A Context Aware Prototype Application for University Students and Lecturers

Abstract

The rise of mobile phone usage across the world has given rise to many context aware applications. To study the effects of context-aware application we have created a prototype application for the main demographics in a University. The prototype provides location based context-awareness in two facets: outside the university campus (outdoor) and inside the university campus (indoor). We have used Wi-Fi fingerprinting technology to achieve indoor positioning. Furthermore, the prototype is connected to Moodle, an online e-learning service via web services to provide course materials to the student based on the user, location (classroom) and time. The students can further interact with their peers spatially for discussions, as their location data is securely shared with their group mates. Our research evaluates the effect of context-awareness for two user groups; the students and the lecturers. The usage of both indoor and outdoor positioning within a single prototype, to provide the location aspect of context in our research, shows 94% acceptance rate between both the user groups.