Construct a Mobile Device Enabled Ubiquitous E-learning Environment in Cloud
Wei-Ting Yeh
Department of Computer Science
Tunghai University
Taichung, 40704, Taiwan
waiting1984@gmail.com
Chao-Tung Yang*
Department of Computer Science
Tunghai University
Taichung, 40704, Taiwan
*Corresponding author
ctyang@thu.edu.tw
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we propose how to provide the
ubiquitous e-learning capability from an e-learning
cloud. By utilizing a smart mobile application
combined with the Quick Response Code mechanism,
we can offer the education provider, students and
participant the ability to offer and obtain information
or knowledge more quickly and easily in many e-
learning application environment including schools,
museums and exhibitions. We also expand our
proposed e-learning cloud model to include the
ubiquitous e-learning element that helps building the
whole ubiquitous education cloud service environment.
Also, we will demonstrate how to construct a complete
e-learning cloud which contains the essential
components for deployment stage and provide an
example of the experimental application to further
analyze its pros and cons against the conventional
method. This architecture contains a private cloud on
local hardware resources and a SaaS services that is
powered by the external large-scale cloud services
provider like Google. After reading the full papers, you
will learn how to establish a fully functional e-learning
cloud with low cost and low technical barriers.
KEYWORDS
E-learning, M-learning, Cloud computing, Context-
aware, Ubiquitous
1 INTRODUCTION
Right now e-learning and cloud computing play a
significant role in the education field with plenty
open-source software that provides convenient and
easy ways to connect to popular public cloud
services (such as Google, Youtube, Facebook.)
The advancement of network environment
combines with development resources greatly
reduced difficulty to create personalize cloud e-
learning systems, which allow many education
providers and organizations participate at a lower
cost and technical barriers.
Furthermore, the improvement and popularization
of smart devices bring more convenient and
restriction free form of e-learning, which we call
the ubiquitous learning. The main goal of this
thesis is therefore how to create an application
with ubiquitous learning environment for smart
devices.
The first half of the thesis describes how to insert
the M-learning capability into the existing E-
learning Cloud Model to create a Ubiquitous
Education Cloud Model. The after half then deals
with the application of set Model with an example
design of an exhibition navigation system.
2 BACKGROUND REVIEW
E-Learning
Nowadays E-learning has become an indivisible
part of education due to the trend of utilizing the
newer information technology. E-learning is the
computer and network-enabled transfer of skills
and knowledge. E-learning applications and
processes include Web-based learning, computer-
based learning, virtual education opportunities and
digital collaboration. Content is delivered via the
Internet, intranet/extranet, any media-container
with audio or video, like satellite TV and CD-
ROM etc. It can be self-paced or instructor-led
and includes media in the form of text, image,
animation, streaming video and audio. [1]
Cloud Computing
According to USA NIST's definition, Cloud
computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous,
convenient, on-demand network access to a shared
ISBN: 978-0-9891305-4-7 ©2014 SDIWC 114