A System Architecture for a Context-aware Blended Mobile Learning

Journal of Computing and Information Technology - CIT 17, 2009, 2, 165–175doi:10.2498/cit.1001187

165

A System Architecture for aContext-aware Blended MobileLearning Environment

Ivica Boticki1, Natasa Hoic-Bozic2 and Ivan Budiscak1

1Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Croatia2 Department of Informatics, University of Rijeka, Croatia

Mobility offers new possibilities for interaction andcommunication in education. Pervasive nature of mobiledevices makes learning on the move and across timea reality. Their characteristics fit into the blended useof technology in education since they posses socializingpowers, re-conceptualize learning by making it moreinformal, ambient, collaborative and personal. Nev-ertheless, the problem of creation and coordination ofa learning environment based on mobile devices stillexists. This article presents a system called MILE and itsextensible context-aware architecture which supports theuse of mobile devices in blended learning environments.In the end, some experience and lessons learned duringthe development of the system are described.

Keywords: mobile learning, architectures for educationaltechnology systems, interactive learning environments,context-aware learning

1. Introduction

In addition to being less formal and lifelong,learning in the new era shifts from theoreticalto practical and integrated, from rememberingfacts to understanding and being critically awareand from face-to-face to distance and e-learning[14]. The information technology, therefore,has to be used to facilitate learning and it should,according to the blended learning paradigm, beused as just one of many elements facilitatingquality learning [39].

Mobile computing, referred to by some authorsas MoCo [11], is used in business, everydaylife and education. It “describes any technol-ogy that enables people to access information

and which supports them in daily workflows in-dependent of location” [12]. Miniature mobiledevices, ever-rising power and possibilities ofcommunication (e.g. WiFi, 3G etc.) support anarea of human activity that has long been tech-nologically neglected: the life on the move. Inaddition to being used by individuals located outof their living and working environments, mo-bile technology is used by certain professionsin order to acquire contextualized knowledgewhile on the move [17], [12], [2].

In addition to various everyday human activi-ties, mobile devices are said to achieve large-scale impact on learning [31]. They support e-learning bymaking it less dependent of the loca-tion, more contextual and pedagogically moreoriented to the constructivist and situated ap-proaches to learning [20], [27].

In order to support mobile learners in their con-texts the system MILE (Mobile and InteractiveLearning Environment) has been designed. Themain purpose of this system is to support the di-dactic and the discursive approach to learning[17]. Students equipped with mobile devices ofvarious kinds (laptops, tablets, PDAs and mo-bile phones), are connected to the system viafaculty or campuswireless networks. They ben-efit from the central server component whichdistributes learning-related events to the toolsavailable as a client side MILE application.

MILE’s architecture is designed specifically byhaving mobile learners in mind. Users are notoverwhelmed with technological tasks, such asthe configuration of the system, filling in server

166 A System Architecture for a Context-aware Blended Mobile Learning Environment

addresses etc., since the system takes care ofthese in an intelligent way. Furthermore, a corecomponent of the system, context engine, wasbuilt to take into account users’ context andadapt system’s behavior according to it. Toachieve that, context engine utilizes conceptsof subscriptions and contextually triggered ac-tions.

Students using the system benefit from vari-ous tools, called modules, whose main aim isto enhance learning by enticing interaction andcollaboration in a blended approach to learn-ing. Some of the modules are MCollaboration,MNotebook and MWhiteboard and can be usedin everyday classroom to support various edu-cational activities.

The remainder of the paper explains the termsmobile learning and context-awaremobile learn-ing and presents system architecture and ap-plicative modules of the MILE system togetherwith the way they can be used in class to supportlearning activities. In the end, some experienceand lessons learned during the development ofthe system are presented.

2. Mobile Learning

Although many debates on the appropriatenessof use of mobile devices in education are be-ing led, theorists agree on at least one thing:they strongly support “learning anywhere any-time” paradigm [35] long promoted by the e-learning society. Learning on the move attractsresearchers since it has found a way of betterusing an invaluable resource: the time when aperson is mobile [22].

