joining two words: iPod - Apple's portable player - and ... available to the public [11], Harvard Business. Publishing (Harvard Business School) with HBR.
Publishing learning content on mobile devices Iasmina Ermalai, Andrei Ternauciuc, Mihai Onita, Radu Vasiu “Politehnica” University of Timisoara {iasmina, andrei, mihai, radu}@cm.upt.ro
Abstract An important part of the eLearning experience is the availability and readiness of the didactical content. A digital student must have access to all sorts of learning material from any location, at any given time. Therefore, there should be a great emphasis on mobile accessibility. The emergence of media-rich learning material means that the old content distribution systems, which were designed to deliver mainly text information, have become obsolete. New methods were needed, and from the tools developed in the Web 2.0 boom, one stands out as the sought after solution: podcasting. This is the new trend embraced by major university around the world and also by “Politehnica” University of Timisoara.
1. Introduction Developing and implementing new tools, following new directions implies taking into consideration two main aspects: the target group and existing implementation. In this case the target group consists of students at The Distance Learning Center of “Politehnica” University of Timisoara and the tested technology is podcasting. Podcasting, which refers to selecting and then receiving audio-video file subscriptions automatically [1], is considered by many an emerging technology with several educational and training applications. By using podcasting, students would have the possibility to access, re-listen and rewatch courses and/or learning material directly from a mobile device of their choice (smart phone, mp3 player, PDA, iPod). The platform we have developed has been designed having in mind the distinctive needs of students and tutors. It can be accessed both from computers and mobile devices. Teachers have the possibility to upload, modify and delete learning content (audio, video, documents) and students to subscribe through a RSS feed to the teachers’ channel so that they would be notified with every new update. In the near future we intend to proceed with the evaluation of the students’ use of the podcasts and the impact podcasting has on the learning process and therefore their academic results. Based on the drawn
conclusions we will establish further improvements and implementations.
2. Podcasting as a method of delivering knowledge Everything starts with a vision upon which reality is built. A vision of what learning through mobile devices should be, “science fiction” at that time, was first formulated in the year 1968 by Alan Kay. The author stated in the article “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages” [2] that technology is not more important than a book in the learning process, but that it can be a better “book”, an active one, just like the child is. The purpose of the personal portable computer, Dynabook, was never to save the world but to offer a new set of horizons. It took around 30 years for this vision to be brought to life and the first studies about mLearning as a pedagogical tool began to appear around the year 2000. Many of the principles mentioned by Sharples that year are still of interest and even under development in nowadays mLearning. [3] [4] Podcasting is actually a new form of delivering educational content on mobile devices, a particularization of the mLearning technique. Initially the term “podcasting” was formed by joining two words: iPod - Apple’s portable player - and broadcasting. Later on, POD was associated with the expression “Portable on Demand”, due to copyright issues. [5] The essence of podcasting is content generation (audio and/or video) for a group of people that can listen or watch it whenever, wherever and however they choose to. Podcasting became as of late the most “fashionable” technology there is, its use and popularity visibly increasing even in education [6]. Here are some reasons for this: it is a much cheaper method of delivering audio/video content to students than burning optical discs; it gives tutors complete control over their material: they can replace it, improve it and erase it whenever they consider it to be necessary; it is mobile and on-demand straight to the students’ ears.
The type of the generated content can be as varied as there are academic subjects. From university lectures on human sciences, to videos of dangerous chemical reactions, almost any aspect involving higher learning (or corporate training, for that matter) can be neatly packaged and delivered through this technology. Nevertheless, there are also some drawbacks which should be taken into consideration when implementing this method: podcasting is linear and oneway and tutoring needs interaction and feedback. Therefore, podcasting as a teaching enhancement must be entwined with some other (social) software which would provide some degree of interaction (chat, blogs, forums, etc). [7]
student. These statistics led us to the idea of publishing learning content also on mobile devices using the podcasting technology. We have therefore implemented a podcasting interface that allows teachers to access their account and modify personal information, upload study materials (documents, audio, video), publish it on their personal page, choose which groups of students have access to it and for how long, etc.
3. Existing podcasting solutions One of the most daring educational enterprises using podcasts happened a few years ago at Duke University as part of the Duke Digital Initiative. Here in the year 2007 there were already 1,300 students and 85 professors using iPods in 71 courses [6]. Duke’s advantage over other universities was the large scale of the project and the direct involvement of Apple and its iPod products beginning with the 2004-2005 study year. Over the last four years students have continuously reported that the use of portable devices has increased their involvement and academic results. [8] Duke it is not the only university using podcasting. The number of institutions turning towards this technology is increasing as we speak. Here are a few examples of “podcasting universities” that have already recorded a success in this direction: The University of Tennessee and its directory of academic and event podcasts [9], Johns Hopkins University and its audio recordings of Johns Hopkins faculty and alumni [10], Princeton University with UChannel (also known as the University Channel), that makes videos of academic lectures and events from all over the world available to the public [11], Harvard Business Publishing (Harvard Business School) with HBR IdeaCast™, a free podcast featuring breakthrough ideas and commentary from leading thinkers in business and management [12]. And the list can go on.
