Providing Recommendations for Mobile Learning: Opportunities and Challenges from Context

At the interdisciplinary intersection of mobile computing and e-learning, mobile learning is a new paradigm that promises to revolutionize learning by supporting new pedagogical approaches and learning experiences. The unique advantage of mobile learning is to encourage learners to learn in an authentic environment with the help of their mobile devices. In mobile learning systems, recommendation technology can play an important role by providing suitable learning resources to learners according to their interests and preferences. However, the learning needs of learners are dynamically changing as they change their physical location and participate in different activities in the mobile learning environment. Recommendation results cannot reflect actual demands of learners if the learner’s context is ignored. Integrating context into the recommendation process brings along opportunities to better understand the dynamic requirements of learners, but also challenges to constantly improve the existing recommendation mechanism. This chapter aims at providing an overview of these opportunities and challenges. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-489-5.ch013

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