For mobile learning to occur, a person does nothave to actually move while learning. It is suffi-cient that he or she is out of her standard learn-ing environment without access to static learn-ing resources (e.g. libraries, desktop computers,textbooks etc.) [34], [35]. Mobile learning isambient, that is aware of the surroundings inwhich it occurs, personal since mobile devicesare personal belongings and informal because itoccurs whenever and wherever the need exists[34].

Furthermore, mobility could lead to the trans-formation of education towards a more student-

oriented, facilitator-oriented, informal and pro-blem-based [36], [28]. The shift in the educa-tional process is strongly supported by technol-ogy and reflects the competences required bythe today’s global society.

The main idea of the MILE system is to supportmobile learners, both in the didactic and dis-cursive approach to learning, in multiple ped-agogical approaches to learning. Behaviorally,teachers can utilize it to get instant feedbackon the matter presented, while students benefitfrom its didactical capabilities when browsingthrough the learning material in the classroomor on the move.

Some components of the system are createdto support cognitive and socio-constructivisticpedagogical approaches to learning [38].MILE’s tools can be used to construct know-ledge of higher order concepts and to supportsituated approach to learning through collabo-ration on group tasks as well as communities ofpractice.

2.1. Context-aware Mobile Learning

Context-awaremobile applications adapt to theirusers and, in a way, sense their needs [40]. Ap-plications for mobile devices should find theway to appropriately represent complex infor-mation and convey it to their users in an efficientmanner [1].

Context is referred to as the information thatapplications should use to automatically adaptto their users [4], [5], [10]. Some more complexdefinition were given by Day and Abowd [7]:“Context is any information that can be usedto characterize the situation of entities (whethera person, place or object) that are consideredrelevant to the interaction between a user andan application, including the user and the ap-plication themselves” and by Brown [3]: “Con-text are the elements of the user’s environmentwhich the computer knows about”.

The most important contextual information aresaid to be location, environment, identity andtime. Location as a part of context is consid-ered to be the most important since much othercontextual information can be inferred from it.By knowing user’s location, he or she can be au-tomatically related to the environment and other

A System Architecture for a Context-aware Blended Mobile Learning Environment 167

users. In addition to that, the time component ofcontext can help in sorting spatial informationso that it can be seen as a sequence of events[7]. Although location, time and identity repre-sent, according to some authors [4], [5], [10], [7],99% of needed contextual information, sensoryinformation, such as light intensity, noise etc.can also be used to give a more detailed contextrepresentation.

The art of constructing systems which use con-textual information is often called context-awa-reness. Context-awareness should be an impor-tant element of technology-supported learning,especially when mobile learning is considered[5]. Context-awareness does not only make ap-plications more intuitive and user-friendly, itopens up many new possibilitieswhen enhance-ment of classical learning environments is con-cerned. It could be integrated with pedagogi-cal approaches, such as collaborative learning,problem-based learning, situated learning etc.[40].

Context-awareness is a first class concept whenMILE’s architecture is considered. Contex-tual information is used to enhance and facil-itate various educational activities supported bythe system. Following Wang’s definition ofCAML (context aware mobile learning) [40],MILE possesses basic contextual dimensionscalled identity, spatio-temporal and facility di-mension. These form the base for the generationof other, higher-order contextual dimensions.Identity is used to identify users; WiFi-basedlocation-awareness to provide system and userswith location-enhanced services while spatio-temporal dimension and facility dimension areused to fine-tune system’s technical character-istics such as devices’ display orientation andsize.

In order to support collaborative activities, theactivity and community dimensions of context-aware mobile learning are utilized. Studentactivity is being aggregated, primarily to sup-port collaborative activities. Community di-mension is used to support pedagogical activ-ities in which students form ad hoc learninggroups. Community dimension of CAML inthe MILE system can be used to support situ-ated approach to learning (e.g. communities ofpractice).

Context triggered events [40] are used through-out the system to support communication and toprovide a base for the development of new ser-vices. To disseminate events to clients, a spe-cial means of communication called distributedevent protocol has been designed.