4. Proposed framework In the context described above, the Distance Learning Centre of the “Politehnica” University of Timisoara must fulfill the required conditions for a modern, reliable and rich learning management system. After a few years of conducting a series of questionnaires with students from the Distance Learning Centre, we established that there is a significantly growing need for mobility at nowadays’
Fig. 1. Screenshot of the tutors’ upload area The previous screenshot depicts how a tutor’s account looks like in this phase of development. Teachers can upload a specific material in different media formats (.avi, .mp3, .mp4, .3gp); in the visualization part, only the extensions of the existing uploaded material will appear on the page as downloadable. Besides the possibility to simply download the material, there is also the possibility to watch the videos online and to subscribe to the page. This facility gives students the possibility to be notified as soon as a change is made and a new material is available on the site. The username and password each student receives gives him/ her automatic access to the courses corresponding to the year of study. Outside access for students not currently enrolled in the course is possible, if the tutor allows it. So far they cannot upload their own material or modify the existing ones. They can only visualize the audio and/or video content, download it or subscribe to a course channel. As a further development we intend to create a special student podcasting module where they could manage their own material. The purpose of this interface is to implement the podcasting principles of anywhere – anytime, media-rich, mobile accessible learning material. Through rigorous security protocols, tutors can control
the access to the multitude of audio-video files they previously uploaded, whilst ensuring the relevance of the material. The podcasts’ listing page is available for students and tutors in the same way, as it can be seen below:
Fig. 2. Screenshot of the student’s browser view The mobile part of the application has been customized taking into consideration the limitations of mobile devices. We kept everything as simple as possible. So far we have developed it only so that media files could be downloaded for future use. There was no need for the RSS part, so we removed it. Moreover, we considered that is was not necessary to have an upload part, at least not in this stage of development. This module is adaptable enough in order to be used with the intended platform or, with some minor modifications (concerning primarily interface issues), with any other platform using similar web technologies.
There still are limitations depending on the mobile device at hand. For instance, on an iPhone [14] one can only view files supported by Quicktime. Also, different types of smartphones with different types of operating systems require different file formats. Hence the need for multiple file types for the same video (or audio) material. This makes it nearly impossible to watch the content inside the browser, so the students have to save the files locally, and play them using the mobile device’s own video player. Still, since nearly all mobile terminals sold today have enough storage space (either with or without changeable memory cards) in order to accommodate a sufficient quantity of media content, this should not be a problem. And by using third party web browsers, such as Opera Mini [13], the users can access their phones’ file systems in order to save and then play locally any desired content. The Podcast module is currently under rigorous testing with the students from the Distance Learning Centre.
5. Conclusions and further development The existing study is just the beginning of a longer process. According to the test results so far, further improvements to our podcasting application will be required. There is also an administrator interface that needs to be developed. This interface will allow a “superuser” to have complete control over the application’s database, to create and erase accounts, to control privileges for specific users. Another idea would be to create an account that will manage all other accounts for tutors and students alike, and allocate the latter ones to the appropriate courses. This lesser privileged administrator account could be handled by the university’s human resources department. With the proposed improvements to this podcasting application we consider that it could become an innovative and useful tool for the “Politehnica” pedagogical environment. It could prove to be indispensable for the eLearning process, while improving the traditional learning process with efficient content distribution methods.
6. References [1] Kimberley M. Donnelly and P.D. Zane L. Berge, “Podcasting: Co-opting MP3 Players for Education and Training Purposes,” Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, vol. IX, no. III, 2006. Fig. 3. Screenshot of the student’s view of the podcasts on a mobile device
[2] A. Kay, “A Personal Computer for Children of all Ages,” Proc. ACM National Conference, 1972.
[3] M. Sharples, “The design of personal mobile technologies for lifelong learning,” Computers & Education, vol. 34, no. 34, 2000, pp. 177-193. [4] Douglas McConatha and M. Praul, “Mobile Learning in the Classroom: An Empirical Assessment of a New Tool for Students and Teachers ” Proc. Washington Interactive Technologies Conference, 2007. [5] Podhead.net, “PODCAST DICTIONARY: P-Z,” http://db.podhead.net/pod/podwebpack.section_message?P_M ESSAGE=283. [6] A. Carvin, “The iPod of the Beholder: Can MP3 Players Enhance Learning?,” 2007; http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2007/05/the_ipod_ of_the_beholder_can_m.html. [7] E. Kaplan-Leiserson, “Trend: Podcasting in Academic and Corporate Learning,” 2005; http://www.learningcircuits.org/2005/jun2005/0506_trends.ht m.
[8] D.s.D.I. Report, End of Year Report on the 2005-06 Duke Digital Initiative: Executive Overview, 2006. [9] T.U.o. Tennessee, “VOLCASTING: The University of Tennessee directory of academic and event podcasts,” 2007; http://volcasting.utk.edu/. [10]J.H. Institutions, “Johns Hopkins Podcasting,” 2007; http://www.johnshopkins.edu/podcasts/. [11]P.University,“UniversityChannel,” http://uc.princeton.edu/main/index.php. [12] H.B. Publishing, “HBR IdeaCast,” http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/hbr/hbr_ideacast.jhtml. [13] Opera Mini Homepage, http://operamini.com [14] iPhone specifications page on apple.com, http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/safari.html
