There’s an App for That: The Influence of Instructor-Promoted Mobile Apps on Undergraduate Marketing Student Performance

This study examines the impact of mobile textbook applications on exam performance among undergraduate business students. While mobile apps have demonstrated effectiveness in preparing students for language proficiency exams, limited research has explored their role in concept acquisition within content-driven college courses, leaving non-language disciples underexplored. This creates a critical research gap, as most existing studies have focused on language proficiency contexts like TOEFL and IELTS. This research focuses on and investigates how exam scores are influenced when mobile exam preparation apps are actively promoted by instructors in a large undergraduate marketing course. By providing empirical support that instructor-led promotion of a mobile exam preparation app can positively influence student performance in content-intensive courses, this study offers a significant contribution to advancing marketing education. Drawing on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, we propose theoretical expectations that instructor modeling will enhance engagement, and the app’s design will facilitate learning. Findings suggest that when faculty model and encourage the use of these apps, student engagement and performance improve, supporting these theoretical expectations. These results underscore the potential of integrating mobile learning tools into pedagogical strategies to enhance academic outcomes in higher education. For educators, this highlights the practical significance of strategically incorporating and actively promoting mobile learning tools to enhance pedagogical strategies and student success.