Design And Investigation On Undergraduates' Needs For Cell Phone-based Mobile Learning Resources

The construction of mobile learning resources is indispensable to the development of mobile learning. Cell phones not only provide mobile learning with important learning devices, but also give rise to new requirements for the development of mobile learning resources due to their own traits. Based on literatures review of related research on mobile learning and mobile learning resources around the world, by using a questionnaire approach, this study focuses on the analysis of undergraduates'needs for cell phone-based mobile learning resources. Taking undergraduates as the survey objects, the investigation includes seven aspects as follows: (1) usage of cell phones; (2) attitude to obtaining mobile learning resources by cell phones; (3) requirements for the varieties of cell phone-based mobile learning resources; (4) demand for the representation forms of cell phone-based mobile learning resources; and (5) factors affecting the utilization of cell phone-based mobile learning resources. Several basic conclusions are drawn from the survey: most undergraduates have the basic conditions to access to cell phone-based mobile learning resources; the variety of learning resources is expected; the characteristics of the learning resource itself and cost factor have influences on the application of cell phone-based learning resources.According to the survey results, this study proposes three design strategies for the improvement of cell phone-based mobile learning resources for undergraduates. The first is"variety design"to provide undergraduates'personalized and various learning needs. The second is"function design"to promote the integration and application of cell phone-based mobile learning resources by adopting knowledge maps. The third is"economic design"to reduce possible cost for getting cell phone-based mobile learning resources.This thesis is composed of five parts. Section 1 reviews the research backgrounds. Section 2 presents related literature review. As the core component of this thesis, section 3 investigates undergraduates'demand for cell phone-based mobile learning resources. Section 4 suggests how to improve the design of cell phone-based mobile learning resource by considering its variety, function, and economic characteristics. The last section summarizes and reflects this study.