Mobile based education and testing system

Abstract

A mobile based learning and testing system comprising a mobile device for mobile based learning and testing, wherein the mobile device is communicatively coupled to a server that supports retrieving educational and instructional material and testing. The mobile device comprises a downloadable educational mobile app capable of presenting educational and instructional material retrieved from the server, facilitating group interactions, providing a mock test, conducting an actual test and arranging automatic registration of a user of the mobile device based on a test result from the actual test. The downloadable educational mobile app presents the educational and instructional material (retrieved from the server, or locally) to the user of the mobile device based at least on the user's membership in a group of users, the user's membership information being maintained by the server.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A downloadable educational mobile app for a mobile device for mobile based learning and testing, the mobile device communicatively coupled to a server, the downloadable educational mobile app comprising:
 the downloadable educational mobile app configured to present educational and instructional material retrieved from the server, facilitate group interactions, provide a mock test, conduct an actual test and arrange automatic registration of a user of the mobile device based on a test result from the actual test;   the downloadable educational mobile app configured to present the educational and instructional material to the user based at least on the user's registration into a course or a program, the user's registration information being maintained by the server;   the downloadable educational mobile app facilitating group interaction by the user with other members of a group of users organized for the course or the program; and   the downloadable educational mobile app providing a mock test to the user based at least on a user request or a based on a schedule.   
     
     
         2 . The downloadable educational mobile app of  claim 1  further comprising:
 the downloadable educational mobile app configured to administer an actual test and collect a test response set from the user; and 
 the downloadable educational mobile app configured to present a test result to the user, wherein the test result is provided based on the actual test taken by the user and the test response set. 
 
     
     
         3 . The downloadable educational mobile app of  claim 2  further comprising:
 the downloadable educational mobile app configured to receive, display to the user, save a test completion certificate that comprises a date, a reference to the actual test and the test result, send the test completion certificate to a third party if necessary, and selectively share the test completion certificate with other users or with external servers. 
 
     
     
         4 . The downloadable educational mobile app of  claim 2  further comprising:
 the downloadable educational mobile app configured to automatically register the user with the server for other follow-up activities based on at least the test result. 
 
     
     
         5 . The downloadable educational mobile app of  claim 4  wherein the follow-up activities is one or more from the set comprising a follow-up test, receiving remedial study material, an appointment with a counselor, receiving ebooks, documents, articles and papers for further study, and retaking the test. 
     
     
         6 . The downloadable educational mobile app of  claim 1  further comprising:
 the downloadable educational mobile app configured to administer an actual test and collect a test response set from the user, based on which the downloadable educational mobile app is configured to automatically register the user with the server for another follow-up test, wherein the follow-up test is one of a more advanced test, a less advanced test, a repeat test, a complimentary test, a comprehensive breadth coverage test and a narrow expertise test. 
 
     
     
         7 . The mobile device of  claim 1  further comprising:
 the downloadable educational mobile app configured to facilitate conducting the actual test by displaying portions of the actual test on the mobile device while soliciting the test response set from the user, collecting the test response set from the user, and sending it to a second mobile device associated with a second user for grading; 
 the downloadable educational mobile app in the mobile device configured to receive a test result from the second mobile device, based upon a grading operation executed by the second user on the second mobile device; and 
 the downloadable educational mobile app in the mobile device configured to present the test result received to the user. 
 
     
     
         8 . The downloadable educational mobile app of  claim 2  wherein the downloadable educational mobile app provides preparatory material to the user, prior to the actual test, wherein the preparatory material comprises references to at least one of a relevant document, a relevant book, a specific relevant section in a book, a study guide, a tutorial, a cheat sheet, a practice test, and an example problem with an associated solution. 
     
     
         9 . The downloadable educational mobile app of  claim 1  further comprising:
 the downloadable educational mobile app configured to administer a first test to a user, automatically process a test response set provided by the user in response to the first test to compute a first test results, automatically determine remedial activities that need to be provided to the user based on the first test results, and present a custom user material associated with the remedial activities to the user that is retrieved from a server or an external system communicatively coupled to the mobile device or the server. 
 
