Information Security in Support for Mobile Collaborative Learning

This paper presents a study on information security considerations in mobile collaborative learning and how security plays a significant role in the design and implementation processes of e-Learning in general and collaborative learning in particular. Recent mobile technological advances offer further opportunities for these educational paradigms to be greatly exploited. In this context, over the last years, there has been an increasing attention and demand of new requirements related to information security, becoming a key requirement in e-Learning systems. However, the development of mobile supported collaborative learning guided by security as a key and transverse factor has been, to the best of our knowledge, little investigated. In order to improve collaborative learning security when adopting mobile learning models, we have investigated new security approaches, which may be applied in this context. To reach this goal, this paper provides firstly an overview of secure learning management systems, inspecting which are the most relevant factors to consider, and connecting this approach to specific aspects for mobile collaborative learning. Then, we report on real-life experience in security attacks in m-Learning showing a practical perspective of the learning management system vulnerabilities. From this experience and considerations, finally, the main guidelines for the design of security solutions applied to improve mobile collaborative learning are proposed.