Context Aware Electronic Updates for Virtual Learning Environments

Laura Crane

School of Computing & Communication Systems Lancaster University, UK l.crane@lancaster.ac.uk

Ayodele Awe School of Computing & Communication Systems Lancaster University, UK a.awe1@lancaster.ac.uk

Phillip Benachour School of Computing & Communication Systems Lancaster University, UK

p.benachour@lancaster.ac.uk

Paul Coulton School of Computing & Communication Systems Lancaster University, UK p.coulton@lancaster.ac.uk

Abstract—This paper proposes a mobile application for retrieving electronic updates from virtual learning environments using dimensions of context. Using automatically generated RSS feeds from a Moodle based virtual learning environment, information can easily be delivered in a concise format through wireless networks directly to the student’s device. The paper reports on a pilot study carried out to provide quantitative feedback of students’ experiences with electronic updates based on time and location. The design and implementation of the application proposes activity as a third dimension of context as a parameter defined by the user to control the dissemination of information. The development is part of an overall investigation into the role of different dimensions of context when disseminating information from a virtual learning environment to mobile devices.

Keywords-mobile learning; context aware; RSS; virtual learning environments; ambient information;

I. INTRODUCTION Developments in mobile technologies, such as wireless

communication networks, handheld devices, and service standards enable people to access information and acquire information in a ubiquitous manner [1]. Mobile devices allow for portability, connectivity, convenience, expediency, immediacy, accessibility, individuality and interactivity [2]. These attributes are the reasoning behind both the popularity and penetration of mobile technologies within general society as well as their impact within educational environments. Although mobile applications are used for a wide range of purposes, their functionality often relies on executing services based upon a frequency of time. Even though these are effective in their activity, they have been proven to generate issues with users [3]. With the integration of both global positioning systems (GPS) and assisted GPS functionality in smart phones, location awareness can now be integrated into information systems as update points, mostly referred to as location based services. It is these services –scheduling and location- which are deemed the two fundamental points for context aware applications [4]. Although location based services have been utilized successfully for many domains, their use in the organization of learning still hasn’t been fully exploited. The technology is now available to provide a higher level of

context adaptability within higher education information delivery. Given the individual circumstances and subsequently, the ambient information which can be gathered by mobile devices there may be benefits to the learner if their mobile application were to be aware of these dimensions of context [5]. As well as the requirement for context to be integrated into the virtual learning environment; the technology enhanced learning research group’; the STELLAR network has identified ‘contextualizing virtual learning environments’ as one of its three grand challenges which need to be addressed for the future of technology enhanced learning [6]. Within recent literature there are a number studies and developments [7] which exemplify how location based services can be included to support the organization of a mobile user. Where reminders are created and executed on specific GPS co-ordinates rather than at a defined time of the day. It is this concept of using other forms of context to deliver information to a user’s device while on campus which is of significance. The paper is organized as follows: section two reports on a pilot study conducted to explore the use of space and time as dimensions of context in order to evaluate their effectiveness and their precedence over one another in regards electronic updates. Section three proposes a mobile application and describes the development process involved. The final section presents the conclusion and further work.

II. EXPLORING SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

Previous work [3] explored the use of space and time as dimensions of context in order to evaluate their effectiveness and their precedence over one another in regards electronic updates. To test both the spatial and temporal dimensions of context for supporting students and virtual learning environments; two separate mobile applications were developed. The temporal mobile application was a simple RSS mechanism which retrieved updates for a defined frequency of times per day, and according to the user’s preferences. The spatial application centered on receiving the user’s position by the integrated GPS function within the phone itself, and delivering updates based upon their location.

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DOI 10.1109/ICALT.2012.219

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A pilot study was carried out to provide quantitative feedback of the students’ experience. The survey consisted of statements for which the student’s responses were measured by a limited scale, such as the five-point Likert scale. The differences between student’s attitudes towards location and time are presented in Figure 1.

Reference Statement Posed

A “The mobile application capabilities meet my requirements”

B “Using the mobile application is a frustrating experience.”

C “The mobile application is easy to use.” D “I found the application useful in supporting my

learning activities.” E “I feel the mobile application intrudes into my

own personal domain.” F “The content is suitable and relevant for my

personal use.” G “The retrieval of updates is appropriate.” H “The mobile application didn’t support the way I

organize my learning.” i “Using contextual information is helpful for

receiving course information.” j “Mobile devices fail to have an important place in

the learning environment.” k “Update rates should be at a single time or point.” l “Using my ambient information (time / location)

makes me feel uncomfortable.” m “I would use a mobile based virtual learning

environment in the future.” n “Overall, I was satisfied with using the mobile

application for receiving information about my modules and courses.”

