Context-Sensitive Content Representation for Mobile Learning

Abstract

Mobile learning enables learning content to be displayed anytime, anywhere, and with any kind of presentation device. Learning Content Management Systems (LCMSs) usually provide convenient authoring tools to help instructors construct learning content, which may include static documents such as Power Point, Word, PDFs, etc. Dynamic multimedia documents such as video and audio files can also be managed and created. Static and dynamic files can be integrated to enable users to access rich content. Most LCMSs are designed around desktop computer environments, rather than on mobile-device-driven environments. Context-Sensitivity is an application of software system's ability to sense and analyze context from various sources. Context-Sensitivity enables actions to be taken based on the current context. The action could involve adapting to the new environment, notifying the user, communicating with other another device to exchange information, a change of content, or performing other tasks. Context-Sensitive environments should provide the facilities for application software to define such context-triggered actions so as to transparently invoke them whenever the corresponding contexts are valid. This chapter illustrates how a Context-Sensitive Middleware (CSM) for an LCMS is able to transform the same learning content to different mobile devices, so mobile learning can be supported.