionnaire were combined under survey. Design science
research (DSR) was the most common methodology, followed by surveys, experiments and case studies. The
prevalence of DSR can be explained by the fact that 41% of the studies involved the development of an
application.

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Figure 2: Methodologies rated according to frequency

3.1.3 Research directions

To get an understanding of the future research planned, we investigated the terms (actual words) most
frequently used in discussing future research. Considering the text extracted from the publications on future
research, the word frequencies were computed. After removing the search terms, prepositions and other
common terms the word frequencies were calculated. The results are depicted in figure 3.

3% 3% 3%
3% 3%
9%
4% 9%
4%
8%
4%
7%
4%
7%
4%
4% 6% 6%
5% 6%

devices development students environment application

learners design platform social model
educational users smart test data
analysis implement trust service teachers

Figure 3: Words most frequently used in describing future research

The technology aspect is represented by terms such as devices, development, application, design and
implement is important. This resonates with existing research which identified research on new applications,
services and functions as follows (Van der Merwe and Van Biljon, 2018): new applications, services and
functions to be embedded in the cloud (Anshari, Alas and Guan, 2016), existing services to be improved in terms
of cost (Cheng, Huang and Lin, 2012) and scalability, flexibility and availability of e-learning resources to be
improved (Anwar, Masud and Huang, 2012).

Another focus is the human aspect suggested by terms such as students, learners, users, social and teachers.
The confluence of those aspects lead to the research in Human-Computer interaction and usability. The term
trust resonates with the notions of security and ethics (Meske et al., 2014) but also relates to the social aspects
of MCC and interaction. Therefore the research areas should not be seen as mutually exclusive. More research
is needed on the policies that govern privacy, security and ethics for the users (both learners and educators)
that engage with the content, as well the protection of the intellectual property on the MCC platform (Traxler,

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2010). Terms such as smart, data, analysis could represent the data science focus, previously identified by
(Eynon, 2013; Abaker et al., 2015) and concurs with earlier findings that the role of “big data” and how it can
be utilised in the MCC learning environment to enhance learning (Anshari, Alas and Guan, 2016) is under-
researched. The investigation of new uses of cloud computing enabled by dynamic, interactive knowledge
management and the blending of services and prototypal set-ups developed to evaluate new technologies for
environmentally driven education also warrants attention (Caviglione, Coccoli and Gianuzzi, 2011).

3.1.4 Maturity of the field

The maturity of a research field is generally determined by the volume of the research, the continued growth
and diversification and the impact of the research. Cheon, Sabherwal and Groven (1993) argue that for the
maturity of the field as a whole, a greater diversity of research topics and methods is needed. Publication and
citation analysis can yield significant insights into the history and potential future of a research field (Casey et
al., 2015). In this analysis, we focus on the number of publications during 2013 to 2017 and the citations of
those publications. The number of publications per year (based on keyword selection criteria) showed a
remarkable decline, 2013(34); 2014(33); 2015(21), 2016(15) and 2017(4) as depicted in figure 4. The delay in
capturing publications on databases could explain the low 2017 value, but that still means a downward trend
in the number of papers published in 2015 and 2016. There could be many reasons for the decline; one
thereof is that the field may be maturing so that the later papers are becoming more specialised and were
therefore not picked-up by the set of general keywords used.

Figure 5 depicts the number of citations in the categories above 1000, 500–1000; 200–500;
100–200; 1–100 and zero. From observation, most of the papers have between 1 and 100 citation with very
few highly cited papers and 25 with no citations. Notably 7 of the 10 most cited papers (all those above 130
citations) were surveys describing the state of the art, architectures, challenges, applications and future
directions. The time lapse between the publication of a paper and the citations being registered impacts the
findings. However, the existing volume of publications together with the number of citations suggest that the
field of MCC for teaching and learning is growing and maturing.

Figure 4: Papers published 2013–2017 Figure 5: Frequency of Google Scholar citations

3.1.5 Integration of the findings in a conceptual framework

To present the findings coherently we applied the knowledge mobilisers framework suggested by Ward (2016),
the latter was designed to help knowledge mobilisers reflect on, communicate and evaluate their aims and
objectives towards increasing clarity and understanding across the field (Ward 2016). Acknowledging the
continued growth and diversification in the field, our framework is proposed as a non-prescriptive, point of
departure for verification and further research in the field of mobile cloud computing for teaching and
learning. Our main findings on MCC are integrated and represented as figure 6 under the what, how and
where sections, explained as follows:

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 The most important future research application areas (directions) based on the keyword frequencies
and supported by literature include the technological development of new devices and services, the
social implications for the users, data science (big data, data mining, etc.) and policies including the
ethics and security policies as evident form section 3.1.3. This is useful when deciding WHAT the
project is about.
 The prioritisation of the methodologies used led to the selection of DSR, survey, experiment, case
study, prototype, interviews, literature reviews and action research as explained in section 3.1.2.
Those methodologies are useful in response to the question HOW research could be undertaken.
Although that is not intended to limit the possibilities it is useful to consider what methods have been
used in previous research on related topics.
 The content analysis (section 3.1.1) confirmed the relevance of the types of research (instructional,
architectural and theoretical) previously identified and extended that to include the domains usability
and Next Generation Computing. Those categories should be considered when asking WHERE the
contribution of a research study will be.

