This paper reports on a user study to gauge user interaction with RSS based mobile electronic updates from a Moodle based virtual learning environment. The mobile reception of such information can be received in three dimensions of context: time, location and activity. With the active participation of fifteen students, the project aims to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of these context dimensions by comparing the level of user engagement initially across one academic term. The mobile updates relate to teaching material, course work feedback, and general announcements from academic staff across the University’s academic departments. As well as user profiling when interaction with the updates, early investigations show that there exists peak times when users interact with these applications. Initial results indicate that interactions occurred generally during office hours and within the confines of the campus environment, although uses of the activity based application were recorded also in informal locations outside of working hours. The results also show that time based electronic updates are the most popular, engagement wise, when compared to location and activity.

1. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK
A Study of User Interaction with
Context Aware Notifications
from a Moodle Learning
Environment
Phil Benachour: p.benachour@lancaster.ac.uk
Laura Crane: l.crane@lancaster.ac.uk
The 13th
IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning
Technologies
July 15-18, 2013
Beijing, China

2. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK
 Motivations of
Research
 Previous Research
 Dimensions of
Context
 Precedence of
Context
 Rationale of Study
 Architecture of
Applications
 Deployment
 Results
 Conclusions

3. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK
The research carried out was based on the
following motivations:
 Investigate student
interactions with
mobile devices
 Profile student usage
of mobile applications
which support their
organisation of
learning
 Attempt to answer the
question of:
“Can we utilize context in
pervasive learning
environments?”
 Profile student usage
of mobile applications
which support their
organisation of
learning

4. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

5. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK
 Investigation of RSS
as an appropriate
information channel
for Mobile Learning
 Comparison of RSS
and Twitter based
Web 2.0 systems
 The delivery of
information based
upon either a time or
location mechanism
 Can we deliver
information from a
VLE by more than
time or location?

6. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK
Dey (2001)
“Co nte xt is any info rm atio n that can be use d to characte riz e
the situatio n o f an e ntity. An e ntity is a pe rso n, place , o r
o bje ct that is co nside re d re le vant to the inte ractio n be twe e n
a use r and an applicatio n, including the use r and applicatio ns
the m se lve s. ”

7. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

8. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

9. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

10. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

11. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

12. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

13. https://www.alohar.com/developer/learnmore.html
• Automatically detect the places
(including the name and category)
that the user visits.
• Minimize battery power
consumption while gathering data
from the mobile device.
• Get notifications when a user
arrives at or departs from a place.
• Automatically get the number of
times a user visits a place, and
how much time is spent there per
visit.
• Automatically understand a user’s
mobile motion state (e.g.
stationary, walking or driving).
School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

14. Time Application Location Application Activity Application

16. •3 Groups of participants
•5 participants in each group for
Time, Location & Activity
• Deployed onto 15devices
• Full term of 10 weeks (70 days)
School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

17. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

18. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

19. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

20. Results – Weeks of the Term
School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

21. Results – Weeks of the Term
School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

22. Results – Weeks of the Term
School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

23. Results – Weeks of the Term
School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

24. Results – Weeks of the Term
School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

25. Results – Weeks of the Term
School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

26. School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK

27. • Patterns of Usage
• Mainly contained in formal hours and spaces
• Early afternoons show peaks of interactions
• Time mobile application held the most
amount of interactions
• Location and Activity very close in numbers

28. • Build useful user profiles and patterns of usage
• Ensure wireless access & infrastructure is
available in situations where interactions take
place
• Currently in the second term of academic year
long study
• The groups have been deployed with a different
context application
• Awaiting results April to May 2013

29. Contact Us for more information
Email: p.benachour@lancaster.ac.uk
l.crane@lancaster.ac.uk
Twitter.com/laura_crane
Twitter.com/benachourP
School of Computing & Communication Systems
Lancaster University, UK