Virtual Learning Environments based on Beacons Devices

Abstract

Due to current developments it is important that education go hand in hand with technology. Currently, there are several technological devices that allow a more didactic management of learning and beacons are some interesting devices to apply them in education. This paper presents a new methodology for virtual learning environments based on Beacons devices. Specifically, we developed a prototype that allows information to be displayed on a smartphone application. For this, the mobile device communicates with the beacon, which indicates the information that must be displayed in the application. Although any content can be used in this proposal, we show as example the curricular content of an educational center. The proposed prototype takes advantage of the operating principle of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The use of Beacons allows Smartphone-Beacon automated communication. More specifically, a mobile application has been developed in the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) of Android Studio, which is responsible for scanning the iBeacon protocol and the automatic generation of the notification that links the end user to a web repository. Prototype tests were carried out on students and encouraging results were obtained. These results demonstrate that the learning process can be improved using our proposal, that is, education-oriented Beacons is an interesting option for internet-of-things (IoT) based education. A systematic review of the literature has not found a solution similar to the one presented.