An in-depth discussion of the differences between a model and a framework is beyond the scope of this paper
but having departed from Ward’s framework this is considered to be a framework. The domains identified and
the application areas (directions) for future research are distinguished by their contribution to the conceptual
framework. The type of research (domains) emerged from analysing the purpose of the specific research and
their contribution which links closely to the methodology. For example, a person may have the aim of
researching MCC policies on ethics (application area) by doing a literature survey and the contribution will be
theoretical. Another may develop a technologically novel mobile App using design science research that adds
to the body of instructional knowledge.

We acknowledge that the boundaries are not always clear and some research may fall into more than one
application area but that does not detract from the value of thinking about the application area, the
methodology and the type of research when considering a model of the existing research domain as a basis for
future research.

RESEARCH IN MOBILE CLOUD COMPUTING FOR TEACHING OR LEARNING

Policies:
Users security,
ethics

Technology WHAT Data Science

Case Study

Interviews
I want to research [WHAT] Survey Prototype
using [HOW] in contributing
HOW Literature
to [WHERE] Action
Review
Research Experiment

Design Science
Research
WHERE

Architecture Theory Usability

Instructional Next Generation

Figure 4: Conceptual framework proposed as a point of departure in MCC research for teaching and learning.

4. Discussion
The notable decline in the number of papers on mobile cloud computing for teaching and learning could be
due to the maturation and specialisation of the field since 2013. The application areas identified, namely
technology, users and policies resonate with the salient concepts of teaching and learning including the

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systems, the people and the context. Data science is a dynamic application area that may become mainstream
and thus be integrated with the existing areas. Regarding methodologies, design science research (which
includes design based research for the purpose of this analysis) was the most prevalent. This provides evidence
of a critical-realist orientation where the focus is on constructing knowledge artefacts rather than simply
describing. Surveys are a close second in frequency which means that the interpretive orientation towards
understanding is also strong. The evidence of experiments as a methodology (rated third in terms of
frequency) could imply a positivist orientation, but those could also include design and develop projects. The
types of research identified was based on an earlier publication (Van der Merwe and Van Biljon, 2018) but that
is most in need of external verification and validation.

The generalisation of the findings are limited by the constrained data set and the somewhat arbitrary choices
that were necessitated by the external constraints on the selection process. For example, when classifying the
papers according to domains (See Table 1) we could not include all the references (in order to stay within the
allowed word count) and decided to include only those papers with more than 10 citations. However, the
systematic nature and rigorous description of the selection process which includes access to the extended
table 1 (see https://tinyurl.com/yd2y85rv ) and access to the original data set (see
https://tinyurl.com/ydcrp4fn ) makes the study repeatable and the findings verifiable.

5. Conclusion
This paper provided an overview of the mobile cloud computing literature from 2013 to 2017 based on a
systematic selection of 107 publications from the ACM, ERIC, IEEE, Google Scholar and Springer. The analysis
revealed that the number of publications returned in response to the search string declined every year from
2013 to 2017; specialisation was considered the most probable explanation. The citations (based on Google
Scholar) varied with most papers (69%) receiving less than 100 citations and 22% not having been cited at all.
The six most highly cited papers were all literature surveys. Future research remains focused on the broad
topics of technology and users, but trends towards researching policies (concerning ethics, privacy and
security) and data science is emerging.

The relevance of the categories instructional, architectural and theoretical were confirmed and usability and
next generation computing were introduced as new domains where contributions could be made. As evident
from the literature there has been many surveys on MCC. This study has confirmed and extended some of the
earlier findings in terms of research domains and application areas and provide evidence that the field is active
and researchers are building on each other’s work through citations. The novelty and main theoretical
contribution of this study is to integrate the findings and insights in a structured knowledge mobiliser’s
framework for the domain MCC for teaching and learning. Applying Ward’s knowledge mobilisers framework,
we formulate our insights in terms of questions that provide a point of departure in orienting a new project
within the research domain. The practical contribution is that the framework can be used to guide research
projects in the field of mobile cloud computing for teaching and learning in deciding what to research, how to
do that and what types of contributions to consider on condition that the framework is not considered
complete or immutable. . This paper contributes to the important debate on the maturity and future direction
of mobile cloud computing research in education but more research is needed to replicate the study towards
confirming the findings and refining the proposed framework.

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