Empowering learning through mobile technologies

International Conference on Mobile Learning, Application and Services 2012

Melaka, Malaysia

Empowering Learning Through Mobile Technologies
Mohd Nazri Bin Md Saad - nazri@fskik.upsi.edu.my
Ahmad Wiraputra Bin Selamat - wiraputra@upsi.edu.my
Mohamad Yunus Bin Mustafa - myunus@ict.upsi.edu.my
Eimiza Faisha Bin Azmi - eimiza@ict.upsi.edu.my
Prabu A/L Tharmalingam - prabu@ict.upsi.edu.my
ICT Centre, Sultan Idris Education University, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia.

Abstract
University Integrated Management System (UIMS) which was implemented way back in 2004 is the manifestation
of the management’s intention to provide comprehensive information system to UPSI netizen based on academic &
student management system (MySIS), finance information system (MyFIS), human resources & administration
system (MyHRIS), learning management system (MyGuru) and community portal (MyUPSI). MyGuru is a platform
with various functions and features designed to support an online teaching and learning process. To provide a better
e-learning environment, MyGuru approached cloud computing technology which emphasizes on high availability
and stability rather than functionalities only. E-Learning requires student and lecturer to interact and communicate
more often hence instant access in a comfortable manner is required. Moreover, today’s students carry a vast array of
mobile devices those operate across a massive fragmented and shifting market to be connected all-time. Motivated
with this, UPSI came up with an idea of e-learning through mobile environment named MobiLearn. MobiLearn is
aimed to students, staff and guardians. Modules like News, About UPSI, Location, Telephone Directory,
University’s anthem, FAQ, Staff & Alumni Directory are additional components of MobiLearn. MySIS and
MyGURU’s features like Private Message, Group Forum, Group Announcement, Group Member, Assignment,
Lecture Notes, General Announcement, My Class, MyGuru Alert, Coursework and Exam Result are transformed to
mobile outlook. MobiLearn is a web based mobile application to ease lecturers and students in UPSI to access UIMS
for teaching and learning purposes. Developed using open web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript,
MobiLearn are capable to run across platforms and devices. Apple’s Safari, the Android browser, Opera Mobile (and
Mini) and IE9 on Windows Phone’s support for HTML5 and increasing related modern web standards provide us
some great new features to build a powerful web application. JQuery Mobile and PHP scripts play a major role in
building. Users with a decent 3G or Wi-Fi internet, can access MobiLearn anywhere and anytime compared to
accessing a full-fledged webpage using a mobile gadget.

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1. INTRODUCTION

Melaka, Malaysia

of smart gadget which are iconic-based interface and
simple text.

Mobile learning, through the use of mobile
technology, will allow citizens of the world to access
learning materials and information from anywhere
and at any time. Learners will not have to wait for a
certain time to learn or go to a certain place to learn.
With mobile learning, learners will be empowered
since they can learn regardless time or place they
want.

1.1 Problem Statement and Objective
Students and lecturers need to interact and
communicate more often hence instant access in a
comfortable manner is required.
Desktops and notebooks have disadvantages in terms
of mobility due to dependency towards power and
network resources.

Recent times have seen the field of mobile
technology grow exponentially, leading to institutions
increasingly recognizing the importance of delivering
content and services to users through their mobile
devices. In many cases these can simply be delivered
using the web, optimizing the websites for use on
smaller screens. However, in some cases we may
wish to deliver a service that takes advantage of the
native capabilities of today’s powerful smartphones,
such as GPS for location based services and
delivering features such as access to campus services
like the library, timetabling, room bookings or local
travel information are preferred.

From the problems stated, we came out with the main
objectives of this project as listed below:
•

Enhance the Blended Learning modes
currently used in UPSI

•

Increase the flexibility of learning

•

Encourage and support ubiquitous learning

•

Integration with other main systems

To be more specific, the main objective of this project
is to develop a dynamic and customized mobile
learning application for the use of students and
analyze how this approach will guarantee and
accelerate the teaching and learning process through
blended learning as practiced.

University Integrated Management System (UIMS)
which was implemented way back in 2004 is the
manifestation of the management’s intention to
provide comprehensive information system for UPSI
netizen based on academic & student management
system (MySIS), financial information system
(MyFIS), human resources & administration system
(MyHRIS), learning management system
(MyGURU2 & MyGURU3) and community portal
(MyUPSI). MyGURU is a platform with various
functions and features designed to support an online
teaching and learning process. To provide a better elearning environment, MyGURU approached cloud
computing technology which emphasizes on high
availability and stability rather than functionalities
only.

