Ubiquitous Learning Based on Mobile Devices and Industrial Prototypes

Background: In technical subjects, the “hands-on” aspect is important because the students cannot assimilate some concepts until they practice with real industrial systems. They need to have the demonstration that what they are performing is real and works in order to create a true mental image of the subject concepts, which translates as an increase in professional skills. Application Design: In this work, it is described a step forward in integrating mobile devices and real physical laboratories in a ubiquitous learning approach. Contribution: The latest experiences with mobile devices showed that it is possible to get near real hands-on by combining specially designed equipment and flexible virtual-scale models running on the mobile device, without requiring physical laboratories or classic remote labs. This approach can be applied to many technical subjects that face the same issues. Findings: Based on the evaluation results, the proposed u-lab architecture provided strong evidence of the benefits achieved. The proposal presents interesting advantages from the economic and professor productivity point of view, obtaining better academic achievements. The resulting platform should facilitate educational activities which use mobile devices. This approach can be applied to many technical subjects that suffer economic restrictions. This opens up new scenarios for mobile-device-based learning without excessive additional costs.