MobiDics: Cooperative Mobile e-Learning for Teachers

MobiDics: Cooperative Mobile e-Learning

for Teachers

Andreas Möller, Stefan Diewald, Luis Roalter Technische Universität München, Germany

Barbara Beege Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

Matthias Kranz Luleå University of Technology, Sweden

mLearn 2012, Helsinki, 17.10.2012

Technische Universität München

Agenda

1.  Introduction & Motivation

2.  Survey of demand

3.  MobiDics – A mobile didactics toolbox

4.  Discussion & Future work

17.10.2012 A. Möller, S. Diewald, L. Roalter, B. Beege, M. Kranz 2

1. Introduction & Motivation

Problem §  University courses held by associates or PhD students

§  Little teaching experience

§  Limited didactic knowledge

à  Awareness for didactically profound course preparation

à  Tool that provides docents the necessary didactic knowledge

à  Learning on mobile devices is explored more intensively

à  Facilitating time and location-independent learning


1. Introduction & Motivation

MobiDics – “Mobile Didactics” §  “A didactic toolbox for the pocket”

§  Mobile e-learning platform

§  For university teaching personnel

Features §  Knowledge acquisition

§  Encouragement of using didactic methods

§  Improvement of lessons

§  Improvement of learning in classic classroom settings

§  Dynamic and context-based adaption to individual needs


2. Survey of demand for m-learning support

Online Questionnaire: “Using new technologies” à  Assessment of demand for tools supporting course preparation

à  Potential of application of a mobile application

à  Problems of lecturers of current course preparation

Participants: §  103 involved people

§  43% PhD candidates – 15% Post Docs – 15% Assistant Profs – 27% Other

§  Recruited from Centre for Higher Education

§  53 female, 50 male

§  Average age: 32.9 (standard deviation = 8.8)



Results and Implications à  Technical basis is available:

§  92% regularly use smartphones §  92% check email §  79% search for information

à  Smartphone usage for information research (potentially on didactics) is adequate

à  Main reasons for spare usage of didactic methods: §  Missing substantiated knowledge about didactic methods §  Too little experience in teaching §  Limited preparation time for courses and lectures §  Lack of feedback on the success of didactic methods



Results and Implications à  MobiDics addresses the problems identified in the survey

à  Provides the educational background of didactic methods

à  Suggestions tailored to personal teaching needs

à  Feedback about specific method usage from other lecturers and professionals

à  Long-lasting impact of the system: especially young users


Agenda

1.  Introduction & Motivation

2.  Survey of demand

3.  MobiDics – A mobile didactics toolbox

4.  Discussion & Future work


3. MobiDics – A mobile didactics toolbox

à  Supports the preparation, structuring and execution of university courses

à  It is an e-learning/m-learning system

Design of MobiDics §  Didactic Methods

§  Functionality

§  Implementation



Learning Content: Didactic Methods §  Classic link between didactic background concepts

and formulated educational goals in class

§  Support individual learning phases: e.g. knowledge transfer, repetition, assurance of understanding

Arrangement of the Method Toolbox §  Two-dimensional matrix for method classification

§  Organized based on ARIPA and social forms (German translation: ARIVA; developed at TU Zurich; Kiel, 2008)



Arrangement: ARIPA & social forms for didactic methods

à  Each method incorporates an individual goal à  Teachers can use it to create learning situations

that are appropriate for their need


Social forms -> ARIPE

Work alone Group work Interactive with entire class

Frontal talk (class is listening)

A-lignment

R-eactivation

I-nformation

P-rocessing

A-nalysis


Functionality: Four paradigms guiding our research and development

1.  Everywhere Use

2.  Better Understanding

3.  Context Sensitivity

4.  Pervasive Cooperation

(Möller et al, 2011a)



Functionality: Method Management §  Browse by name, ratings, actuality,

or frequency

§  Methods can be rated and marked

§  Creation of own collection of personally methods for courses

§  Available without internet connection after synchronization

§  Methods comprise: extensive description, examples and ideas for practical implementation

§  Methods contain e.g. ideal group size, expected time, necessary material



Functionality: Explanation of Methods §  “Gallery mode”

§  Multimedia elements are available

§  Methods can link to external resources

Functionality: Multilingualism §  Multiple languages seamlessly

within one system

§  Wordings and concepts are translated



Functionality: Collaborative Learning and Exchange §  Learning from the experience or with the exchange with

others is central factor of learning success

§  Collaborative features are included: community or peer exchange

§  Rating system allows users to evaluate quality of content

§  Quality control determines the adequacy of methods for specific subjects

§  Filter function allows limiting method choices

§  Function for commenting methods



Functionality: Context Integration §  User can react on context-specific

conditions: e.g. room size, equipment §  Support of the integration in existing

teaching and learning environments: room management, reservation system

Functionality: User Management §  Every user creates an account:

provide additional information on a voluntary basis

§  User-generated content



Implementation mobile client applications and web interface (left) – server and database (right) 17.10.2012 A. Möller, S. Diewald, L. Roalter, B. Beege, M. Kranz 17

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add translations to methods by selecting a language in which the method is not described yet. Numeric fields (such as group size, estimated time, etc.) are automatically copied to the new language, only the translations of the textual fields have to be added.

