A Navigation Support Mechanism Considering Knowledge Relationship for Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning

In context-aware ubiquitous learning environments, navigation support mechanisms are essential to prevent learners lost in the learning space and to improve their learning efficacy. Many navigation mechanisms have been proposed to deal with this concern. However, when they plan the navigation route for learners, most of them consider only the learning environment and the learning objective. Little study takes the knowledge relationship among learning targets into considerations. Many researches of cognitive development theory have been indicated that the learning efficacy can be improved when the learning sequence follows the knowledge relationship among the learning materials. It is worth to study if the learners will perform better when they learn in a u-learning environment following the sequence of knowledge relationship. In this paper, a navigation support mechanism considering the knowledge relationship among learning targets for context-aware u-learning is proposed. The repertory grid technique is used to analyze the knowledge relationship among learning targets for the new proposed navigation mechanism. To verify the effectiveness of the new proposed navigation mechanisms, a context-aware u-learning system with the new proposed navigation support mechanism is developed. Field experiments are also performed to verify the efficacy of the new proposed mechanism.