Adaptive learning resources search mechanism

Ubiquitous Learning (U-Learning), as an emerging learning paradigm, makes it possible for learners to carry out the learning activities at any places and at anytime. With the advantages of the devices, learners can obtain a variety of supplementary materials from the internet. In the scope of distance learning, LOR (Learning Object Repository) stands for managing and sharing of learning related materials (known as learning objects). However, some challenges may raise while performing these activities. For instance, a huge amount of learning objects may appear while learners utilize the search service provided by LOR. Learners have to spend time on collecting relevant resources for specific purposes. This situation may discourage the reusability of learning objects especially in a ubiquitous environment. In this paper, based on systematic re-examination of reuse scenarios, an adaptive service, as a resource discovery and search middleware, was proposed to assist learners in obtaining possible objects under ubiquitous environment. The achievement of proposed mechanism can reorganize the search results in order of similarity degree based on the mixed information including the usage history, geographical information and query criteria. It may make resource retrieval more efficient in u-learning environment. As another contribution, the emerging ubiquitous device, Apple iPad/iPod, was utilized to be the major end-user testbed.