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Design and development of a location-based mobile learning system to facilitate English learning

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Abstract

Rapid technological developments along with the popularity of the Internet and mobile devices in recent years have allowed learners to undertake learning outside the confines of the physical classroom and immerse themselves in actual locations and situations. This has led to a proliferation of research in this field together with the design and development that integrate the use of mobile devices, allowing students to undertake mobile context-aware learning. In this study, 64 Taiwanese tertiary students evaluated a learning system about plants in the English language. This location-based mobile learning system to facilitate English learning was based on mobile context-aware learning and related theories. The analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation model was used for the system development. Analysis of users’ requirements indicated that the majority of subjects preferred teaching materials with text and images presented on web pages on mobile devices, and that the user interface should be simple. Feedback from the evaluation of the system included suggestions to improve the maps, words, and images provided, as well as the sensing range of the global positioning system. In addition, providing forum feedback and an audio guide may be strategies to enhance users’ experience of using the system. After modifications, the final product was a fully functional system for learning about plants in English. Mobile learning is the future developmental trend in the field of education. It is anticipated that the design and development of the proposed system will serve as a reference for other researchers and future developments in mobile learning systems.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by the National Science Council of the Republic of China under Contract Numbers NSC 100-2511-S-009-012 and NSC 101-2511-S-009-010-MY3. The authors would like to thank Sunny S. J. Lin, Chao-Hsiu Chen, and Yih-Lan Liu for their valuable suggestions and all of the reviewers for their useful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Education, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta-Hsueh Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC

    Jerry Chih-Yuan Sun & Kai-Yu Chang

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  1. Jerry Chih-Yuan Sun
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  2. Kai-Yu Chang
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Correspondence to Jerry Chih-Yuan Sun.

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Sun, J.CY., Chang, KY. Design and development of a location-based mobile learning system to facilitate English learning. Univ Access Inf Soc 15, 345–357 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-014-0392-x

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