Critical success factors for the development of mobile learning applications

The importance and acceptance of M-Learning systems by both students and faculty is becoming increasingly important. The advantages offered by Such systems such as accessibility, mobility, collaboration, and the opening of the educational process for continuous and lifelong learning are of paramount importance. Since teaching and learning has been practised for thousands of years, the transfer of this process into the electronic environment requires a holistic, interdisciplinary approach. This paper identifies and examines three major areas of critical Success factors for the development of mobile learning applications. The first one includes the understanding of characteristics, peculiarities and constraints of the various mobile devices and technologies to be used in M-Learning. The second major area investigated is the learners' needs and requirements. The third area is the examination of the quality components, namely usability, functionality, reliability, efficiency, maintainability and portability for the successful development of mobile learning applications. Finally, the synergy of all these factors are incorporated into a proposed mobile learning engineering process called MobE.