MODELING OF MOBILE LEARNING Mahmoud Mohanna and Laurence Capus Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering Université Laval Quebéc, Canada
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[email protected] ABSTRACT Mobile learning is a special case of distance learning, which in turn is considered as a technological evolution of the conventional learning. This paper proposes a doctoral research project aims to construct a comprehensive model of mobile learning. Research questions and objectives are discussed. CommonKADS methodology accompanied with its model suite is introduced and explained why it has been chosen to guide the modeling process. Research plan is identified including work done so far and next research steps. KEYWORDS Mobile learning, CommonKADS, modeling
1. INTRODUCTION As a result of the mobile era and the explosion in the growth of mobile communications, Mobile learning (will be referred to it as m-learning in the rest of document) plays a growing role in the field of education. However, this fast growing type of learning faces many social, pedagogical and technical problems. To date, m-learning has no strict definition and no worldwide standard. Consequently, mobile technology is not perfectly utilized in the field of education and the possible gains that could be obtained from the employment of this fast growing technology have not been recognized yet. Accordingly, researchers have lot to do in order to bridge the gap between the actual situation of m-learning and what potentially could be achieved due to its distinct features and capabilities. This document presents briefly a doctoral research project in the mentioned track. Our research aims at modelling the m-learning processes to provide a deep understanding of m-learning process in order to help the following researcher and developers in the same field. In the next section, we first briefly discuss m-learning special characteristics as well as its pedagogical and technical challenges. In section 3, we define m-learning associated problems which motivate our research. Section 4 states the research objectives and section 5 discusses briefly the CommonKADS methodology which is utilized to achieve the research objectives and why we have chosen it. In section 6, we illustrate what is done so far as well as next research steps.
2. CHARACTERISTICS OF M-LEARNING M-learning is a new type of learning based on mobile technology where students can follow up their education anywhere, anytime, and any form using their mobile devices. These devices must respond to students requests and provide them with all required information effectively. Moreover, they should provide interactive communications between all sides of the learning process: students, instructors, and education administrators. M-learning is simply defined as the ability to obtain or provide educational content on personal pocket devices such as Tablets, PDAs, smartphones and mobile phones [4]. It is agreed that m-learning requires further development in terms of both technology and pedagogy to meet its potential expectations.
2.1 M-learning pedagogic characteristics M-learning offers three specials pedagogical advantages in the three learning experiences; individual, social, and contextual as follows [2]: 1. Constructive (Individual): M-learning provides the possibility to combine learning with moving, field education with ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). It can also provide the individual services according to student’s needs and his individual learning style. 2. Collaborative (Social): M-learning offers the opportunity to create a community of students will be beneficial to other students’ experiences and this can be done by good utilisation of communication tools provided by the mobile technology. 3. Situated (Contextual): M-learning provides support for context-aware learning. This is a great advantage of m-learning as the activities of the student and his surroundings are central and effective in determining learning objectives and educational contents.
2.2 M-learning technical characteristics Using of mobile devices provides some features which have large effect on the learning process driven by mobile learning. The following technical factors result in the unique and special nature of m-learning and should be taken in concern during the design and the development of any m-learning process [4]: 1. Mobility: As longs as the learner is covered by the telecommunication network, he/she has access to the learning material anytime and anywhere within the coverage area. 2. Real time: M-learning is a real time learning method as it allows the learner a continuous and instantaneous access to the learning material. 3. Virtualization: Mobile device with cameras allows the instructors to create virtual classrooms. In addition, the ability of performing video calls provides high degree interactivity and interrelationships between the learners and their instructors. 4. Bit-Sized: As the traffic of the telecommunication networks has a great effect on the interconnection between different parties of m-learning, the educational content should be relatively short and comprehensive.
2.3 M-learning limitations Despite of its great offered pedagogical capabilities, m-learning has considerable defects and pedagogical drawbacks that cannot be neglected such as: 1. Lack of face-to-face interaction: In the traditional classroom, people can get to know each other and develop contacts and it is simple for them to access instructors to ask questions and receive guidance. The lack of face-to-face interaction and mentoring might make mobile learning very tough. 2. Lack of learning motivation: Mobile phones are designed for communicating with the other people, not for learning purposes. Therefore, many people would lack the psychological motivation needed to use consistently mobile phone in learning. 3. Lack of convenient learning environment: The mobility feature of m-learning has its drawback; that is surrounding environment may negatively influence the gain of the learning process or even interrupts it, this effect can be considered unavoidable. Furthermore, there are also some technical limitations that impede the growth and the acceptance of mlearning such as the cost of service utilisation, small screens and low resolutions, input limitations, limited battery life, internet access limitations, standard and compatibility problems, and security challenges [5].
3. RESEARCH QUESTION As a new research area, mobile learning is in its infancy, it is considered as a raw area for research. Consequently, a lot of work should be done to put the mobile learning in the right position which it deserves according to its distinct features and capabilities.
Most of trials and case studies of m-learning currently applied now are individual and separate cases [6]. It is obvious that there are no global standard or clear guide lines to be followed to construct a complete and integrated mobile learning process. The main problems related to the development of m-learning systems are summarized in the following points: 1. There no formulation of mobile learning and no standard ruling it. 2. M-learning could not completely replace the e-learning as a result of its pedagogical and technical limitations explained earlier, and the low degree of acceptance and awareness of its capabilities. 3. The roles of different actors involved in learning process based on m-learning (educators, learning administrators, and the learners) are not clearly defined. 4. M-learning currently does not represent more than a complementary part of an educational course which can be easily displaced or removed without a considerable effect on the learning process. In others cases it is used to deliver a very small and simple learning material. 5. The contribution of m-learning in the learning process is not clear, in other words; there is no clear answer to the following question: “To what extent mobile learning can represent an added value to the learning process and play an essential part in it?”. Consequently, the main research question which collects all the previously mentioned problems in one statement can be defined as: “How to formulate a complete learning process depends basically on the mobile technology including the definition of the roles of all involved agents?”
