www.upm.edu.my Yusmadi Yah Jusoh Dept. of Software Engineering and Information Systems Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Malaysia www.upm.edu.my yusmadi@upm.edu.my

Personalized Context-Aware Mobile Learning Framework   Yusmadi Yah Jusoh, Alla Edein Moustafa Qoussini, Jamilah Din, Masrah Azrifah Azmi Murad, Marzanah A. Jabar, Noraini Che Pa and Ali Yahya Gheni Department of Software Engineering and Information Systems, Faculty of Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

The content Introduction The related work The Methodology Personalized Content-Delivery Mobile Learning Environment Framework (PCDMLE) Expert Review Results Framework Evaluation Conclusion

Introduction Mobile Learning (ML) is a new emerging field nowadays, due to huge development of wireless communication devices such as Palmtops, PDAs, Smart Mobile Phones, etc. Mobile devices are easy to use with low cost relatively, therefore it is very important for us to realize the advantages of such devices in the education process, and we need to find or formulate a method, approach, model, or framework that can be used in designing personalized mobile learning applications to support this new method [l-3]. One of the critical challenges facing mobile learning is personalization which means fitting specific content or presenting information according to an individual learners needs. The capacity to tailor learning content and interactions to match learner abilities and needs that make the use of mobile technologies unique [3-4], which is an important issue to achieve our goals when using mobile learning.

Related work Different learners with different cognitive capabilities, which will affect their academic level and advancement, teachers face the challenge of delivering different learning techniques or materials suitable for all learners’, according to the national center of education statistics (USA) [8], to consider learners’ level when designing a learning management system. Based on the literature on personalization in mobile learning, a framework to achieve content-delivery personalization in mobile learning is constructed. This framework is built on integrating multi-agent design and it includes the most relevant and beneficial agents extracted from the literature such as, student's preferences, student's level [5-7].

Related work Therefore, to answer the research question “What are the relationships between the components of a personalized content-delivery mobile learning system and students’ performance?” two hypothesis were derived for this question as follow: H1: There is a positive relationship between the students’ satisfaction on the student’s preferences agent and the Student performance. H2: There is a positive relationship between the students’ satisfaction on the student’s academic level agent and the Student performance.

Methodology In order to answer the main question of this research “What are the relationships between the components of a personalized content-delivery mobile learning system and students’ performance?”, an extensive literature review was conducted to explore the main personalization aspects in relation to mobile learning environment, then a framework was developed and designed based on the findings of the literature review. An expert review process to verify the framework components followed by an experiment using a prototype developed for the purpose of framework validation; finally data were collected using a survey after six week experiment to collect participants’ evaluation and satisfaction on the framework.

Personalized Content-Delivery Mobile Learning Environment Framework (PCDMLE)

Personalized Content-Delivery Mobile Learning Environment Framework Educational Aspects Component   Educational aspects component consist of two main subcomponent that deals with two important aspects related to delivering personalized learning contents, namely, learner’ academic level (Performance) and learners’ preferences towards the learning materials. Technical Aspects Component  Mobile learning technologies are concerned with device capabilities, network speed and the location of the learning process .

Personalized Content-Delivery Mobile Learning Environment Framework Resources Agent   The resources agent is the core of the PCDMLE framework, since it is its duty to choose and deliver the personalized content to the students’ devices according to the previous aspects. Assessment Component   assessment is one of the key components of any learning system, tow type of assessments are included, automatic assessment (direct assessment), which take place automatically after the student finish one level or one lesson, the other type is a teacher initiated, in which the teacher can choose questions from the question bank to include in a quiz, and post this quiz as a message for all students to answer, enabling the teacher to assess the students and keep track on their advancement.

Personalized Content-Delivery Mobile Learning Environment Framework (PCDMLE) Inputs   Input is one of the key components of any information system, or related systems, in PCDMLE framework inputs are divided into two types of inputs: User inputs, which represent data, gathered from the user himself directly such as user name, password, preferences and responses to certain actions, keeping in mind the minimum input requirements due to the limitation of input units of the mobile device. Sensors inputs, the reasonable number of built-in sensors included in the mobile devices nowadays can provide a beneficial amount of data, such as - just to mention – GPS (Global Positioning System) which can be used to detect the location of the device, gyroscope which can be used to measure the orientation of the device. Outputs Outputs in PCDMLE represent the main objective of this framework, which is the personalized learning content as the main output, as any system wither it is information system or other, the main purpose is to deliver high quality output and PCDMLE is no exception, since the purpose of the framework is to enhance the output quality through personalization which in turn leads to enhance the students’ performance. These outputs could be text, image, audio and video to support the students in there learning process and academic advancement; also it could be reports to the teachers or administrators about the learner’s status and activities. Data Repository In PCDMLE, It is important to store data for the future use, data repository is not only to store data about users; but also it store data regarding the context of the users, and it contain a question bank to store the quiz questions. Moreover, it will contain one of the main items in the learning process which is the learning materials and their properties. Data repository in PCDMLE could contain: 1) Resources database, which is used to store data related to the learning materials with corresponding lessons. 2) Users database, in which the data related to students such as user_name, password, user type (Admin, Teacher and Student), name, id_number .. etc. are stored. 3) Questions’ Bank database, to store the question which will be used during the assessment process.

Expert Review Results This phase aims to collect data from six different experts about the proposed framework, different experts with different background, the assessment and feedback forms were analyzed quantitatively. The results from the expert review feedback collected which represent experts responses on each question, shows that there is (89%) agreement that the framework is complete and comprehensive in general, while all of them said that the framework can achieve its objectives and it is consistent with principle of efficiency and effectiveness. Also, all the experts felt that the framework provide the necessary control and freedom to the users, and they agreed that the framework will support the students’ in enhancing their support and academic enhancement. More over when the experts were asked if the framework deliver personalized learning materials all of them agreed on that. On the other hand, five experts (83%) felt that the framework consistent with real world situations (Applicable), and that the delivered learning materials by the framework will be reliable, also they said that the proposed framework complete. After completing the analysis process, which shows that there is an agreement between the experts on its completeness, suitability and effectiveness, some changes and modification were taken according to the experts’ recommendations (adding and assessment component). And the final framework is finalized.

Framework EVALUATION validate the framework through an experiment to obtain students’ feedback on the prototype to determine the student opinions on the role and value of the delivered personalized learning materials in relation to their academic performance. The validation and evaluation purposes of the framework an experiment was conducted using the prototype developed previously. The total participants in this study were 90 students, from one subject from the general mandatory courses (Basic Computing Skills) in the college level, and they were distributed as shown in table I. Experimental Group Control Group PMLMS E-Learning (Moodle) Traditional 30 Total 90 students

Conclusion The proposed framework has a well IS structure in place and components with appropriate relationships interacting with each other. The framework was also applied in a prototype and implemented in a real environment. From expert review process and questionnaires, the findings showed that it is satisfactory and able to increase the students’ performance. The feedback of the respondents (students) showed that it is very helpful and beneficial to the students.

Thank You Terima kasih