An empirical study on m-learning adaptation: Learning performance and learning contexts

• Improving the learning performance in a graduate course using an adaptive system.
• We establish a positive correlation in the usage of the adaptive system.
• Adapting the learning contents to the learner's context and mobile device.
• We analyze the contexts specified by the students in the experiment.

M-learning enables students to learn everywhere and at any time. But mobility also brings a new challenge. Students may now be constantly moving and the context from which they learn has to be adjusted dynamically. Therefore adaptation is becoming increasingly important when it comes to m-learning. This paper presents an empirical study to assess the learning performance and attitude of graduate students when they use an adaptive mobile system that tailors learning contents to their skills, their device and current context. Results suggest that mobile adaptation had a limited impact in learning performance of practical skills when compared to an e-learning approach. Information about the context of use of the mobile system was also collected and compared with traditional computer accesses. Results suggest that students learned in similar context independently of the way that they used to access learning contents. This may challenge current assumptions about the mobility of students.