3. Related Work

From the technical point of view, there are manyprojects dealing with mobile learning rangingfrom simple ones, utilizing mobile devices withpreinstalled software to support all sorts of learn-ing activities such as learning foreign languagesvia SMS [18] or reading e-books [16] to morecomplex custom made software usually aimedat supporting a specific learning activity suchas museum tours [29], [13], fieldwork [26] ormedicine [12], [37]. There are some quality re-ports summarizing projects and activities in thefield of m-learning [17], [6].

In addition to the hardware and software re-quirements, mobile learning systems can beevaluated by the pedagogical principles theyuse. They can be purely behavioral, cogni-tively oriented or designed to support situatedapproach to learning [22]. Although the rela-tionship between the technical and pedagogicalside cannot be firmly established, it seems thatthe support for the cognitive and situated ap-proaches to mobile learning requires increasedtechnical complexitywhen software is concerned[17].

MILE’s key characteristic is a specifically de-signed system architecture which uses context-awareness and wireless communication to sup-port various mobile learning activities. Thereare some accounts of software using context-awareness, collaboration and virtual environ-ments to support learning. Some of them dis-cuss systems that facilitate educational informa-tion sources [32], others deal with mobile sup-port for problem-based learning [19], discussvirtual learning environments with location-aware services [21], [3] or are focused on campus-wide initiatives [9]. They were used as a startingpoint when the development of MILE’s exten-sible, modular and platform independent archi-tecture was considered.


4. A System Architecture for aContext-aware Mobile BlendedLearning Environment

4.1. MILE — Mobile and InteractiveLearning Environment

Themain effort of the project is to introducemo-bile devices into an everyday educational settingin order to improve interaction and collabora-tion. MILE takes a form of a distributed learn-ing network [15], [17] and uses mobility to sup-port distributed learning activities in a blendedlearning approach. It is used by both studentsand teachers as depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1. MILE system and its main actors.

Mobile learning community believes that mo-bile technologies and software for mobile de-vices should not be appropriated to satisfy theneeds of mobile learners. Instead of that, appli-cations should be built from ground up, in orderto better fit the learners and educational process[15].

Technically speaking,MILE consists of two dis-tinct parts: MILE framework,which can be seenas a common system infrastructure, and applica-tive modules used by learners.

4.2. System Architecture of theMILE System

Based on the requirements stated in the previouschapters, the system architecture was designedin order to provide a solid ground for the de-velopment of various applicative modules formobile learning.

MILE is a distributed and service-oriented [25]system with its most important services being:

• Core services – used to manage contextualinformation and disseminate events to mo-bile users.

• System Services – used to provide servicestomobile clients: ZeroConfigurationService(saves mobile users from gruelling configu-ration tasks), AuthentificationService, IPReg-istrarService (manages activemobile clients)and ContextService (gathers client contex-tual information).

• Module services – services providing spe-cific functionality to the applicative modulesand mobile clients.

For service implementationMicrosoft WindowsCommunication Foundation was used, whichenabled the use of both TCP and HTTP proto-cols for the communication with server services[23].

In addition to its service orientation, MILE hasa layered structure consisting of two distinctparts:

• MILE Framework (left hand side of the Fig-ure 2) which includes desktop, device andserver framework and is used by host appli-cations and the event engine.

Figure 2. MILE framework stack.


• MILE data access layer and business logiclayer (right hand side of the Figure 2) pro-vide common interface to system’s data.

4.3. The Communication Model

The communication model is based on a client-server architecture in which communication oc-curs over a TCP/IP network. Clients consumeservices provided by the server while the serverinitializes communication towards the clientsusing custom-made Distributed Events Proto-col (DEP) (Figure 3).

The communication between a client and theserver is not direct and is managed by theMILE framework. MILE framework consistsof two major parts, the Server Framework andthe Client Framework which is platform spe-cific. This means that a client framework hasto be developed for each platform, such as amobile device (i.e. PocketPC) or a laptop com-puter, separately.

The server uses DEP (Distributed Event Pro-tocol) to the communicate with one or moreclients simultaneously. This is a one-way com-munication in which the server sends informa-tion about system events to its clients. Thesedistributed events are then manifested on theclient side as .NET events [8].

Figure 3. MILE communication model.

