Kuo-Liang Ou

Web Learning Portfolios: A Tool For Supporting Performance Awareness

A teacher can use student portfolios to evaluate learning performance and promote learning outcomes. The portfolios can also be used as a communication channel among students and teachers as students implement them on the web. However, it is burdensome for teachers to obtain the required information to determine student learning status. This study describes how to design a web portfolio system that enables teachers to use information technologies to guide and evaluate student learning processes. Teachers can utilize this design to analyse the web portfolios online to improve instruction, understand the progress of students and guide their learning. An evaluation of the web portfolio system by students indicates that the applied technologies help students control their learning processes through developing portfolios. Students also believe the web portfolios serve as an effective communication channel and media that can increasingly integrate their learning outcomes for assessment purposes.

Using group communication to monitor web-based group learning

In a web group-learning environment, students must communicate with other group members on the Internet to accomplish group projects and share knowledge. Communication is likely to affect performance and so analysing the relationship between communicative relationships and group performance may help teachers to monitor groups effectively. Certain tasks are necessary to perform such an analysis — recording group communication, extracting communication relationships and determining the relationship between group communication and group performance. This study developed a method for determining relationships and rules for predicting performance to enable teachers to take act appropriately according to the predicted performance of the group. Four group performance indicators are considered — average grades within a group, project grade, frequency of resource-sharing and drop-out rate. Experimental results are presented, concerning the application of the methodology to a web class of 706 students, divided into 70 groups. The experimental results show that group communication patterns significantly affect group performance.

Development of a virtual butterfly ecological system based on augmented reality and mobile learning technologies

AbstractA campus butterfly garden is a useful teaching resource for studying insect ecology because students can learn about a butterfly’s life cycle and become familiar with its habitual behavior by breeding and observation activities. However, it requires professional construction and maintenance for sustainable development, so very few schools can afford to own a butterfly garden. In this study, the augmented reality and mobile learning technologies have been used to develop a virtual butterfly ecological system by combining with campus host plants and virtual breeding activities. Students can use smart phones or tablet PCs to breed virtual butterflies on host plants and observe their life cycles at different growing stages. Using the available space in campus, a virtual butterfly garden can also be created as a greenhouse where students are able to observe different species of butterflies using the tracking telescope and catch a butterfly to obtain its information by touch-screen control. The virtual butterfly ecological system can increase the learning motivation and interest of students through virtual breeding and observation activities, so it is a suitable assistant tool for science education. A teaching experiment has been conducted to investigate students’ learning effectiveness and attitudes after using the system, and the results show that using the virtual butterfly ecological system can improve their learning effectively.

Use of Group Discussion and Learning Portfolio to Build Knowledge for Managing Web Group Learning

To monitor and enhance the learning performance of learning groups in a Web learning system, teachers need to know the learning status of the group and determine the key influences affecting group learning outcomes. Teachers can achieve this goal by observing the group discussions and learning behavior from Web logs and aanlyzing the Web log data to obtain the relevant information. However, Web logs are not systematically organized and the discussions are extensive. Consequently, teachers must struggle to extract information from logs and intuitively apply teaching rules based on experience when managing the groups. Rather than using statistics packages to evaluate hypotheses, this work presents a methodology of applying existing data and text mining tools to automatically gather learning status and predict performance of learning groups from the contents of discussions and from log records of learning behaviors. Meanwhile, the methodology infers a causal network exists between learning features and learning performance. Knowledge is inferred based on statistics and probability reasoning and social interdependency theory. The causal network can suggest means of enhancing learning performance to teachers. Simultaneously, teachers can use the knowledge of learning groups obtained to manage group learning process on the Web. Experimental results of applying the novel methodology to manage a group learning class organized over the Web and containing 706 students are also presented.

The Influence of a Motion-sensing and Game-based Mobile Learning System on Learning Achievement and Learning Retention

This study combined context-aware mechanisms with the main functions of smart phones to develop a motion-sensing and game-based mobile learning system that can provide related information about many plants in the Taipei Botanical Garden. This study developed six types of motions on smart phones involving common botanical misconceptions and integrated these motions into botany-themed learning activities. The purpose was to correct such misconceptions through motion-based learning. This study investigated the influence of whether or not using motion-sensing educational mobile games on learning achievement and learning retention. Experimental results showed that learning achievement in the experimental group (which used motion-sensing mobile learning) and the control group (which did use non-motion-sensing mobile learning) both were improved, moreover, the learning retention of the experimental group significantly exceeded those of the control group.