User Management Every user of MobiDics creates an account with a nick name and additional optional information, such as age, profession (PhD student, tutor, professor, lecturer, …), discipline, courses teaching, experience, etc. This additional information is helpful for estimating the relevance of a user’s contribution in search queries. For example, the profession of a user who rated a method can be an indicator for the appropriateness in one’s own course, or the comment of an experienced professor might be especially valuable. Users can choose which fields are publicly visible to others to keep their desired level of privacy. This shall encourage e.g. newly appointed faculty members to use the app without the colleagues knowing this and thereby lower the border to use didactic methods in their lectures.

Implementation The MobiDics infrastructure consists of a server, a web interface and a mobile client application, which are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. A schematic overview of the MobiDics infrastructure. MobiDics consists of a mobile Android application and a web interface, which both synchronize with the web server and database of didactic methods in the background.

Server A SQL database holds all methods that are currently available to the system and manages their appearance on user’s devices based on language flags and access control information. With SQL queries, even complex searches with multiple conditions can be performed quickly in a large amount of data. The server also manages the user account system. Each time a user starts the local MobiDics application or logs into the web interface, she is authenticated with the server and potential changes are synchronized. Synchronization works in two directions: both new methods and comments are downloaded to the client, and local changes are uploaded to the server and delivered to other users. When the client application is used offline, the last synchronized state from a local database is used (a previous authentication must however have been successful to prevent unauthorized access). Changes are then transmitted on the next login. A XML-based data format is used to exchange information with the server and the mobile application. For all traffic between clients and the server a secure connection (HTTPS) is used.

Client The client application is programmed in Android, thereby supporting a wide variety and a large heterogeneity of devices (smartphones, tablets of different sizes). The user interface is automatically adapted to different screen sizes and ratios for optimal use of the available space. The client implements the platform-typical interaction paradigms such as gesture-based navigation (using a swipe to switch between methods), pinch to zoom, context-sensitive action bar menus etc. for a quick learning curve when interacting with the application and “feeling at home”. An incremental search shows results already while typing. Besides automatic content update through synchronization, also the application itself is updated automatically so that entirely new features can be added. The screenshots in Figure 2 illustrate the user interface.

Web Interface The entire functionality of MobiDics is also available in a web application implemented with AJAX. The interface available in the browser allows a more comfortable navigation in non-mobile settings, e.g. in the office or at home, and provides more screen space. It is also the convenient way to enter longer portions of text, e.g. for commenting on methods or uploading own content. The web application communicates with the database using PHP and SQL.


Implementation Screenshots of the mobile application


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Figure 2: Screenshots of the mobile application. Left: The main menu of didactic methods, sorted by “recently viewed”. Middle: The method description view with jump list to different sections. Right: The commenting function for methods.

Figure 3: Screenshots of the web interface. Left: The main menu of didactic methods (with language indicators). Right: the detailed description page of a method with multimedia content, such as images or sketches..

DISCUSSION AND FUTURE WORK We evaluated MobiDics in a two-step process. An initial prototype was evaluated online based on a video review (Möller et al., 2011a). We used this assessment for first feedback and estimation whether users would adopt the system. From the 103 users who saw the video demonstration and owned a smartphone, 51% declared that they would use MobiDics themselves “likely” or “very likely”. Asked for most appealing features, people named the criteria-based search (92%), illustrative multimedia examples (80%) and expert knowledge (63%). People here mentioned particularly features that are not available in traditional information sources. In a second step, the subsequent iteration of the system (as described in this paper) was informally evaluated by a group of users from the target group. Here, particularly the rating function and the ability to comment methods and contributions of others were highly appreciated.