     
     
         10 . A mobile app for education used in a mobile device communicatively coupled to a server, the mobile app comprising:
 the mobile app configured to communicate user registration information to the server for a course or education program facilitated by the server;   the mobile app configured to present to the user instructional material, training videos, reference material received from the server based on the user registration information;   the mobile app configured to present a test to the user, gather a test response set, and communicate the test response set to the server;   the mobile app configured to receive a test result and present it for review by the user; and   the mobile app configured to present to the user details of followup activities communicated by the server based on the test result.   
     
     
         11 . The mobile app of  claim 10  wherein followup activities comprise one or more of a follow-up test, remedial study material, an appointment with a counselor, relevant ebooks, relevant documents, articles and papers for further study, and additional courses. 
     
     
         12 . The mobile app of  claim 10  wherein followup activities comprise presenting feedback to the user and highlighted sections of a reference material that contain relevant answers to questions in the test, specially marking answers for questions in the test that the user had not answered or had answered wrong, wherein the reference material comprises at least one of an ebook, a scanned document, a digital version of a book, an editable version of a book, and links to webpages. 
     
     
         13 . The mobile app of  claim 10  further comprising:
 the mobile app configured to receive a notification from the server, wherein the notification comprises one of a reference and a link to a test that has been scheduled, or a lesson to be reviewed by the user; and 
 the mobile app configured to, in response to the notification, retrieve the test that has been scheduled or the lesson to be reviewed from the server, automatically display it to the user, and gather user response. 
 
     
     
         14 . The mobile app of  claim 10  wherein the mobile app is configured to facilitate the user in taking the test, by providing, as necessary for the test, prompts, input fields for the user to enter data in numeric and textual format, multiple choice prompts displayed as necessary with inclusive or exclusive sets of choices, buttons for audio recording, buttons for capturing digital photo images, buttons for recording video, and marking support for placing a mark on displayed images. 
     
     
         15 . The mobile app of  claim 10  wherein the mobile app is configured to present a schedule for another course or another test to the user wherein the another course or another test is automatically identified based on the test result of the user. 
     
     
         16 . The mobile app of  claim 10  wherein the mobile app is configured to present selectively one or more of the following, assigned to the user based on the test result: further study guides, additional lessons, video or audio guided activities, class schedules, automatic registration into one or more courses, and remedial course registrations. 
     
     
         17 . A server communicatively coupled to a plurality of mobile devices, the server comprising:
 the server configured to provide online tests to a plurality of users on their associated ones of the plurality of mobile devices, collect test responses, and provide test results;   the server configured to recommend appropriate career choices, remedial activities, reference material or courses to the plurality of users on their associated ones of the mobile devices, based upon their individual test results;   the server configured to provide answer sets or a reference to answer sets for any test conducted; and   the server configured to automatically deliver ebooks, reading material, instructional material, practice tests and guidance to the plurality of users on their associated ones of the plurality of mobile devices, based on their corresponding test results from the online tests.   
     
     
         18 . The server of  claim 17  configured to let a first user from the plurality of users take a first test across multiple sessions employing one or more of the plurality of mobile devices if necessary, wherein test responses provided by the first user collected by the server is a collection of all the answers provided by the first user to the questions of the first test including all the numeric inputs, text inputs, audio inputs or references thereof, digital photos provided or references thereof, and multiple choice selections provided. 
     
     
         19 . The server of  claim 17  wherein the remedial activities are facilitated by the server and wherein the remedial activities comprise undertaking a set of remedial online classes, viewing a tutorial session, reviewing a portion of an ebook for study, reading a personalized teaching material, working through workbook exercises, viewing a video demonstration, and taking a subsequent practice test. 
     
     
         20 . The server of  claim 17  further comprises:
 the server configured to facilitate group interactions by first user among the plurality of users with other members of a first group of users from the plurality of users organized by the server, wherein group interactions comprise sending inquiries to one or more members of the group by the first user, receiving responses to inquiries by all the members of the first group, collaborating on document creation, sharing notes and documents, sharing assignments completed, sharing data collected, and collaboratively on completing assignments.