Thinking ahead in mobile learning projects : A survey on risk assessment

Mobile learning is an innovate and dynamic field of multi-disciplinary research and development. This paper presents a study of risk assessment in mobile learning. Interviews, a questionnaire, and several publications are used as means for data collection. This is done to identify risks within mobile learning projects in order to investigate how well these fit a risk assessment model for socio-technical systems. The survey of mobile learning projects show that the project managers are faced with an array of potential risks. The risks are then classified according to a model developed by Lyytinen et al., which is based on the influential Leavitt’s Diamond. The research finds that the model is sufficient to classify the risks experienced by mobile learning projects. It does provide a good starting point and when used it can quickly illustrate how the variables relates to each other. The complexity concerning risk management is important for the mobile learning community, and a model to proceed from might benefit the community greatly.