We also consider the integration of MobiLearn with
the existing Learning Management System as a major
prerequisite for operating an efficient and effective
large scale online learning system. [1]
1.2 Innovation
Implemented in UPSI since 2004, UPSI is now
moving forward with mobile application invention
for smart gadget such as Apple Mobile Devices and
Android.

E-Learning requires student and lecturer to interact
and communicate more often hence instant access in
a comfortable manner is required. Moreover, today’s
students carry a vast array of mobile devices those
operate across a massive fragmented and shifting
market to be connected all-time.

The current UIMS user-friendly interface is
optimized for Desktop Computer. Therefore, smart
gadget users will encounter interface restriction while
accessing UIMS. UPSI Mobile Application is
developed to provide maximum satisfaction and
efficiency for users accessing UIMS through smart
gadget overcoming the namely issue.

Thus, to fulfill the needs, we came up with an
innovative idea of converting a full-fledged webpage
in a mobile gadget with a small screen layout.
MobiLearn is a mobile application developed on
open source based which supports most available
platform and gadgets for UPSI netizens.

MobiLearn is a customization of University
Integrated Management System specifically
developed for smart gadget user. MobiLearn consists
of 3 main user components; students, staffs/lecturers
& guardians. Table 1 shows the modules provided in
MobiLearn.

It is invented by customizing appropriate modules in
UIMS into a simple and user friendly mobile
environment. This application optimizes the features

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Melaka, Malaysia

MobiLearn is accessible via smart gadget such as
Apple Mobile Devices and Android through the URL
http://m.upsi.edu.my.

•

Quick responds in e-learning

•

The domination of eBooks.

Table 1: Modules in MobiLearn

•

Mobility convenience

•

User centered approach on implementing ELearning

Modules

Staff

Student Guardian

News

We designed the application using data flow diagram
as shown in Figure 1.

Location
Contact
Directory Staff
About
Profile
My Course
My Class
Account
Pay slip
Attendance

Figure 1: The development of MobiLearn is based on
SDLC

Student Profile

3.2 System Design

Student Course
Exam Result
C h a n g e
Password
Media
FAQ
Alumni

2. METHODOLOGY
2.1 System Analysis
Figure 2: MobiLearn Infrastructure

MobiLearn development is based on the discipline of
System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). We started
with analyzing the user requirement. Input from users
comes via the direct question and answer and the
response from the ICT services provided. User
consists of lecturers, tutors, students and system
analysts. We also carry out a needs analysis based on
study and observation of other mobile applications
like social network.

We designed the system based on requirements from
the users and capability to integrate and synchronize
the available learning and teaching data. The
MobiLearn’s server maintains the database for
contents and other information. Though it has its own
database for stand-alone purpose, MobiLearn’s server
will be synced with other servers such as MyGURU,
MyFIS, MySIS and MyHRIS for data integration.

The findings show that this project is derived from
these factors:•
•

3.3 Users

The rapid increase in mobile gadget usage
Instant information access

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Melaka, Malaysia

The external entities of the application can be stated
into three (3) categories which are Lecturers,
Students and Guardians. Lecturers can practice
MobiLearn as a flexible and portable communication
tools for teaching and learning purposes. Apart from
providing notes and updates, MobiLearn is a medium
for continuous interaction with students through
forum, private message, chat and video conferencing.
They can also conduct online assignment and testing
through mobile which able to gain quicker response
from the students.

an impossible task even for experts, but by using an
interactive user-centered design process can help
create the best experience for the users.

Students can access the resources given by their
lecturers for learning and teaching purposes such as
notes, announcements, assignments, forums and
many more. Besides, they can access the results of
their examinations, latest profile, mentor mentee
information, e-portfolio and so on.

Even though many smartphone browsers today can
miniaturize desktop websites, they inadvertently
break the user’s experience by making them zoom in
and out, which makes us to the traditional approach
of creating a separate website for mobile devices.

The most significant difference between a mobile
device and a desktop is the screen size. Mobile
phone’s screen sizes have increased over the years,
but are still small in comparison to a standard desktop
screen design. This gets more complicated when we
consider the range of screen sizes used by the mobile
users. [4]

Table 2: Comparison of Native Apps and MobiLearn
in terms of UI

Meanwhile for guardians, the Guardian Information
System displays achieved results for their offspring
as well as courses that are being taken and the
response from the academic advisor.

