March 2005 — Features
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Developing a Mobile Learning Environment to Support Virtual Education Communities
Shorten the development cycle and increase reliability through the use of reusable components. The MLE will employ component-based development methods while maintaining a consistent and easy-to-use interface. The reusability of components will facilitate the assignment of developers to different areas of the project, improve the reliability of the MLE, and shorten developer training time.
Conclusions
This article presents an MLE to support VLCs in science and mathematics. Although we are in the early stages of this multidisciplinary research project, we have designed and implemented a number of the basic elements of the MLE infrastructure and have an ongoing development effort. Faculty members participating in the VLC project are currently developing new instructional materials for introductory chemistry and mathematics courses which will take advantage of the tools and capabilities of the MLE. These materials will be used in a pilot program that is planned for this fall. The two courses offered will be coordinated around a common set of conceptual themes, instructional formats and cognitive skills. A comprehensive assessment program is also under development to collect data addressing the relative strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum content in satisfying the pedagogical issues being studied.
