Title: An adaptive prototype system for ubiquitous learning in agriculture

Authors: Stavros Valsamidis; Ioannis Kazanidis; Ioannis Petasakis; Sotirios Kontogiannis

Addresses: Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology, Agios Loukas, 65404, Kavala, Greece ' Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology, Agios Loukas, 65404, Kavala, Greece ' Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology, Agios Loukas, 65404, Kavala, Greece ' Department of Informatics and Telecomunications Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, Karamanli and Ligeris, Kozani, TK 50100, Greece

Abstract: Education and training are very important factors for the agriculture sector. Unfortunately, the lack of time and space has lead to their limited appliance to farmers. Limited financial support and low background knowledge in information and communications technology are two more suspending factors. At the same, time rapid technological progress has lead to the implementation of internet applications which offer e-learning. This paper proposes a framework for applying e-learning to agriculture. It may be applied to three different stages of educational process: i) adaptive platform development; ii) courses development and delivery; iii) platform and courses evaluation. The Nielsen heuristics for system usability, the technology acceptance model for evaluation, and indexes and metric for system log file analysis are used. The expected benefits of the framework application are the personalised instruction, the overcoming of spatial and time restrictions and the continuous evaluation of courses.

Keywords: agriculture education; ubiquitous learning; adaptive systems; educational hypermedia; AEHS; e-learning; electronic learning; online learning; system usability; technology acceptance model; TAM; log file analysis; personalised learning; personalisation; course development; course delivery; course evaluation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSAMI.2015.075029

International Journal of Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics, 2015 Vol.1 No.4, pp.317 - 332

Received: 17 Aug 2014
Accepted: 01 Jan 2015
Published online: 01 Mar 2016 *

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