Native Apps
MobiLearn
Each mobile application Runs in the mobile
development platform device’s web browser
( e . g . i O S , A n d r o i d ) and each may have its
r e q u i r e s i t s o w n own features and quirks
development process
Each mobile application Mobile web apps are
development platform written in HTML5,
h a s i t s o w n n a t i v e CSS3, JavaScript and
programming language: server-side languages
J a v a ( A n d r o i d ) , or web application
Objective-C (iOS), and f r a m e w o r k s o f t h e
Visual C++ (Windows developer’s choice (e.g.
Mobile), etc.
PHP, Rails, Python)
Standardized software There are no standard
d e v e l o p m e n t k i t s software development
(SDKs), development k i t s ( S D K s ) t h a t
tools and common user developers are required
i n t e r f a c e e l e m e n t s to use to make a mobile
( b u t t o n s , t e x t i n p u t web app
fields, etc.) are often
provided by the
manufacturer of the
platform
There are tools and frameworks to help in
developing apps for deployment on multiple
mobile OS platforms and web browsers (e.g.
PhoneGap, Sencha Touch 2, Appcelerator
Titanium, etc.)

3.4 Modules
We classify MobiLearn into 3 types of users. The
lecturers and students will have the privilege to
access My Profiles, My Course, My Class, Alerts,
and Course Work. Student can access their
examination result, and so are their guardians.
Guardians are also allowed to access their offspring’s
profiles and courses taken.
Meanwhile Common modules such as News, About,
Location, Staff’s Directory, FAQ and Alumni can be
accessed by anyone in search for general information
on the entities related.

Figure 3: Decomposition diagram depict MobiLearn
features as a whole
3.5 User Interface Design

3. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

The mobile Web is different, but the design process is
similar enough for Web designers to ease into mobile
design works. Designing a perfect mobile website is

System development or coding is carried out after the
design process. Platform selection takes into
consideration these three aspects: Easy to use, rapid

4

development and open source. PHP has been used as
the main coding language based on its reputation as
fast, stable, secure, easy to use and open source
language. The detail specification noted as follow:
•

Database: MySQL

•

Frameworks: JQuery Mobile

•

Platform Supported: iOS, and Android
devices

•

MobiLearn uses JQuery Mobile as the development
platform as it is a touch-optimized web framework
currently being developed by the JQuery project
team. The development focuses on creating a
framework compatible with a wide variety of
smartphones and tablet computers, made necessary
by the growing but varied tablet and smartphone
market. JQuery Mobile is the right choice for
MobiLearn’s framework because:

Programming Language: PHP, HTML5,
JavaScript

•

Melaka, Malaysia

Mobile Browser Supported: Safari and
Chrome

•

Compatible with other mobile app
frameworks and platforms such as
PhoneGap and many more.

•

Compatible with all major mobile platforms
as well as all major desktop browsers,
including iOS, Android, Blackberry,
WebOS, Symbian, Windows Phone 7,
and more.

MySQL 5.0 is selected because of these features:

•

Scalability and flexibility - MySQL database server
provides scalability, supporting the capacity to handle
embedded applications with a footprint of only 1MB
to run massive data and hold terabytes of
information.

Built on top of JQuery core so it has a
minimal learning curve for people
already familiar with JQuery syntax.

•

Theming framework that allows creation of
custom themes.

•

Limited dependencies and lightweight to
optimize speed.

•

The same underlying codebase will
automatically scale to any screen. HTML5-driven configuration for laying
out pages with minimal scripting.

•

Ajax-powered navigation with animated
page transitions that provides ability to
clean URLs through pushState.

•

UI widgets that are touch-optimized and
platform-agnostic.

3.1 Database

High performance and availability - A unique
storage-engine architecture allows database
professionals to configure MySQL database server
specifically for particular applications.
Robust transactional support - MySQL offers one of
the most powerful transactional database engines on
the market. Features include complete ACID (atomic,
consistent, isolated, durable) transaction support,
unlimited row-level locking, distributed transaction
capability, and multi-version transaction support.
Web and data warehouse strength - MySQL is the defacto standards for high-traffic web sites because of
its high-performance query engine, tremendous fast
data insert capability, and strong support for
specialized web functions.

3.3 Operating System
For the server and back-end solution, we are using
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for operating system.

Strong data protection – MySQL offers exceptional
security features that ensure absolute data protection.

3.4 Web Server

Manageability - MySQL offers exceptional quickstart capability with average time from software
download to installation completion is less than
fifteen minutes.

Apache is used as the web server for this project
based on these advantages:
•
•

Low total cost of ownership - By migrating current
database-drive applications to MySQL, UPSI enjoys
cost saving in licensing and database maintenance.
3.2 Application

Supports a wide variety of operating
systems.
Can be customized for the needs of
MobiLearn.

