A mobile context-aware framework for managing learning schedules - data analysis from a diary study

We report the results of a diary study to determine whether a diary approach could be used as a successful way of retrieving a) the user's learning contexts, b) which learning contexts are significant for consideration within an m-learning application, and c) which learning materials are appropriate for which learning situation. Analyses of data provided by 32 participants have helped us to establish the applicability of using a learning schedule for retrieving a learner's location and available time contexts. This understanding was required in order to determine the realistic usability and potential deployment of our mobile context-aware learning schedule (mCALS) framework, which uses a learner's schedule (i.e. electronic organizer) to retrieve their location and available time contexts. The purpose of this framework is to suggest appropriate learning materials to students based on the values of the proposed contexts (including learning styles, knowledge level, concentration level and frequency of interruption, at the point of usage). The study suggests that the framework should include verification methods to counter against the possibility of students not adhering precisely to their planned learning schedules. Motivation was established as a crucial learning context which should be incorporated into adaptive mobile learning applications

Empirical Analysis on Factors Impacting Mobile Learning Acceptance in Higher Engineering Education

Owing to technological advancements and decreasing costs of mobile devices and services, there is a significant change in learning environment that demands for mobility. Such change has enabled a new way of learning, that is, mobile learning. The emergence and prevalence of mobile learning helps flexibility in delivering education, meeting learners\u27 needs, and supporting learning activities without confining to physical locations or time. Mobile learning indicates a new opportunity for education system research and development. The acceptance of mobile learning by students is critical to the successful implementation of mobile learning systems. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors that affect students\u27 perceptions of mobile learning. Encouraged by this new trend in learning, this research employs both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to explore the factors that affect students\u27 intention to use mobile devices for learning. Based on the United Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this research formulates the factors, including performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, self-efficacy, ubiquity, self-management of learning, attainment value, service quality, and perceived enjoyment, and testable hypotheses that are critical to answer research questions and fulfill research objectives. In order to quantify these factors and test research hypotheses, a data collection instrument adapted from previous studies is developed and administered. The results indicate that performance expectancy, perceived enjoyment, ubiquity, service quality, attainment value, and self-management of learning are significant predictors of behavioral intention to use mobile learning; facilitating conditions, social influence, effort-expectancy and self-efficacy are found to be insignificant. Additionally, this research examines the differences on intention to use mobile learning across student groups of age, gender, college level, years of using mobile devices, current and planned of mobile device ownership, and prior mobile learning experience via comparison analysis. This research provides university administrators and educators the understandings on the factors that influence student acceptance of mobile learning and the capability to build strategies and policies that incorporate these factors into planning and design phases of mobile learning system implementations

Augmented Reality and Context Awareness for Mobile Learning Systems

Learning is one of the most interactive processes that humans practice. The level of interaction between the instructor and his or her audience has the greatest effect on the output of the learning process. Recent years have witnessed the introduction of e-learning (electronic learning), which was then followed by m-learning (mobile learning). While researchers have studied e-learning and m-learning to devise a framework that can be followed to provide the best possible output of the learning process, m-learning is still being studied in the shadow of e-learning. Such an approach might be valid to a limited extent, since both aims to provide educational material over electronic channels. However, m-learning has more space for user interaction because of the nature of the devices and their capabilities. The objective of this work is to devise a framework that utilises augmented reality and context awareness in m-learning systems to increase their level of interaction and, hence, their usability. The proposed framework was implemented and deployed over an iPhone device. The implementation focused on a specific course. Its material represented the use of augmented reality and the flow of the material utilised context awareness. Furthermore, a software prototype application for smart phones, to assess usability issues of m-learning applications, was designed and implemented. This prototype application was developed using the Java language and the Android software development kit, so that the recommended guidelines of the proposed framework were maintained. A questionnaire survey was conducted at the University, with approximately twenty-four undergraduate computer science students. Twenty-four identical smart phones were used to evaluate the developed prototype, in terms of ease of use, ease of navigating the application content, user satisfaction, attractiveness and learnability. Several validation tests were conducted on the proposed augmented reality m-learning verses m-learning. Generally, the respondents rated m-learning with augmented reality as superior to m-learning alone

Selected High School Science Teachers\u27 Perceptions Regarding Adaptations to Their Instructional Practice Due to the Implimentation of State Required End of Course Exams in a Midsized Central Florida School District

