An Ontology-Driven Transformation Engine for Mobile Language Learning

E-learning platforms have become a very popular component in education. The spread of handled devices and their everyday use for data communication would therefore suggest a spreading use of these devices for mobile learning too. However, several factors seem to have slowed down their adoption. One of the main reasons is that accessing an e-learning platform with a mobile device is often a frustrating experience, since they are not suited for this kind of device. This problem is particularly evident with activities that require specific physical tasks to be accomplished (e.g., activities that heavily involve selecting, dragging and entering text), as in typical exercises for language learning. In this paper we describe the approach we adopted to transform activities. It includes the definition of a special syntax through which activities are composed, a transformation ontology and a transformation engine. In addition, we provide two use cases showing the reasoning behind the transformations.