3.5 Design specifications

5

Open source integrations. Linux, MySQL, Apache

Melaka, Malaysia

We implemented MobiLearn to the users after
conducting the internal testing process. From
February to June 2012, 1,976 users have used
MobiLearn application with 5,574 hits as depicted in
Figure 4. 53.07 % is new visitor where the others is
returning visitor.

Uses industry standard open protocols. HTTP,
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Horizontal scalability. Load balancer to distribute
workload into 3 different servers with cluster
technology for the database.

Students are the major contributors in MobiLearn’s
usage statistics as they need to access the coursework
and examination result through mobile.

Browser based client interface.
4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
During the deployment period, we made an
observational study on MobiLearn and native
application. Our findings are illustrated in Table3,
Table 4, and Table 5:Table 3: Comparison of Native Apps and MobiLearn
in terms of delivering methods.
Native Apps
MobiLearn
D o w n l o a d e d o n t o aA c c e s s e d t h r o u g h a
mobile device
mobile device’s web
browser
Installed and runs as a No need to install new
standalone application software
(no web browser needed)
Users must manually Updates are made to the
download and install app web server without user
updates
intervention

in terms of versioning
Native Apps
MobiLearn
Some users may choose All users are on the same
to ignore an update, version
resulting in different
users running different
versions of the app

in terms of strengths
Native Apps
MobiLearn
Typically perform faster Have a common code
than mobile web apps
base across all platforms
A p p s t o r e s a n d Users don’t have to go to
marketplaces help users a store or marketplace,
find native apps
download the app and
install the app

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Melaka, Malaysia

Figure 4: MobiLearn Usage from February - July
2012 (6 Month)
Number of access increased significantly from May
13 until May 27 as it is the period of examination
result as depicted in Figure 5.

Figure 7: Mobile Operating System from February July 2012 (6 Month)
Though Apple dominates the device branding,
Android is the most preferable mobile operating
system by MobiLearn users as shown in Figure 7.
This is because many mobile device manufacturers
chose Android as their operating system. The
combination of iOS and Android cover almost 95%
of MobiLearn user’s operating system.

Figure 5: The usage trend of MobiLearn

Figure 8: ISP Statistics from February - July 2012 (6
Month)
Figure 8 shows that Jaring and LAN are the main
provider as they are located in UPSI. Both cover 47%
of overall service provider. The significant usage of
3G Broadband (Maxis, Celcom, Digi) proves that
MobiLearn is compatible with any wireless network.

Figure 6: Mobile device branding from February July 2012 (6 Month)
Figure 6 shows the trend in mobile devices selection
by MobiLearn users where Apple, Samsung and
SonyEricsson cover almost 85% from the total
amount.

5. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
This paper covers the implementation of MobiLearn
based on requirement analysis, development and
deployment. The findings show that the number of
usage increases even after few months of
implementation of MobiLearn. JQuery speeds up the

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development process and facilitates the integration
with other applications.
MobiLearn has been beneficial to the development of
learning and teaching process as follows:

[4]
[5]

•Students can now study anytime
and anywhere.
•Green technology.

[6]

•MobiLearn enables students to
connect with their peers, lecturers,
distant partners, and even interest
groups worldwide.

[7]

•MobiLearn is accessible via 3G

[8]

broadband or Wi-Fi.
The rapid development of mobile technology in
Malaysia also offers a wide prospect for
commercialization. There are millions of mobile
users among university students.

[9]

In addition, with the emergence of Generation Y that
is more open and sophisticated, it is possible that one
day, all web applications are also available in the
mobile platform.
Future Enhancement
For the future enhancement, we plan to upscale the
applications to predict the student’s trends and
behavioral patterns and cater for them with live
updates based on these trends. Lecturers can also
monitor their student’s activity and learning approach
with this pattern. [6] Therefore, lecturers can
understand the trends and best approach to deliver
lesson to the students individually.
REFERENCE
[1] Ally, Mohamed (Ed.), Mobile Learning:
Transforming the Delivery of Education and
Training (pp. 157–182). Edmonton, Canada:
Athabasca University Press.
[2] Ariffin S. A. (2011). Mobile Learning in the
Institution of Higher Learning for Malaysia
s t u d e n t s : C u l t u re P e r s p e c t i v e s ' ,
International Journal on Advanced Science,
Engineering and Information Technology
vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 283-8.
[3] Shohel, M. Mahruf C. and Power, Tom (2010).
I n t ro d u c i n g m o b i l e t e c h n o l o g y f o r
enhancing teaching and learning in

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Bangladesh: teacher perspectives. Open
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The Chinese University of Hong Kong, (2010).
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Site Admin (2012). Online College ORG. 10
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Mudge, J. (2012). Six Revision. Native App vs.
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