Exploring Bluetooth Beacon Use Cases in Teaching and Learning: Increasing the Sustainability of Physical Learning Spaces

Abstract

Considering the surge in e-learning growth over the last decade and the proliferation of mobile devices in the Bring Your Own Device generation, this paper reviews selected use cases of Bluetooth beacons in educational situations. We review the contribution of Bluetooth beacons to a mixed pedagogy that uses digital and physical learning spaces, and we discuss the pilot deployment of Bluetooth beacons at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, to enhance physical learning spaces. Our work represents one of the first deployments of Bluetooth beacons in a university teaching and learning capacity and provides a starting point for others attempting to utilise beacon-enabled location-based services to enhance learner experiences. The widespread adoption of beacon technology in educational institutions has not yet occurred, and the most common usage of beacon transmitters and systems in education is for attendance-taking and dissemination of teaching material. Mobile applications are constantly being developed to utilise the location-based services provided by beacons to enhance student learning and effectiveness. This paper also discusses the sustainability benefits of beacon systems, especially in the contexts of smart campus and smart city development.

Smart Campuses: Extensive Review of the Last Decade of Research and Current Challenges

“…Griffiths et al [135] described the contribution of Bluetooth beacons to a mixed pedagogy that uses digital and physical learning spaces. Based on 33 studies that the authors reviewed on this topic, the main usage of this technology was found to be on attendance monitoring, smart buildings and campuses (e.g., occupancy detector, moving on campus, etc.…”

“…However, only a small sample of these studies actually appeared in the set of papers analyzed here, pointing to a potential lack of overlap between the smart campus and learning & teaching literatures. There is a clear enthusiasm in the surveyed literature for online, ubiquitous or mobile learning, where students can learn outside of the traditional classroom model, even though negative outcomes such as higher drop-out were also reported [135]. However, this body of work provides little insight on the "ideal" equilibrium between the various ways of learning & teaching in different smart campus contexts, and the focus is often put on technologies and infrastructures.…”

Where are You? Exploring Micro-Location in Indoor Learning Environments

“…However, the application of micro-location in educational settings is still incipient. A recent review [32] shows only 33 studies exploring the use of Bluetooth Beacon in teaching and learning physical spaces. The majority of those studies are focused on location-based dissemination of educational information (15), while others on the use of beacons for monitoring (7) and implementation of smart services in the campus.…”

“…Moreover, the work of Griffiths et al [32] described the use of Bluetooth beacons to create an intelligent campus at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In order to improve learning in physical spaces, location sensors were used to foster students meeting during their free time, to determine the position of hands up in classrooms, to check students' presence, and disseminate exercises.…”

Mobile Sensing with Smart Wearables of the Physical Context of Distance Learning Students to Consider Its Effects on Learning

“…Outdoor location tracking is reasonably accurate and straightforward using geolocation services such as GPS. Additionally, some smartphone operating systems use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cell towers to increase accuracy (e.g., [ 29 ]). These additional signals can also be leveraged to pinpoint locations in places where geolocation signals are not available, such as indoors.…”