Cloud-based Semantic Service-Oriented Content Provisioning

Architecture for Mobile Learning

Keng Y. Yee, Yilun Chia, Flora S. Tsai⁺

Nanyang Technological University

Singapore 639798

⁺fst1@columbia.edu

Ang Wee Tiong, and Rajaraman Kanagasabai*

Institute for Infocomm Research

1 Fusionopolis Way

#21-01 Connexis Tower (South Tower)

Singapore 138632

{wtang, kanagasa}@i2r.a-star.edu.sg

Abstract

Exploiting mobile technologies for educational purposes has promises of realizing ubiquitous,

unobtrusive, personal and situated learning. The advent of cloud computing has meant that all the

information on web, and proprietary sources of information are available instantly. But mobile learning

is non-trivial due to the challenges in the process of designing, communicating and presenting

traditional e-learning resources to mobile learners. In this paper, we propose a generic semantics based

service-oriented infrastructure and show how semantic technologies, when used together with

a cloud-based SOA, can provide mobile users with a fresh learning experience. The proposed architecture

comprises a knowledge aggregation subsystem and a querying subsystem that are loosely

coupled, and hence enables rapid deployment across domains with suitable domain ontologies.

Furthermore, the service-oriented approach enables a pluggable platform that supports seamless integration

of legacy content from possibly multiple vendors for customizable delivery. For illustration, we

consider a mobile learning scenario in a zoo, and demonstrate how a mobile user can interact with

the proposed system for m-learning.

*Corresponding author (email: kanagasa@i2r.a-star.edu.sg)