4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The main objective of our research is to provide a complete and satisfactory answer for the mentioned research question. More precisely, the research objective is to: “Propose a complete and generic model for a learning process based mainly on the mobile technology profiting entirely its capabilities and benefits provided by it” This objective could be divided into specific sub-objectives as follows: 1. The first trigger of our research is to clearly define all components of the m-learning process. 2. Our research aims at providing a strict definition of m-learning tasks as well as all actors who carry out these tasks. 3. The final proposed model should be applicable and generic enough to be feasible in different domains from the lowest to the highest education levels and for vast variations of learning applications. 4. The proposed model should minimize as much as the impacts of m-learning limitations discussed earlier. 5. It is essential to achieve the maximum profitability from the expected evolutions and advances in mobile devices and telecommunication technology.
5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CommonKADS (Common Knowledge Analysis and Design System) [1] is a comprehensive methodology for development of knowledge based systems covers the whole knowledge based process including knowledge analysis and engineering as well as system design and implementation introducing the knowledge-oriented methods and techniques for organizational analysis. CommonKADS is the product of a series international research and application projects on knowledge engineering since 1983. It was developed by a number of industry-university consortia. At that time, there was little interest in such methodological issues, but nowadays it is in use worldwide by many companies and institutions.
5.1 Methodological pyramid A methodology such as CommonKADS like any other software development approach has a set of elements. These elements are represented in the form of a pyramid which is called the methodological pyramid. This pyramid is shown and explained briefly by figure 1.
Figure 1. Building blocks of methodological pyramid [1]
The CommonKADS process can be summarized in following steps: 1. Organizational analysis. 2. Business process analysis. 4. Knowledge capture. 5. Knowledge modeling. 7. System test.
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Knowledge elicitation. System development.
5.2 CommonKADS model suite The core of CommonKADS methodology consists of three groups of models; these models are the answers of three basic classes of questions related to the system under examination (as described in figure 2), these questions are: 1. Why: why a knowledge base system is considered a solution for the mentioned problem? 2. What: what is the nature and structure of the knowledge involved, and the corresponding communication? 3. How: how the knowledge will be implemented in a computer system?
Figure 2. CommonKADS model suite [1]
Now, we will represent a quick overview for each element of the CommonKADS model set illustrated in figure 1: 1. Organization Model: The organization model supports the analysis of the major features of an organization to discover the problems and the opportunities of knowledge systems and establish their feasibility.
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Task Model: The task model analyzes the global task layout, its inputs and outputs, preconditions and performance criteria, in addition to needed resources and competences. Agent Model: Agents are the executers of tasks. An agent can be human, an information system, or any other entity can be carry out a task. The agent model describes the characteristics of agents, their competences, their authorities and constraints. Knowledge Model: The knowledge model is to explicate in detail the types and structures of knowledge used to perform a task. It provides an implementation-independent description of the different knowledge components in a way which is understandable by humans. Communication Model: The communication model represents the communicative transactions between the agents involved in the different tasks, it is also provided in an implementation-independent way. Design Model: The previous models constitute the requirements and specifications of the knowledge system. The design model provides the technical system specifications based on the determined requirements. These technical specifications include the implementation platform, software modules, representational constructs, and computational mechanisms.
5.3 Why CommonKADS? CommonKADS provides us the ability to deeply define all parts and actors of the business process, i.e. such a comprehensive solution we look for. The three context models describe the m-learning process related context: educational institution providing m-learning services, tasks carried out along the mentioned process, and agents who are responsible for carrying out these tasks. Concept modeling stage consolidates context knowledge and prepares for the development phase (artefact model) of m-learning pilot application. It is important to mention that it is not mandatory to construct all models included in CommonKADS model suite; this is an additional advantage of such methodology.
6. DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH STEPS Our research started with deep literature review, it is important here to note that it is crucial to review the literature on regular basis to keep track with rapid evolutions in telecommunication technologies. So far, the context modeling phase is complete. Concept modeling (knowledge and communication) takes place in the first half of 2012. Afterwards, a pilot application would be developed (design model), tested, and applied to a real distance learning course in autumn 2012. The applied pilot application will be evaluated through several methods such as: 1. Self monitoring. 2. Feedback from students through questionnaires and individual interviews. 3. Comparing students’ performance and their test results with such of the same course in class. A complete text and official PhD defense would be ready by the beginnings of 2013.
REFERENCES [1] Schreiber, G. et al, 1999.Knowledge Engineering and Management: The CommonKADS Methodology. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. [2] Ryu, H., and Parsons, D, 2009. Innovative Mobile Learning: Techniques and Technology. Information Science Reference, Hershey, New York, USA. [3] Laouris, Y. and Eteokleous, N., 2005. We need an educationally relevant definition of Mobile learning. Proceedings of the 4th World Conference on Mobile Learning, Cape Town, South Africa, pp. 290-294. [4] Traxler, J., 2005. Defining Mobile learning, Proceedings of International Conference Mobile Learning IADIS ‘05, Qawra, Malta. [5] Shudong, W. and Higgins, M., 2005. Limitations of Mobile Phone Learning, Proceedings of IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education, Tokushima, Japan. [6] Finkelstein, J., Wood, J., Cha, E., 2010. Introducing a Blackberry eLearning Platform for Interactive Hypertension Education, Second International Conference on Mobile, Hybrid, and On-Line Learning, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 77-81.
