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Literature Review
With the rapid growth of technology in terms of cloud computing, many specialized areas for integrated cloud computing are moving their dynamics towards virtual leaning. Virtual learning through cloud computing are seeking new platforms through mobile platforms.
The framework to implement E-Learning systems through mobile cloud computing technology can be based on a multi-layer architecture of mobile cloud computing. The existing challenges to implement such a project would include battery life, cache memory capacity, processing capability and the knowledge educational database.
The proposed system would prospect the connected users to enjoy intelligent learning systems at once where learning would be anywhere, anytime and every time as it would reduce costs for hardware dependency for expensive computers, data reliability where users could connect themselves whenever they want to and consistency and efficiency in terms of interactivity and networking.
The Project would involve mobile cloud learning which would be a combination of mobile learning applications connected through cloud computing. It would hold promising developments in the educational sector and universities where students would connect themselves and overcome obstacles of difficult learning lectures, cross-cultural difficulties and hard course outline manuals.
Since the rapid progress of mobile technology becomes a powerful trend in the development of mobile learning (Bai, Shen, Chen & Zhuo, 2011).
Therefore, with the continuous rapid development and widespread applications of new information technologies, cloud computing is bringing major changes and new breakthroughs in teaching and learning
With the rapid technological advancement in information technology, cloud computing is bringing drastic changes in the field of learning and education, thus it is becoming the dominant method in which mobile, online and other types of applications operate (Rao, Sasidhar, & Kumar, 2010)
Cloud computing would change the traditional use of mobile technology into a convenient on-demand network access of shared pool of configurable computing resource where databanks, servers, networks, storage and application software would be interconnected with one another.
Mobile cloud computing would limit the inadequacies of traditional educational methods and lead to a modern revolution in online mobile learning education. By connected networks of data banks, it would store huge amount of educational resources and provide the infrastructural platform and application services for users instead of letting users save them in their devices (Li, 2010)
Mobile cloud learning is an amalgamation between cloud computing and mobile learning (Hirsch & Ng, 2011). It integrates the cloud computing into the mobile environment and overcomes obstacles related to mobile computing (Dinh, Lee, Niyato, & Wang, 2011).
The unification of cloud computing and mobile learning holds a great promise for future development of education (Hirsch & Ng, 2011) and would enable users to gain “new knowledge, skills and experience”
(Sharples, Arnedillo-Sanchez, Milrad, & Vavoula, 2009)
Proposed Method for the Project
A system server platform would be introduced to transfer the complicate educational systems from PCs to mobile devices. Through mobile cloud computing platform, communication between the learner and the source be enhanced through server hub.
Different mobile application would be developed to support and connect to the cloud server to extract and aggregate information to the users. Multiple phones would be connected with the cloud server. It would also support video and photo publishing applications such as YouTube and Flickr to allow users to upload and share multimedia content from their phones and share online for educational purposes.
The proposed system design would be similar in a way with applications such as Cornucopia, designed for the research affairs of undergraduate genetic learners. Such a platform would also support image and video processing through mobile phones.
It would require variety of algorithms used in mobile applications. In order to implement a smart e-learning system, the computing power and data storage would move into the mobile cloud and steam on mobile phones through different applications of e-learning which would be connected to the main server.
Another aspect for the e-learning system would be user interface and learning easiness for the users. It would be more of a mobile learning system to limit the access of a computer as it is still less portable than a mobile phone.
Benefits
E-Learning through mobile cloud computing would involve reduction in costs for expensive computer resources, mobility and flexibility of using a mobile phone for
e-learning instead of a computer and online availability and presence.
E-learning for the users would involve an online tutoring system which would be based on the interaction between the system and the user.
Challenges
Challenges for the E-learning systems would involve
User Interface
Limited data entry and knowledge sharing at a time
Architecture Design
The e-learning system would require high memory capacity along with strong network connectivity or wireless internet.
Model
The model for implementing mobile cloud computing would comprise of a network access to a shared pool of configurable resources such as servers, networks, applications and storage to provide interaction with the user. All resources would be connected via mobile cloud to give users flexibility.
Characteristics
Data Centre
A main data center would provide the required hardware and infrastructure for the mobile cloud service. There would be a number of servers connected with high speed networks and high voltage supply.
Infrastructure
It would also comprise of all the necessary hardware, storage, servers and network components. The use of these resources would be based upon the user’s requirements and needs.
Platform
Integrated use of applications and software would be tested and developed for its usage. It would also provide a distribution with special needs and requirements. The users would have access to their information and applications through the connected mobile cloud.
The system would refer with an infrastructure in which two operations ‘data storage’ and ‘data processing’ would be done from mobile phones and centralized applications on clouds would be available using a wireless connection.
These systems would support many smart phones configuration and be easily run via network connections or wireless internet.
Advantages
It would remove limitations of the hardware components transfer “Knowledgeable Data” from the data center into the mobile cloud to share with the users. Such a system interface would be able to send adequate information in a cloud and be able to receive a quick response to it.
The mobile cloud would comprise of a large scale distributed network within the data center and be remotely available for the access of the users. The function of mobile cloud computing would be integrate intelligence and mobile learning from the central server computing architecture.
Mobile users would be able to use large memory and powerful processor on their mobile devices in the clouds to run their e-learning programs. Any user would be able to connect to a private cloud environment by using his/her mobile device, username and password for authentication.
An intelligent learning system would be uploaded on one or several data centers with saved profile data for each user. The mentioned intelligent learning system would recognize and offer the specific appropriate educational content upon the requirement of the user.
The application would also create virtual and private learning environments and would be welcomed by many institutions with its reduced cost scenario and future prospects.
Structural Models of Cloud Computing
Public cloud is an open source use which would be accessible to the universal community.
