Environment-Triggered Microlearning

In ubiquitous (micro)learning, any place is a potential learning environment, be it a couch at home or a noisy place in public. For an optimal experience, learning should, therefore, be adjusted to the learner’s environment and needs in a specific environment, e.g., with respect to available attentional resources. At the same time, changing environments provide a unique opportunity as a source of immediately relevant learning material, e.g., context-based vocabulary in language learning. In my thesis, I explore environment-triggered learning from both perspectives. I investigate how a learner’s physical location or mental state can trigger learning activities at a suitable moment and keep learners engaged. On the content side, I investigate how session content can be matched to the learner’s surroundings. In these two areas, I conceptualize and evaluate tools that utilize context to improve the environment-based learning experience. This paper is presented at MobileHCI 2020 Doctoral Consortium.