4.4. The Server

The Server Framework (Figure 2) plays an im-portant role in achieving system functionalitysince it interprets all information gathered bythe system.

The Server Framework has two main compo-nents: the Event Engine and the Context Engine

and it uses two server services: the SubscriptionService and the Context Service which collectall the information that needs to be contextuallyinterpreted.

4.4.1. The Context Service

The Context Service collects contextual infor-mation from the clients; i.e. client’s current lo-cation, temperature at current location, noiselevel, light intensity etc. One might assumethat a client would need an attached sensor or asimilar device to provide the system with suchsort of information. To avoid that, a supportfor sensors that act as clients, in which a client(sensor) is used only to collect contextual infor-mation from the environment and to transfer itto the server, was developed.

4.4.2. The Subscription Service

The Subscription Service is used by clients tosubmit subscriptions. A subscription consistsof two parts: a context which must be satisfiedand an action that will be preformed if the con-text is satisfied. The term action actually refersto an event sent to the subscribed clients.

4.5. Clients

Basic idea behind the Client Framework is toprovide services to client applications. In addi-tion to that, its important function is the man-ifestation of distributed events as .NET eventson the client side.

Event handling begins in the Message Receivermodule which constantly listens for incomingDEP messages. When a message arrives, it ishanded over to the Event Factory module inorder to extract its event data and event type.The Base Framework resides both on the serverand the client side and contains class types forevent data. Therefore, event data can be sent asserialized objects using DEP messages and bedeserialized on the client side [24]. By knowingevent types, the Event Factory can raise eventsand transfer the event data to client applications.

Besides system events, the Client Frameworkraises environment events, such as the networkconnection status, through theEnvironment Sen-sor.


4.6. Security

The security model is based on the well knownKerberos protocol [30]. To realize the model,the server provides two essential services: theAuthentification and the Ticket service.

Figure 4. Authentification proces in the MILE system.

Figure 4 depicts the authorization process dur-ing the sign in procedure as well as the retrievalof a ticket from the Ticket Service needed to ac-cess other services. As soon as a user initiatessign in procedure, user identificator (e.g. username) is sent to the Authentification Service.If the user exists, the service sends back a ses-sion ticket encrypted his or her password. If theuser has given the right password, client appli-cations will be able to decrypt the session ticket.To identify a client, theKerberos model requiresthat some information in the session ticket staysencrypted, even for the client’s eyes.

When a clientwishes to access a service, it needsto obtain a service ticket from the Ticket Ser-vice. To achieve that, the client sends the serviceidentificator, previously obtained session ticketand an authentificator. The authentificator con-tains client’s identificator for the Ticket Serviceto be compared with the information containedin the session ticket and thus performing clientidentification. If all security requirements aremet, the Ticket Service sends a service ticketback to the client.

By using a service ticket and an authentificator,a client can access the desired services since theservices can perform client identification. Inaddition to that, service ticket contains a ran-domly generated AES key for the symmetricencryption of communication between a clientand a service.

5. MILE Applicative Modules

MILE’s applicative part consists of severalmod-ules for students’ mobile devices and of an ap-plication for teachers – MClassroom (Figure 5)used to control a “virtual classroom”. MClass-room is used as a replacement for a classicalblackboard, for in-class real time student sur-veying, to keep the record of class attendance, asa repository for PowerPoint presentations withthe possibility of their direct launching etc.

Figure 5. MILE’s teacher’s MClassroom application.

MILE offers many different modules (Figure6) that support a learning environment basedon mobile devices, some of the most interestingbeing:

• MCollaboration – used to support collabora-tion.

• MWhiteBoard – an alternative to classicalblackboard available to mobile students andteachers.

• MNotebook – used to deliver PowerPointpresentations to mobile devices.

• MSchedule – customizable scheduler formo-bile devices.

• MSurvey – instant in-classmobile assesmentand surveying

• MAccessibility – accessibility features forusers with special needs.

• MVirtualBoard - notice board available any-time anywhere.

• MGuide - guide to current education-relatedevents.


