The study and application of IMS Learning Design specifications in a mobile context

Current learning systems are frequently criticized for their predominant focus on explicit, and in particular, written representation of knowledge. There are communities around the world where verbal knowledge is more pervasive than written knowledge. This paper presents a study of how such knowledge can be accessed anywhere/anytime, in a form that may be used and understood in a standardized format, so as to make the knowledge easily transferable within those communities and across the community boundaries. While doing so, this research also looks at a more general problem of lack of standardization in existing learning systems. The majority of the existing learning systems do not store content and interactive activities in any standard format, and because of this, there is little or no portability of these materials between implementations. With the increase in mobile technology usage as a medium of access, there is a growing concern that the lack of standardization will become even more of an issue as it adds another layer of non-standardization to the mix. This paper describes a prototype system for mobile learning that conforms to the IMS Learning Design specification, drawing from local knowledge concepts to ensure that the content is relevant for specific contextual cultural learning needs.