Figure 1. Quantitative Responses from Study with an importance placed

upon statements d, e, i, l. From an analysis view point, four questions were focused upon: Support for the student’s organization of learning (d), intrusion into student’s domain (e), the helpfulness for receiving course information (i) and contentment when using student’s ambient information (l). The key points which can be deduced from the graph were that both sets of

the students considered the mobile applications equally unobtrusive within their own domains. The differences were subtle, but the locative user felt context aware information to be more helpful than that of the time-based user. Although time was deemed a slightly more comfortable utilization of ambient information. Furthermore, both sets of users valued the application to be identical for supporting the organization of their learning and helpful for receiving course information. After a 20 week period, which spanned two taught modules, the students were interviewed in depth about their experiences. The results feedback was recorded by an audio recorder, but their experiences were summarized in Table 1 below. Both interviewees agreed that they didn’t object or disapprove of the intrusion into their own domains, provided the information was safe, secure and not used for alternative purposes. Location did override the issue of time being a changing variable on a day to day basis, as patterns of location do not change to the same degree. The notion of exit checkpoints for the campus environment was raised by the location user arguing an automatic update when arriving or leaving the campus environment would be extremely useful for supporting her learning.

TABLE I. RESPONSES OF THE FOUR KEY POINTS

Point of Interest

Temporal Response

Spatial Response

(e) Intrusion into Students

Domain

“No, unless the movements are

collated and recorded for an

alternative purpose.”

“No, unless the movements are

recorded for other purposes. Always

the option of simply ignoring the

message or turning off phone.”

(d) Support for the

organisation of learning

“It did, but not schedule and

routine changes on a daily basis, therefore the

application must also understand

this.”

“I generally do the same routes around campus, and visit

the same places on a daily basis.”

(i)Perceived Helpfulness

“It did, but not schedule and

routine changes on a daily basis, therefore the

application must also understand

this.”

“Yes, but ‘Exit Checkpoints’ on

campus, when you hit a checkpoint it

could update before you go home.”

(l) Contentment when using

ambient information

“No – not at all. Only those who

have something to hide.”

“Level of interest, depends on usage by

those who are running the systems. If this was the case I

would be concerned.”

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Further, the interview raised the focus of the fluidity of time and schedules against the immovability of a location. Both participants raised the issues of security and purpose of the data which is being recorded and used, and that it must remain for the purpose intended.

III. DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION: The application was designed to offer the user the option of receiving RSS updates from the Moodle based virtual learning environment dependent upon either their time, location or their activity. Rather than use three separate applications, the menu system allows the user to select their choice and then the application to run in the background. A screenshot of the application is shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Screenshots of Application running on Android Mobile Phone

The architecture of the application will be arranged in a series of layers with communication proceeding down the stack from the presentation layer down to the data layer and then back up to the presentation layer. It is the JQuery and JavaScript which controls the decision mechanism for executing behaviours based upon both users preference and current context. Figure 3 denotes the different layers of the mobile application and how they interact to perform the functions necessary to pull the RSS feed and display it dependent upon context.

Figure 3. The layered system of the mobile application

When constructing the RSS retrieval mechanism, it is imperative to understand the capabilities of the XML which

is being delivered by the server. The RSS output from Moodle is cultivated at a set interval according to the server hosting the Moodle environment. This frequent output from Moodle is of the RSS 2.0 standard, which means it adheres to the ‘item’ structure. Each of the XML feeds contains any number of items, which can be limited from within the Moodle environment itself. Each item represents an activity or story which has been generated by the module; in this case course announcements or associated updates. Therefore the feed for the application with include title, description, date/time of publication and finally a link to the original page on the virtual learning environment as a correctly formatted RSS 2.0 parser. One area of the design which works well with the direct access to the API’s is that of the tracking system which records the timestamp, latitude, longitude and the type of alert which has been received by the user. This is carried out in AJAX and stored on a remote SQL server via a hosted PHP script, which does not affect the users experience in receiving the updates from the virtual learning environment.

IV. CONCLUSION & FUTURE WORK This paper proposes a mobile application for retrieving electronic updates from virtual learning environments using dimensions of context. Based on results using the time and space dimensions, a pilot study revealed that location awareness for example does appear to be a feasible technology to be implemented. Further work can focus on investigating how the user can define the schedule or location updates through activity, rather than being defined by the applications functionality. The application has the potential to sustain student engagement with their modules, and provide an innovative method for accessing information. Further work will focus upon the implementation and larger study of the context-aware mobile application across a campus environment.

REFERENCES [1] Y.Muhammad, M.Soraya, “A new model for context-aware

transactions in mobile services” in Personal and Ubiquitous Computing ,15, pp. 821-831,2011.

[2] Y Song, Investigating Undergraduate Student Mobile Device Use in Context, Models for Interdisciplinary Mobile Learning: Delivering Information to Students, 2011, pp. 120–132.

[3] L.Crane, P. Benachour, P.Coulton, “A User Study of Spatial and Temporal Context Aware Technologies to support Mobile Virtual Learning Environments”. [MLearn2011 Conf. Beijing, China, pp.335-342, 2011]

[4] A.Smailagic, “Towards Context Aware Computing”, IEEE Intelligent Systems, 6, (3), (2001) 38–46.

[5] Yau,J.K & Joy,M. (2011) M-Learning Generations and Interview Study Results of a Mobile Context-Aware Learning Schedule Framework, Combining E-Learning and M-Learning: New Applications of Blended Educational Resources , IGI.

[6] STELLAR Whitepaper 1: http://www.stellarnet.eu/programme/wp1/ [7] Dey, A.K. & Abowd, G.D. (2000). CyberMinder: A context-aware

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