This chapter examines in detail modules that arethemost important when collaborative approachto learning and blended teaching model are con-cerned. According to the constructivism, learn-ing should be interactive to promote higher-level learning and social presence [20], [27]. Byusing MILE modules students interact onlinewith other students, instructors and the content.

Figure 6. MILE modules.

5.1. Collaboration as an EssentialComponent

MCollaboration module (Figure 7) is primarilyused to support collaboration and interaction.It can be used for online communication (chatcapability for mobile users) and online collab-orative group work (managed groups and userswith file sharing capabilities etc.). Furthermore,it can display a map of a learning environmentand locations of users within it.

In addition to that, MCollaboration is context-aware: by utilizing contextual user informationprovided by the server, it furthermore supportscollaboration. MCollaboration’s virtual mapcan be browsed and zoomed in to get the de-tailed information on colleagues’ whereabouts.In this way, chance encounters and opportuni-ties for collaboration are increased and studentscan easily arrange face to face meetings, thuseliminating the drawbacks of virtual communi-cation.

Figure 7. MCollaboration module.

5.2. Enhanced f2f Component of theBlended Learning Model

Some MILE modules supplement f2f compo-nent of the blended learning model are usedto support active in-class participation and realtime lecture note creation, therefore enhancingstudent-instructor and student-content interac-tion.

Listening to classical lectures has always been achallenge to an average student. Reading slides,listening to a teacher, making notes in a separatenotebook and synchronizing these elements af-ter a lecture require a huge amount of time andconcentration leaving less time for real learning.MILE demonstrates didactic capabilities by dis-seminating mobile version of teachers’ presen-tations to students’ mobile devices. Presenta-tion on student’s mobile device advances itselfin synchronization with teacher’s presentation.These features are enabled by MILE’s context-aware and extensible architecture and presenta key feature in supporting situative learningactivities [40]. Similar to other mobile learn-ing solutions, MILE could be used to supportproblem-based learning [40] [32], communitiesof practice, collaborative [21], explorative andinformal learning [33].By using MNotebook module (Figure 8) stu-dents can tag slide bullets with their own notesat any time during the presentation and savethem on the server or locally on their device.After the lecture, students can access both thepresentation and the notes via the MNotebookmodule.


By using MClassroom application (Figure 9)teachers can access the list of students currentlyin a classroom. After choosing the desired ones,teacher can initiate a distributedwhiteboard ses-sion. Students are able to start drawing on theirmobile devices on the MWhiteboard module.The drawings are then transmitted to the MILEserver and then to the teacher’s MClassroomapplication and displayed to all students in theclassroom (i.e. by using a projector).

Figure 8. MNotebook module.

Figure 9. MWhiteboard module.

5.3. Active Participation with Surveying

Probably one of the most interesting things fora lecturer is to know whether his or her stu-dents are interested in the matter presented and

whether they understand the lecture being held.The lack of understanding and interest can se-riously affect the quality of the lecture and be aserious obstacle in transmitting the knowledgeto students. By utilizing instant surveys, teach-ers can get information on the amount of interestand understanding students have achieved and,if needed, adjust the course and contents of lec-tures. By using MClassroom application (Fig-ure 10) teachers can start a survey, andwatch thevotes being counted in real time. Students arepresented with survey questions on their mobiledevices and are required to give an answer tosurvey questions. Figure 10 displays the resultsof a typical survey question: each bar amountsto the number of students who gave a specificanswer to a teacher’s question.

Figure 10. Survey results displayed on the MClassroomapplication.

6. Experience Gained in Designing aContext-aware Mobile LearningEnvironment

The development of the system started in 2004with first attempts being described in [1]. Sincethen, a considerable effort has been investedin modeling and implementation of its archi-tecture, many problems encountered and muchexperience gained during the process:

• The design of the distributed events protocolrequired synchronization mechanisms to beimplemented since the UDP protocol had tobe utilized for communication.

• Orientation onwireless networks presented aproblem since mobile devices tend to changetheir IP addresses frequently. To systemat-ically track mobile device activity and their


current IP addresses, a variant of the SIPprotocol was used.

• Additional efforts had to be invested intosecuring the system. For that purpose, theKerberos protocol [30] was used. Encryp-tion algorithms had to be carefully selectedso they wouldn’t use too much resources onmobile devices.