Private cloud would be an exclusive use by a single source and solely accessible to internal users within that particular parameters.
Community cloud would be used by users with the same interest or purpose in the same field or area of education.
Hybrid cloud would be a combination of more than one type of cloud which would make it unique.
There are a variety of cloud models. Careful evaluation is needed to compare these cloud model capabilities. The purpose of the evaluation is to choose a cloud model which can provide a cloud designed to meet each specific user needs and requirements.
A cloud computing service must also provide customized services to meet the specific needs of their users. System infrastructure and security standards would be maintained by the service provider along with the audit compliance. Conversations among e-Learning system administrators and practitioners would be done in order to set up a set of specific criteria for the selection and evaluation of cloud model.
To advance the cloud computing model, proactive measures would ensure security.
Mobile Cloud Computing
Smart phones such as iPhone, Android Phones, Windows Mobile and Blackberry, are no longer just traditional mobile phones with conversation, SMS, Email and website browser, but are daily necessities to users. These smartphones include various sensing modules like navigation, optics, gravity, orientation, and so on which brings a convenient and intelligent mobile experience to users.
Mobile Cloud computing at its simplest refers to an infrastructure where both the data storage and the data processing happen outside of the mobile device. Mobile cloud applications move the computing power and data storage away from mobile phones and into the cloud, bringing applications and mobile computing to not just smart phone users but a much broader range.
The mobile cloud computing is a development of mobile computing, and an extension to cloud computing. In the previous mobile device-based intensive computing, data storage and mass information processing have been transferred to ’cloud’ and thus the requirements of mobile devices in computing capability and resources have been reduced, so the developing, running, deploying and using mode of mobile applications have now changed.
Mobile cloud computing is a combination of the two technologies, a development of distributed, grid and centralized algorithms, and have broad prospects for application. Mobile cloud computing can be simply divided into cloud computing and mobile computing. Those mobile devices can be laptops, PDA, smartphones, and so on which connects with a hotspot or base station by 3G, WIFI, or GPRS. As the computing and major data processing phases have been migrated to cloud, the capability requirement of mobile devices is limited, some low-cost mobile devices can also achieve mobile cloud computing.
The mobile devices are connected to the mobile networks through base stations that establish and control the connections (air interface) and functional interfaces between the networks and mobile devices. Mobile users request and information are transmitted to the central processors that are connected to the servers providing mobile network services.
These services are developed based on the concepts of utility computing, virtualization and service-oriented architecture. One of the popular ways of accessing learning information from the internet asides using the inbuilt mobile web browser is mobile applications, and for this mobile applications to be developed by application developers, the use of cloud computing comes in, because in using mobile applications that interact with the web, a user searches for a learning information or clicks on a content of choice in the application and information is displayed to the user.
The cloud computing has the significant scope to change the whole education system. In present scenario the e-learning is getting the popularity and this application in cloud computing will surely help in the development of the education offered to students which will increase the quality of education offered to them.
The design features layout the capabilities to assist modern mobile applications, storage space, low speed internet connection, less data processing function on mobile devices, have been observed to be a product of negativity that repel learners from using mobile systems as another additional form to learn apart from the conventional methods i.e. books and lectures.
In past years till date efforts have been exerted to the development of this alternative method. The developed model is a website, adaptive to all mobile phones with different sizes and a mobile application for a specific mobile device.
The developed e-learning system offers a much better, efficient and fast means of accessing learning resources with very minimum limitation.
Feasibility Analysis
Through mobile cloud computing, any user could connect and access valuable educational information through standardized mechanisms that promote the use of heterogeneous platforms like mobile phones, tablets, laptops or PDAs.
Users could avail this service as needed without the requirement of expensive hardware. The main server’s computing resources would serve multiple users and students according to their demands.
Such mobile cloud systems would control and optimize capability by monitoring, controlling, reporting and providing transparency for the main server provider and the user for this utilized servicer.
System Architecture
The system architecture would comprise of mobile phones connected via wireless internet or network services via base transceiver station. User’s information such as ID and password would be send to the central processor and then the validation and authorization of his/her accounts would be carried out by mobile network operators. User’s application would be delivered to the cloud via internet. After processing the request, the cloud controller from the server would determine the appropriate service within the cloud to the user.
The server would act as an interface of learning and network for the user as it would encode the generated content so that it can be easily transferred by the web and easily displayed on the mobile devices. This server would also extract the educational content tailored to each user by an expert system and the existing information.
The main characteristic of the server would include database bank to serve user-system interaction messages such as audio, text, video and images.
System Evaluation
The main concern lies with the battery life of a mobile phone. While using the mobile cloud computing service on mobile phones, it would require less complex calculations for storage results and saving battery to help the user to run the application faster.
Limited space of memory on mobile phones would not allow users to store heavy educational content and profiles. The data center of the cloud will provide an appropriate storage space for the mobile applications and enable them to manage the user’s educational content demands and information in a streamlined way through wireless connection.
Amazon Simple Storage Service is an example that provide large storage space inside the clouds for mobile users. Complicate applications requires a lot of time and energy to run, not to mention that the hardware limitations of mobile devices prevents the users to take advantage of such mobile cloud services.
So therefore, the proposed system would utilize the clouds in order to reduce the hardware limitation. In order to increase reliability, data storage and running complex applications on clouds in an effective and efficient manner, data storage and application software would be stored on several servers and several back-up copies of the data would be taken as well.
The mobile cloud computing services would be served as free or low cost for students as data storage and processing would be transmitted to a data center in the cloud. File format compatibility and consistency to open files in this system would depend upon the user provided with an ID and password as if the user’s mobile phone changes, there will be no compromise in running the program and opening documents.
For the long term plan, it would be more efficient to purchase …
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