Towards user support in ubiquitous learning systems

Abstract

New technologies enable novel types of learning activities that differ radically from traditional approach of visiting lectures and doing homework assignments. Namely, these technologies support transforming our everyday environments into learning environments. This concept is referred to in the literature as ubiquitous learning. Enriching ubiquitous learning systems with adaptive functionality facilitates personalization of learning activities by adapting them to learners' progress and situation. In this article, we identify needs of four user roles in ubiquitous learning systems, i.e., learner, instructor, developer, and researcher. We analyze the state of the art in ubiquitous learning and find that roles other than learners have not received much attention in the literature. Finally, we propose supporting different needs identified for four user roles by adding meta-level functionality to ubiquitous learning systems. This proposal adds self-introspective capabilities to such systems to serve their users better.