A Semantic web Solution for Circumventing Disparities Between Electronic-Learning Systems and Mobile-Learning Systems

E-Learning is the use of networked information and communications technology in teaching and learning entailing, online learning, virtual learning, distributed learning, networked and web-based learning with the following modalities; individualised self-paced e-learning online/offline and group - based e-leaning synchronous/asynchronous in which the minimum requirement is a desktop computer. M-learning is defined as learning delivered or supported solely by mobile technologies such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, tablets or wireless laptops. A mobile device is a hand held device capable of sending and receiving messages, and calls while moving around a wide geographical space. It connects to a cellular network provided by mobile phone operator with access to public telephone networks. In addition to telephony, mobile devices such as cell phones offer other services such as text messaging, e-mail, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile devices that offer these services have more general computing capabilities than the old models. They are normally called smart phones. In today's education, e-learning and m-Learning are becoming an integral part of curricular delivery medium. Learners and instructors expect to see no differences between the use of e-learning systems and m-learning systems. Information is expected to flow seamlessly between these dissimilar systems. Users envisage a scenario where there are no drawbacks to the learning process due to the type of learning system in use. It is sufficient to applaud e-learning and m-Learning for enhancing access to learning material, and for learner and instructor interaction. However, the implementation of the different technologies for both e-learning and m-Learning have come with an unanticipated cost of restricting the mode of operation and capabilities when integrating e-learning and m-Learning for curricular delivery and access to learning materials. This paper addresses disparities encountered when integrating e-learning and m-Learning in the learning process and envisage an ontology and semantic web technology implementation as a solution. The features, operations and use cases that cause bottlenecks in curricular delivery are articulated in a base ontology and semantic web for the purpose of system interoperability and seamless flow of learning content in dissimilar computing devices.