We are aware that MobiDics lives from its users and their social interaction within the system. In future work, we are planning to conduct a long-term evaluation in the field. Observations and user feedback how the interactive tools of MobiDics (ratings, discussions, new method contributions) are used will hopefully help us to adjust the system to users’ needs. In particular, we strive to understand which learning processes MobiDics sets in motion through synergies and collaboration between peers. We are also interested in quantitative measurements of improvements of teachers’ satisfaction. Another scientific goal is a theoretical formalization of how didactic methods can be classified. The present version of MobiDics already integrates alternative names for methods. In the next step, differently described but similar methods should be matched to one and the same method entry (comparable to an alias). Subsequently, we aim to generalize this problem and deduce similarity models for methods, which could then better be matched with the user’s profile and interests.

We plan to conduct a long-term study with a larger number of people from different disciplines to gather more insights on the usage and acceptance of the current prototype and to identify future improvements for a release of MobiDics.


Implementation Screenshots of the web interface


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Implementation Screenshots of the web interface


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4. Discussion & Future work

Evaluation – two-step process 1.  Evaluation of initial prototype (103 participants)

§  51% declared they would use MobiDics “likely” or “very likely”

§  Asked for most appealing features:

2. Informal evaluation of subsequent iteration of the system

Highly appreciated

§  Rating function

§  Ability to comment methods and contributions 17.10.2012 A. Möller, S. Diewald, L. Roalter, B. Beege, M. Kranz 21

92%

80%

63%

Criteria-based research

Illustrative multimedia examples

Expert knowledge

4. Discussion & Future work

à  Long-term evaluation

à  Observations and user feedback

à  Adjust the system to users’ needs

à  Evaluate the learning process of synergies and collaboration

à  Improvement of teachers’ satisfaction

à  Theoretical formalization of classification of the methods

à  Deduce models for methods that better match

with the user’s profile and interests


Research Team

Prof. Dr. Matthias Kranz Andreas Möller Luis Roalter Stefan Diewald LTU Luleå, Sweden TUM, Germany TUM, Germany TUM, Germany Angelika Thielsch Barbara Beege Dr. Andreas Hendrich Dr. Barbara Meyer Univ. Göttingen, Germany LMU, Germany LMU, Germany LMU, Germany


Technische Universität München

Contact

[email protected] | [email protected] | [email protected] Technische Universität München, Germany [email protected] Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany [email protected] Luleå University of Technology, Sweden

17.10.2012 A. Möller, S. Diewald, L. Roalter, B. Beege, M. Kranz

? Questions

? 17.10.2012 A. Möller, S. Diewald, L. Roalter, B. Beege, M. Kranz

Thank you very much for your kind attention!

17.10.2012 A. Möller, S. Diewald, L. Roalter, B. Beege, M. Kranz

Literature

§  E. Kiel: Strukturierung. In E. Kiel (Ed.) Unterricht sehen, analysieren, gestalten, Utb. (2008)

§  A. Möller, A. Thielsch, B. Dallmeier, L. Roalter, S. Diewald, A. Hendrich, B. Meyer, M. Kranz: MobiDics - Improving University Education With A Mobile Didactics Toolbox, In: Video Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Pervasive Computing (Pervasive2011), San Francisco, CA, USA, June 2011

§  B. Meyer, B. Beege, A. Möller, A. Thielsch, A. Hendrich, M. Kranz: Förderung der Methodenkompetenz von Lehrenden an Hochschulen -- Design--Based Research rund um "MobiDics”, In: 77. Tagung der AEPF (Arbeitsgruppe für Empirische Pädagogische Forschung), Bielefeld, Germany, September 2012

§  A. Möller, A. Thielsch, B. Dallmeier, A. Hendrich, B. Meyer, L. Roalter, S. Diewald, M. Kranz: MobiDics - Eine mobile Didaktik-Toolbox für die universitäre Lehre, In: 9. e-Learning Fachtagung Informatik der Gesellschaft f. Informatik e.V. (DeLFI2011), pp. 139-150, Dresden, Germany, September 2011


Paper Reference

•  Please cite this work as follows: A. Möller, B. Beege, S. Diewald, L. Roalter, M. Kranz MobiDics: Collaborative Mobile E-Learning for Teachers In: 11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn 2012), p. 109-116, Helsinki, Finland, October 2012

BibTex entry: @inproceedings{mlearn2012, title={{MobiDics - Cooperative Mobile E-Learning for Teachers}}, author={Andreas M\"{o}ller and Barbara Beege and Stefan Diewald and Luis Roalter and Matthias Kranz}, booktitle={{Proceedings of the 11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn)}}, editor={Marcus Specht and Jari Multisilta and Mike Sharples}, pages={109--116}, year={2012}, month=oct, address={Helsinki, Finland}, isbn={978-952-10-8351-8}, }