Science teachers have a unique place in education due to their academic discipline and the fact that the public ties teacher accountability to student performance. One major measure of teacher accountability in the State of Florida is the end of course examinations (EOC). The purpose of this study was to examine selected high school Biology teachers’ perceptions about how their instructional practices have been affected by the administering of an EOC in comparison to other high school science teachers who are not required to administer an EOC. The overriding research question for this study was: What are the perceptions of selected high school science teachers whose students are subject to an EOC, as well as those whose students are not subject to an EOC? This qualitative study used a grounded theory, phenomenological approach to first elicit the perceptions of selected science teachers regarding how their instructional practices have been affected by the implementation of an EOC. These perceptions were examined within the context of other science teachers in the same school who were not subject to EOCs. Emergent understandings of these teachers’ perceptions were then used to build a theoretical understanding of the phenomena surrounding their construction. The sites for this research are science departments from high schools in a mid-sized central Florida school district. This research was accomplished by gathering data from preliminary surveys with open-ended responses, then followed up with more in-depth interviews constructed from the initial survey responses. Key findings from this study were the teachers’ need to cope with the pressure of time constraints on their instruction and working within the curriculum map as mandated by the county offices. Additionally, results of this study also indicated that teacher accountability and the pressures it engenders to increase student achievement are more pronounced for those teachers administering EOCs, who subsequently believe student learning is diminished. Importantly, teachers of subjects that include EOCs in this study themselves expressed understandings that these accountability pressures distorted their teaching practices to focus more on less cognitively complex classroom learning activities such as fact-based questions than their non-EOC teacher counterparts, although they knew these approaches to be less effective. Although this phenomenon of the unintended consequences of EOCs has been explored before, this study highlighted it from the vantage of teachers who were aware of its occurrence, but felt powerless to stop it

A mobile context-aware learning schedule framework with Java learning objects

The focus of this thesis is the study of mobile learning, specifically learning in different locations and under various contextual situations, from the perspective of university students. I initially derived and designed a theoretical mobile context-aware learning schedule (mCALS) framework from an extensive literature review. Its objective is to recommend appropriate learning materials to students based on their current locations and circumstances. The framework uses a learning schedule (i.e. electronic-based diary) to inform the location and available time a student has for learning/studying at a particular location. Thereafter, a number of factors are taken into consideration for the recommendation of appropriate learning materials. These are the student’s learning styles, knowledge level, concentration level, frequency of interruption at that location and their available time for learning/studying. In order to determine the potential deployment of the framework as a mobile learning application by intended users, I carried out three types of feasibility studies. First, a pedagogical study was conducted using interviews to explore together with students (a) what their learning requirements were when studying in a mobile environment, (b) whether the framework could potentially be used effectively to support their studies and, (c) using this user-centred understanding, refined user requirements of the framework. Second, a diary study was conducted where I collected data and analysed the usability feasibility of the framework by (a) determining whether students could plan their daily schedule ahead and keep to it, (b) ascertaining which learning contexts were important and, (c) establishing which learning materials were appropriate under which situations. Two validation studies were conducted. The first one was an online experiment utilising Java learning objects. Participants of this study were suggested appropriate learning objects to study with, based on their amount of available time, current motivation level for learning and their proficiency level of Java. The second validation study was an investigation into high-quality Java learning objects available in the public domain. Finally, a technical design of the framework was carried out to determine whether the framework at present could realistically be implemented using current mobile technologies. The data analyses of the feasibility studies show that (a) a learning schedule approach is successful to an extent in obtaining location and available time information to indicate accurate values of these contexts, (b) different learners may require different personalisation strategies when selecting appropriate learning materials for them in mobile environments, and (c) the mCALS framework is particularly well-suited for self-regulated students. I also proposed a set of suggestion rules which can be used to recommend appropriate Java learning materials to students in different contexts. The validation studies show that 1) the proposed suggestion rules are effective in recommending appropriate materials to learners in their situation, in order to enhance their learning experiences, and 2) there are a sufficiently large number of high-quality LOs available in the public domain that can be incorporated for use within my framework. Finally, the development of mCALS has been considered from three perspectives – pedagogical, usability and technical. These perspectives consist of critical components that should be considered when developing and evaluating mobile learning software applications. The results demonstrated that the mCALS framework can potentially be used by students in different locations and situations, and appropriate learning materials can be selected to them, in order to enhance their learning experiences.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Technology enhance learning: A case study of the potentials of mobile technologies in Nigerian College of Education

Technology has proven to be an effective tool and a driving force for developments in the education sector, hence the term “technology enhanced learning” (TEL). Despite the continuous impact of technology in education, the lack of TEL in teacher education institutions in Nigeria has created a technological gap between learners in the teacher training institution (College of Education), and their contemporaries in other higher institutions. The primary goal of College of Education is to train students in various fields of expertise to become teachers. However, if they must function in the imminent digital era as educators, they need to learn with, and learn how to teach with technology. Using the cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), this qualitative study adopted a phenomenological case study methodology, to understand the factors affecting technology integration in Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, and to reveal the potentials of mobile technologies to enhance learning. The findings revealed the need to re-evaluate the structure of teacher education as poor infrastructure, unproductive professional development training on ICT integration in the classroom, lack of emphasis on teaching with technology in the curriculum, and the perception of stakeholders towards technology, has trampled its integration. Although some educators and students have adopted mobile technology and digital platforms to enhance communication, and collaboration within and outside the classroom, the consolidation of such practices within the college to meet their demands, is dependent on the perception and attitude of management towards technology. This is due to lack of knowledge of the possibilities of mobile technology in enhancing learning, and the funding to support its implementation in this institution. Therefore, this calls for a review of the curriculum and the development of new ICT policies in education to incorporate teaching and learning with mobile technology. Measures and actions to foster teacher development and training, as well as the resources to promote the digitalization of teacher education institutions in Nigeria must be ensured