Interactive Patterns of Interactions for a Mind Mapping

2011 7th International Conference on IT in Asia (CITA)

Interactive Patterns of Interactions for a Mind Mapping Multimedia Courseware Noor Haitham Saleem, Manjit Singh Sidhu, Naser Adnan , Nameer A. Shafeek, Maha.M.Ablahd Yousif Department of Graphics and Multimedia, College of Information Technology Universiti Tenaga Nasional Selangor, Malaysia [email protected], [email protected] Abstract—Mind mapping is an illustration approach that has been used to facilitate the process of learning and the visualization of concepts better. In these days the utilization of mind mapping approaches in education have been increased significantly due to its success and its positive effect on students understanding especially in the Geography subjects which concepts are often difficult to visualize and to observe. In this paper we propose the use of multimedia and CAL applied in mind mapping in the geography of Malaysia by designing interactive patterns. An evaluation was conducted in some elementary schools to show the result of using this courseware in the education section. The project consists of a number of interactive pages designed to help Malaysian students aged between (11-13) years old, to visualize their understanding on the principles of geography in general, and the geography of Malaysia specifically, using their native language (Malay language). Keywords–Mind mapping; interactivity, courseware.

authoring

tools;

multimedia;

I. INTRODUCTION Today one of the most powerful techniques in learning is "Mind Mapping" [1]. One reason is because it helps learners remember information in the form of symbols, graphs or short words. In addition mind mapping is considered as an interactive approach to attract students’ attention because it gives the students much more time to fit in the topics that they need to cover and make revision less boring [1].

purposes. In this paper, we explain the design of an interactive mind mapping courseware that focuses on the geography subject. This subject was chosen because it was found that some students had difficulties in understanding the principles of geography, such as terrain, climate, rivers and mountains. Thus, these information and their sub-branches are difficult for the student to memorize without additional supporting aids, and that can make the representation of these information much easier and provide a more effective way to understand and retrieve these information. The proposed project was developed using the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) instructional design model [3]. The objective of designing this courseware is to provide students a learning environment that engages them in an interactive manner to learn geography. Secondly, to design a fast learning revision courseware that can help students remember important concepts of the subject matter, just before the exams. In addition to reduce the cognitive workload of using a text book to learn. Figure 1, shows the start up page of the courseware which was designed using ToolBook instructor.

There are many mind mapping content development tools available over Internet. For example SpicyNodes, Free Mind and Mind Genius which are web-based platforms that are interactive and easy to use. Most mind mapping software are implemented to serve the purpose of getting different perception and imagination of the text as a result that could enhance students’ learning. In this courseware extension, elements of design represented by graphs, sound and buttons, are blended with the mind mapping approaches to improve the interactivity in this courseware. Figure 1. The courseware startup page.

The huge utilization of computers today has revolutionized the learning methods [2]. For example, students may engage in collaborative and active learning, e.g., real life simulations and interact with the learning materials. As a result, many applications have been developed for teaching and learning

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II. THE IMPLICATION OF MULTIMEDIA COURSEWARE IN EDUCATION Various research works show the benefits of using multimedia courseware in education and its implication on

2011 7th International Conference on IT in Asia (CITA) students learning process. In terms of delivering the information and improving the learning as described by [4], the learning and the delivery of the information was higher when the information is presented via computer multimedia courseware than the traditional classroom. This is because multimedia provides interactivity which is beyond the capability of text books. The ‘interactive’ action in multimedia courseware refers to the process of empowering the user to control the environment usually by a computer [5]. As such this feature allows students engage to delve deeper into topics. For example, while students explore the terrain topics in the propose project, some are knowledgeable about the topics and thus, they may review it quickly while others may explore and review more. This could lead to the flexibility that these coursewares are consistent with students’ understanding.

A. Interactive map: One of the interactive elements that should exist in any geography courseware is the interactive map as shown in Figure 2. The map is designed for showing mountains in Malaysia, just by clicking on the name of any mountain (as labeled in the courseware) a green cursor will show students the exact location of that mountain. Besides that, when the students roll the mouse over a sea or another country sounds will be played to make students understand better.

Mind mapping approaches that are embedded in multimedia courseware lead to the creation of the interest and aspirations and to the encouragement of students as described by [6] may learn divergent thinking skills to enable students to select one path for further implementation through the integration of technical concepts of design. Another successful implication of multimedia courseware in education exists in entertainment, which simply could be represented by: animation, stories, games and quizzes all of these elements increased the interest of students to learn. A study done by [7] show that if the information that in introduced to students is more fun to use, students are more excited to use them and at the same time, it will increased entertainment value of education system. III. DESIGN OF PATTERNS OF INTERACTIONS When designing multimedia courseware, it is important to consider the human computer interaction aspect [8]. This is important because students need to engage in the learning process. Some of the important aspects include interactivity, design, colors, buttons and navigational elements. In this paper, we proposed nine patterns of interactions as listed in Table 1. These patterns of interactions were considered to be significant because it is believed that it could provide better means for engagement in the material. This courseware is a further improvement to the previously developed geography courseware at UNITEN, further details are given in [9, 10].

