Compaq iPaq

The NKI m-learning sub project 2001 "The tutor in distance education" as mobile learning

During 2001 NKI project team studied International experiences concerning m-learning, analysed technological solutions and pedagogic/didactic needs based on our internal practical experiences and results from previous surveys and evaluation studies among our distance students.

The technical solution chosen was to try out the use of Pocket PC/Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) in combination with mobile phone for distribution of learning content and communication between tutor and students, between students and for students’ communication with the learning material. As technologies develop so fast that the specific technology available changes from one week to the next, it was important that the solutions chosen had some generic basis, i.e. also that the specific brands of PCs, mobile phones and keyboards etc. should not constitute any substantial restrictions concerning generalisability of our experiences.

When we had to do make our choice late spring 2001after analysing functionality of different brands of PDA/Pocket PC, we found that the best solution was to build our learning environment around the Compaq iPAQ 3630 and 3660. The mobile phones chosen were Ericsson T39 and Ericsson R580. The course and environment for m-learning was completed autumn 2001, and the first experiment of a partly real and partly simulated distance learning setting including evaluation and a survey among distance learners on aspects of mobility, was carried out early 2002. A second experiment in a fully realistic setting in another distance learning course is planned for 2002.

The actual course chosen, ‘The tutor in distance education’ was chosen for the following reasons:

• It is a course in the pedagogy of distance teaching, and as such represents an ideal course for combining the research on media, methods and technology with the substance or content of the learning

• It is taught by internal NKI staff, also involved in the project, thus combining internal competence development with development work in the project

• The fact that same staff are involved in development and teaching in the practical try outs to be carried out opens for real field research during try out and also makes it easier to transfer the experiences and results from the experiments to further developments in the operations of the NKI Internet College

• Students taking the course are prospective online teachers in the NKI Distance Education system, their experiences as mobile learners are transferred to their teaching after completing the course

When planning for the m-learning environment the NKI project team had long discussions whether to develop the learning materials for online or offline study. Taken the above experiences and also cost considerations concerning mobile access to online learning materials, we concluded that the learning environment should include the following aspects:

Technology:

• Pocket PC
• Mobile phone
• Portable keyboard

Learning content and communication:

• Learning content to be downloaded on the mobile device to be studied offline. Downloaded content to include all course materials:
• Content page
• Preface
• Introduction
• All study units
• Resources (articles on the web, references to other resource materials)
• Online access to the discussion forum with the possibility of as quick as possible access for reading in the Forum and writing contributions
• E-mail for individual communication with tutor and fellow students and for submitting assignments. Assignments may be submitted as text-based e-mail or as Word or Text attachments.

Before taking the decision on distribution of course content to students via the Pocket PC, we analysed three alternative solutions that were discussed in depth. The discussions also included viewpoints on which materials and study activities were suited for offline or online work.

3 alternative solutions for distribution of course content

The 3 main solutions for distributing content were:

1. The AvantGo Mobile Internet service
2. Online access via mobile telephone to the entire course
3. ‘Download-on-demand’ version

After internal discussions and analysis of the real study situation of the ‘typical’ NKI distance student other aspects such as communication and other costs and functionality of alternative solutions, we decided to concentrate on solution 3. The choice of solution 3 was partly a result of limited time and resources available at this stage of the project. Solution 1 needs more research to explore opportunities, limitations and cost/benefit. Solution 2 would perhaps be ‘the most ideal’ solution for the future, i.e. to offer a complete PDA adapted version based on the same learning materials available in the web course for standard PCs. The principle of ‘one file many versions’ (html, pdf, reader, etc.) is achievable trough the use of XML). Presently, through our preliminary analyses we found that there were too many limitations in mobile technology regarding transfer capacity vs. cost to be able to carry out the experiments that we wished to do. Solution 2 would also, as mentioned above, require a complete site redesign of the NKI Distance Education website.

The reason for supplying two alternatives of content is that we as part of the empirical testing are interested in examining attractiveness and user friendliness of the different solutions for the student. The student can manipulate the Microsoft Reader content by the possibility of bookmarking, adding highlights, notes and drawings and look up words directly in the PocketPC Dictionary. This means that the students can use the materials actively in ways that we recognise from students’ use of print materials and their personal notes. The student is, in other words, able to ‘make the materials his own’ while studying. It is reason to believe that these functionalities may help students organising the materials cognitively and support learning and remembering.

The decision to go for the choice of downloading content for offline study was based on previous experiences and also the following considerations: NKI Internet students study mainly offline. Communication concerns discussion with fellow students in the academic forums, cooperation on projects and group assignments, and individual communication with other students – and, most important, according to our evaluations (see e.g. Rekkedal & Paulsen 1997), communication with the tutor including submission of assignments with correction and feedback. All our analyses concluded that the students will have all these possibilities available on their desktop or laptop PCs, including online interaction with the learning materials.

When mobile – and using mobile technologies – it is generally satisfactory for the student (and the tutor) to have the course content available to study on the PocketPC. In addition, the following communication possibilities are necessary. When mobile, the student must be able to:

• Access the course forum to read messages
• Access the course forum to submit contributions to the discussions
• Send e-mail to fellow students, to the teacher and to administration (study advisor)
• Receive e-mail from fellow students, from the tutor and from the administration
• Submit assignments by e-mail including attachments
• Receiving assignments corrected and commented on by the tutor including attachments

To access e-mail and discussion forums, mobile phones will be used. We plan that in future versions it will be possible to synchronize discussions via the student’s desktop or laptop PC.

The analyses, software/technologies applied and the development process and results are described in more detail in the article, Designing and Trying Out a Learning Environment for Mobile Learners and Teachers http://www.nettskolen.com/forskning/55/NKI2001m-learning2.html

As the NKI course pages are available to authorized users (students, teachers and administrators), the real course is not accessible.

Our development work on m-learning is also explained in the video:

Video-presentation (ISDN-streaming, ca 14 min.)
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