• Special care had to be given to the issuesof privacy. Since MILE utilizes location-aware data, special attention was given tothe users’ need for privacy. Users can switchto the private mode and still utilize system’sresources.

• A three-tiered architecture for the data ac-cess had to be utilized to deal with the risingsystem complexity.

• Applicativemodules formobile deviceswereimplemented as self-contained and pluggableto enable their easy installation and de-insta-llation.

• Applicative modules communicate with therest of the system through an object-orientedprogramming interface in order to maximizereusability and establish firm module bound-aries.

• Although the codewas designed to be reusable,special implementation of the client side ap-plicative modules had to be done for eachmobile device platform used, at the sametime preserving their transparent communi-cation.

• A multidisciplinary team had to be gatheredin order to provide a pedagogical perspectiveon one hand and to include deep technolog-ical expertise on the other.

7. Conclusion and Further Work

Mobile learning tries to make learning indepen-dent of the location where it happens. In thatway, learning becomes more personal and lessformal and better adapts to learners. Mobilelearning is ambient as well. That means, itbetter adapts to students and the environment.The art of developing an application that betteradapts to their users is called context-awarenessand should be used as a first class concept whendesigning application for mobile clients.

The paper presented an extensible context-awaresystem in a form of a distributed learning net-work. Its name is MILE and it is primarilyaimed at mobile students and supports classi-cal and virtual learning environments. In addi-tion to the main server component, MILE usesmodules loaded on students’ mobile devices toprovide services to mobile users. They can col-laborate, share notes, participate in whiteboardsessions etc.

The future plans include testing the system inreal classroom settings, to extract informationon user experience. The information will thenbe used to evaluate the system and the blendedapproach used in order to fine-tune system com-ponents. MILE will first be introduced toProgramming paradigms and languages, a pre-graduate course on the third year at the Facultyof Electrical Engineering and Computing. Af-ter that, depending on the user experience, theintroduction to other courses will be considered.

Technically, MILE will be upgraded in severaldirections: new MILE modules will be created;some custom made system components will bereplaced with new, out of the box solutions (e.g.WCF formobile devices); existingmoduleswillbe further tested and technologically and graph-ically enhanced etc.

8. Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our colleagues from theFaculty of Electrical Engineering and Comput-ing in Zagreb, Croatia who participated in thedevelopment of the MILE system: Prof. VedranMornar, Antonio Faletar and Luka Lovosevic.

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Received: December, 2007Revised: July, 2008

Accepted: October, 2008

Contact addresses:

Ivica BotickiDepartment of Applied Computing

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and ComputingUniversity of Zagreb

Unska 310000 Zagreb

Croatiae-mail: [email protected]

Natasa Hoic-BozicDepartment of Informatics

University of RijekaOmladinska 14

51000 RijekaCroatia

e-mail: [email protected]

Ivan BudiscakDepartment of Applied Computing

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and ComputingUniversity of Zagreb

Unska 310000 Zagreb

Croatiae-mail: [email protected]

IVICA BOTICKI received the B.Sc. degree in computing from the Univer-sity of Zagreb, Croatia, in 2004. He has been a research assistant in pro-gramming, algorithms and data structure and programming paradigmsand languages at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing,University of Zagreb since 2004. His main areas of research are infor-mation systems, programming languages, e-learning, blended learningand m-learning.

NATASA HOIC-BOZIC received the B.Sc. degree in mathematics andinformation science from the University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia, in1990, the M. S. degree in computer and information science from theUniversity of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1997, and the Ph. D.degree in computing from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering andComputing (FER), University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, in 2002. Sheis currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Informatics,University of Rijeka. Her main research interests include adaptive hy-permedia, multimedia systems, and educational technologies, focusingon blended learning approaches.

IVAN BUDISCAK received the B.Sc. degree in computing from the Uni-versity of Zagreb, Croatia, in 2008. Professional interests: informationsystems, distributed systems, computer graphics, mobile devices, m-learning, innovative technological solutions.

A System Architecture for a Context-aware Blended Mobile Learning

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