Integrated design model for mobile learning pedagogy and application

Abstract

Mobile Learning (M-Learning) has added a new dimension to the traditional system of education. The importance of M-Learning has been acknowledged by industrialized countries and therefore these countries have implemented it in the educational institutions. The Software developer, Software analyst, and Software test engineer face challenges in requirements elicitation, design, development, testing, and deployment of M-Learning application. It’s because the Software engineering domain of M-Learning has not yet attended maturity. The design and development of M-Learning application is still a challenge. This study explores and analyses existing approaches in the design phase of M-Learning application development, reports the limitations, and propose a new solution. M-Learning has two basic components: pedagogy and software application (application). M-Learning pedagogy describes learning content in terms of instructional and learning design while software application provides platform for accessibility of learning content. The integration of these two components while designing, development, and testing play crucial role in the successful implementation of M-Learning. However, review of the existing literature has revealed lack of integrated approach for designing M-Learning pedagogy and application. There are researchers who have proposed design approaches for M-Learning pedagogy and application however separately. The significance of these approaches cannot be ignored but M-Learning application design and development suffers from compatibility issues, lack of design and testing mechanisms, identified stakeholders and their roles, lack of defined step and procedures. Therefore, this article presents an integrated design model for M-Learning pedagogy and application. The proposed model consists of pedagogy, application, and testing as important components. The application design is concerned with architectural level, high level, and detailed design. The pedagogical design is related to instruction and learning content. The test case design is concerned with formulation of conditions for testing the pedagogy and application. The proposed integrated design model has been compared with the existing approaches and ISO/IEC 12207:2008 and ISO/IEC 19796-1 standards. Also, the model has been reviewed by IT experts. The outcome is positive in both the cases.