Figure 2. Interactive map

B. Writing notes tool: A useful interactive pattern of interaction according to students feedback was the writing notes tool as shown in Figure 3. Students are able to take notes from whatever they have learned and print these notes later. Another feature is available which enable students to save the courseware pages in a PDF file format, so they can review them anytime.

We selected four of the interactive patterns that are shown in Table I. to discuss about them in this paper. These are further elaborated in the next subsequent sections. TABLE I. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

INTERATIVE PATTRNS OF INTERATCTION

The elements of interactive patterns Interactive map. URL field to search and surf online Writing notes tool. Interactive tooltip. Different style for river flow. Interactive compass. Interactive Slider. Sound effect played in each chapter. Directions.

Figure 3. Writing notes tool

2011 7th International Conference on IT in Asia (CITA) C. Interactive tooltip: The tooltip tool is usually used to give hints or a brief explanation about topics, as shown in Figure 4. There are many questions which by clicking them shows the “orange label” which contains more information that could help students to visualize more clearly. The tooltip buttons are programmed using script language inside ToolBook to hide or show each label information that related to the specific tooltip to make it more interactive.

patterns of interactions in the geography courseware. We involved twenty three PMR students (primary school students) from different schools around the state of Selangor. We set a questionnaire as shown in Table 2 to evaluate the students’ opinions and their knowledge about the steps that occur in the courseware and how they perceive it. Students’ evaluations were conducted to gain further detail about their interactivity in the multimedia courseware and observing their responses, and their requirements. During our observation, the mind mapping was a successful approach to revise the topics especially when the interactive pattern of interaction represented by “note taking” when it is available. TABLE II. No.

Evaluation questions

Yes

No

1.

Do you like to learn geography concepts using computer? Did you think the animation and the patterns of interactions clear and related to geography topics? Was it easy for you to review the courseware pages? Did you learn something new?

15

8

18

5

13

10

12

11

Do you think your knowledge and visualization about geography principles improved? Do you think you need similar courseware for other subjects?

21

2

11

12

2.

3. 4. 5.

6. Figure 4. Interactive tooltip

D. Interactive Slider: These sliders enable students to measure the distance between two places. For example in our project we made the measurement between the home and school as shown in Figure 5. Students can drag the cursor from home and drop it anywhere to see the distance, in fact its initial tool that could help students learn how to measure between different places.

THE QUESTIONNAIRES

30 20 10 0

No Yes

V. CONCLUSION Based on the questionnaire, we noticed that the students were more interested to revise the topics using mind mapping techniques due to its representation to the education subject as a visual executive summary that could be a supported tool to students to revise before the exam. In particular, 21 of the 23 students agreed that their visualisation about geographical principles improved. At the same time many of some students noticed that they gained new knowledge by using the interactive map courseware (with the proposed patterns of interactions). Further work will be conducted to develop more interactive patterns of interactions that could represent advanced topics in geography. The mind mapping approach adopted in designing the courseware was found to be useful for students to understand the principles of geography. Figure 5. Interactive tooltip

IV. METHODOLOGY In order to improve the concepts of interactive learning we investigated about the capability of applying the interactive

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to express our sincere gratitude and thanks to Universiti Tenaga Nasional for allowing us to use a license copy of ToolBook instructor and special thanks are due to PNI

2011 7th International Conference on IT in Asia (CITA) Neoron company for the usage of the “Peta Minda Geography” book. REFERENCES [1]

W. Richard, “Revision Techniques”. Available at: http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~rwilliams/teaching.htm, 1999. [2] M. Sanjaya and S. Ramesh, “Interactive Multimedia in education and training”, IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING, USA, 2005, pp. 115-120. [3] Learning-Theories.com, available at: http://www.learningtheories.com/addie-model.html. [4] L. Najjar, “The effects of multimedia and elaborative encoding on learning”. Atlanta, GA:Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996. [5] R. Phillips “The developers handbook to interactive multimedia: A practical guide for education developers”, London: Kogan, pp. 8, 1997. [6] C. Pei-Fen, H. Shu-San and Y. Tse-Liang. “Improvement of the Interdisciplinary Approach For a Technological Creativity Course”. International Conference on Engineering Education. Norway, pp.15-17 , August 2001. [7] H. Martijn , “Towards a Theory of the Effectiveness of Multimedia Systems”, International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, 9(2), pp. 151-168, 1997. [8] Calvin C.Y. Liao, Z-H. Chen, Euphony F. Y. Yang, F-C Chen and T-W. Chan, “Exploring Interactive Patterns among Students in Competitive Games by a Mixed Approach”, 18th International Conference on Computers in Education. Putrajaya, Malaysia, pp. 153-155, 2010. [9] S. Manjit Sidhu, S. Noor Haitham, T. Mohanaad & A. Naser, “ToolBook Instructor as an Interactive Multimedia Authoring Tool, Graphics and Multimedia Symposium. Selangor, Malaysia, 2010. [10] SumTotalSystem, available at: http://www.sumtotalsystems.com/.