An Interactive Mobile Learning System for Enhancing Learning in Higher Education

Most higher education in South Africa adopt English language as a medium of instruction, which made it difficult for students who speak and write English as a second or third language to cope with the face-to-face lectures. Face-to-face lectures lack persistence and when students fail to understand the lectures during the once off face-to-face sessions, there is no opportunity to playback the lecture. Recording lectures with Opencast Matterhorn and making these available to these students as a supplementary resource to the face-to-face lecture has potential to alleviate this problem. Accessing the Video or Audio of opencast recorded lectures (ORL) on students’ mobile devices anywhere and at any time after face-to-face lecture could enhance student understanding of lectures and improve learning. This paper describes the architecture and design of an Interactive Opencast Mobile learning that enhances learning in higher education

The Growth of m-Learning and the Growth of Mobile Computing: Parallel developments

m-Learning is made possible by the existence and application of mobile hardware and networking technology. By exploring the capabilities of these technologies, it is possible to construct a picture of how different components of m-Learning can be implemented. This paper will explore the major technologies currently in use: portable digital assistants (PDAs), Short Message Service (SMS) messaging via mobile phone, and podcasts via MP3 players

A Mobile Learning Application for Delivering Educational Resources to Mobile Devices

Recording lectures have potential to serve as supplementary material to a conventional face-to-face lecture. One of the challenges of face-to-face lectures is the lack of persistency. In contexts of varied levels of student preparedness for higher education, such as South Africa, the lack of persistent of face-to-face lectures makes it difficult for students who struggle to understand lectures delivered in English which is a second or third language for most students. Recording of lectures provide flexibility on when and where it is played back whereby empowering students to self-pace their learning. This paper argues distribution of lecture resources as podcasts for listening to before and after class may enhance student engagement of lectures and foster interaction between student-student and student-lecturer, and student-content interaction. The use of automated approaches of recording face-to-face session, coupled with the affordances of distribution of audio via the Internet, has potential to enhance student learning and engagement with learning resources. The paper exploits the intersection between mobile devices for playback of audio media and Opencast for automated recording of face-to-face sessions and proposes a mobile framework to expose opencast artifacts to mobile devices

A Model for Scaffolding Traditional Distance Learners in Africa for Constructivic Online Learning

How can we solve the lull in uptake and usage of online learning amongst traditional distance learners in Africa? Several online learning initiatives are taking place in Africa, but a critical assessment of their impact in terms of increasing access to higher education through distance learning indicates, in most cases, lack of value for money. A few distance learners use online learning management systems and other online resources in those institutions. How then do we interest and motivate the majority of traditional distance learners in Africa to adopt and uphold online learning practices? This paper provides a model that can be used to scaffold traditional distance learners in Africa for constructivistic online learning. The framework is built based on experiences derived from a survey of third year Bachelor of Commerce distance learning students at Makerere University who participated in an online learning pilot. The students were,for their very first time, asked to undertake three out of ten modules of an Information Technology course using an online learning mode. This course had previously been tutored using traditional face to face and print based materials methods. The three online modules were tutored using the BlackboardTM Learning Management System. The model is important for managing change from traditional distance learning delivery methodsto online delivery methods and ensuring that distance learners in Africa uphold online learning practices

MAIS(F) : Moodle : Android : interface simplificado para utilização de fóruns

É crescente a utilização dos dispositivos móveis com ecrãs maiores e melhores, mais memória, maiores capacidades multimédia e métodos mais refinados para introduzir dados. Dispositivos que integram comunicações, acesso à internet e diversos tipos de sensores possibilitarão, seguramente, abordagens inovadoras e criativas em atividades pedagógicas, em contraste com as utilizações atuais nos computadores pessoais. A análise das aplicações que atualmente integram os módulos do Moodle nos dispositivos móveis mostra que existe ainda um longo caminho a percorrer. As aplicações existentes têm, quase na sua totalidade, como objetivo adaptar o interface aos dispositivos móveis, o que é apenas o primeiro passo no sentido de aproveitar todas as potencialidades destes dispositivos. É, pois, possível imaginar um futuro próximo, onde as potencialidades dos dispositivos móveis darão origem a aplicações com um enorme potencial de aprendizagem, que advém do facto de os estudantes encontrarem conexões entre as suas vidas e a sua educação, através da realização de atividades em contexto no dispositivo móvel, sempre omnipresente. Com este trabalho de investigação e desenvolvimento pretende-se: a) avaliar o estado da arte do mobile learning, na área dos Learning Management System (LMS); b) refletir sobre as funcionalidades que deve oferecer uma aplicação para dispositivos móveis, com enfoque no sistema operativo Android, que permita a gestão e atualização dos fóruns e ficheiros do Moodle; c) conceber e produzir a referida aplicação, de acordo com as especificações consideradas relevantes; d) avaliar o seu impacto educativo e funcional. É demonstrado neste estudo que o recurso a dispositivos móveis potencia a aprendizagem baseada em LMS (Learning Management System), identificando-se as vantagens da sua utilização. São também apresentadas as funcionalidades da aplicação Mais(f), desenvolvida no âmbito da investigação, a avaliação da mesma pelos participantes no estudo, bem como as perspectivas futuras de utilização da aplicação Mais(f).There is an increasing use of mobile devices with larger and better screens, more memory, larger multimedia capabilities and more refined methods of introducing data. Devices incorporating communications, internet access and various types of sensors, will probably enable innovative and creative approaches in educational activities, in contrasting with current uses of personal computers. An analysis of the applications that currently integrate Moodle modules on mobile devices shows that these still have a long way to go. Existing applications are almost entirely aimed at adapting the interface to mobile devices, which is only the first step to harness the full potential of these devices. It is therefore possible to imagine a near future where the potential of mobile devices will give rise to applications with enormous possibilities for learning, derived from the fact that students find connections between their lives and their education, by conducting activities in context on mobile device, always omnipresent. This research and development work aims to: a) assess the state of the art of mobile learning in the area of Learning Management System (LMS); b) reflect on what features an application for mobile devices should offer, with a focus on Android operating system, which allows for the management and updating of forums and files Moodle; c) design and produce the said application, according to what are considered relevant specifications; d) evaluate its educational and functional impact. This research demonstrates that the use of mobile devices are an added value to enhace the learning-base based on LMS (Learning Management System) by identifying its advantages of using it. Besides that, application´s functionalities Mais(f), participants evaluation and the way ahead of the application Mais(f) are also subjects that are presented in this research