Development of a Lunar-Phase Observation System Based on Augmented Reality and Mobile Learning Technologies

Observing the lunar phase requires long-term involvement, and it is often obstructed by bad weather or tall buildings. In this study, a lunar-phase observation system is developed using the augmented reality (AR) technology and the sensor functions of GPS, electronic compass, and 3-axis accelerometer on mobile devices to help students observe and record lunar phases easily. By holding the mobile device towards the moon in the sky, the screen will show the virtual moon at the position of the real moon. The system allows the user to record the lunar phase, including its azimuth/elevation angles and the observation date and time. In addition, the system can shorten the learning process by setting different dates and times for observation, so it can solve the problem of being unable to observe and record lunar phases due to a bad weather or the moon appearing late in the night. Therefore, it is an effective tool for astronomy education in elementary and high schools. A teaching experiment has been conducted to analyze the learning effectiveness of the system and the results show that it is effective in learning the lunar concepts. The questionnaire results reveal that students considered the system easy to operate and it is useful in locating the moon and recording the lunar data.

Instructional instruments for Web group learning systems: the grouping, intervention, and strategy

Owing to the lack of face-to-face interactions, students using a web-based learning system are likely to study alone and with relatively little classmate support and pressure. Teachers in a web-based learning system may apply the group-learning model to overcome this problem. Therefore, teachers first need to organize, manage, and monitor the group learning. Additionally, they must take appropriate actions based on teaching strategies to improve the learning achievements of the students. To perform these tasks effectively, the teachers must obtain relevant information by searching and analyzing the huge amount of web-access logs or by monitoring web interactions. This will be burdensome and difficult to do well for the teachers. This work presents novel methodologies for developing instruments to assist teachers in performing grouping, intervention and strategy analysis. The proposed methodologies apply data mining tools provided by existing database management systems. A tool is initially R developed to assist in organizing learning groups according to teacher specifications. Database techniques, including multidimensional cube, are then applied to make student web logs meaningful and helpful to teachers in managing group learning. The associate rule mining tool is finally employed to assist teachers in analyzing their pedagogical strategies. These tools relieve the teacher of tedious data collection and analysis, and thus can focus on managing the groups to promote student learning achievement.

MANAGING ACTIVITY DYNAMICS OF WEB BASED COLLABORATIVE APPLICATIONS

The World Wide Web has been widely accepted as a viable communication infrastructure to support collaborative activities on computer networks. While cooperating objects of different roles can easily and freely communicate knowledge on the web, the web site managers/developers must write programs to manage the communication behavior in collaborative activities. However, the current hypertext model for the web concentrates on the static structure of hypertext. Few conceptual specifications are capable of effectively integrating the hypertext model with activity dynamics to clarify the dynamic interaction and constraints of desired collaborative activities on the web. Furthermore, decision-makers must observe communication behavior on the web to adapt collaborative activities. Although web servers register each web access in a web log, up to now, only a few query or report mechanisms have been available to obtain required information from the web log. This study presents a specification to capture the static and dynamic structure of intended collaborative activities, and a query mechanism to obtain required information from the web log. The specification and query mechanism make it possible to construct a web site that will provide group activity space and flexibly interpret roles, encourage individuals to commit to responsibilities, and enable activities to be observed.

Using role theory in monitoring web group learning systems

Role theory has been proposed to explain group teamwork. Thus, it may also be valid to explain group learning performance. However, teachers in both conventional classrooms and web learning systems find it difficult to figure out what role a student played in a group and what relationship exists between roles and group performance. In a web learning system, interactions among group members can be recorded in a database. Computer tools can be developed to do the tasks for teachers. In this paper we develop a tool to capture the roles that a student plays in her/his learning group. Then, tools using machine learning techniques are built to find the relationship between existence of roles and group performance. A tool was then built to predict the group performance based on the relationship captured. An experimental result is shown that demonstrates that role theory is effective to predict group performance.

A Sun Path Observation System Based on Augment Reality and Mobile Learning

This study uses the augmented reality technology and sensor functions of GPS, electronic compass, and three-axis accelerometer on mobile devices to develop a Sun path observation system for applications in astronomy education. The orientation and elevation of the Sun can be calculated by the system according to the user’s location and local time to simulate the Sun path. When holding the mobile device toward the sky, the screen will show the virtual Sun at the same position as that of the real Sun. The user can record the Sun path and the data of observation date, time, longitude, and latitude using the celestial hemisphere and the pole shadow on the system. By setting different observation times and locations, it can be seen that the Sun path changes with seasons and latitudes. The system provides contextual awareness of the Sun path concepts, and it can convert the observation data into organized and meaningful astronomical knowledge to enable combination of situated learning with spatial cognition. The system can solve the problem of being not able to record the Sun path due to a bad weather or topographical restrictions, and therefore it is helpful for elementary students when conducting observations. A teaching experiment has been conducted to analyze the learning achievement of students after using the system, and the results show that it is more effective than traditional teaching aids. The questionnaire results also reveal that the system is easy to operate and useful in recording the Sun path data. Therefore, it is an effective tool for astronomy education in elementary schools.