ACCESSING HYPERMEDIA SYSTEMS EFECTIVENESS IN

LEARNING CONTEXTS

Alexander Macena da Silva, Silvina Santana

University of Aveiro, DEGEI ,3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

Keywords: Hypermedia systems evaluation, concept maps, learning theories, multivariate data analysis.

Abstract: Hypermedia systems are increasingly being used in teaching/learning environments. Biomec is a

hypermedia system that has got, as it main goal, the interrelation of concepts coming from Sports and Basic

Mechanics, just as it is intended in an area of knowledge denominated Physics of Sports. The final objective

of Biomec is to increase the efficiency of the learning processes in this area of study. The system

development has been grounded in learning theories, with contents being organized according to the theory

of Ausubel (1968) and the theory of cognitive flexibility (Spiro et al., 1992). Apparently, a hypermedia

system like Biomec is suitable to the teaching/learning of Physical Education. However, only an astringent

evaluation, with its target public, can assert what are its real benefits. This work presents a methodology for

the evaluation and improvement of this kind of systems.

1 INTRODUCTION

Biomechanics can be defined as an area of

Bioengineering that intends to understand the

biological functions of the human movement, at the

light of basic concepts of Mechanics. The teaching

in this discipline needs to use dynamic

representations of physical phenomena and laws and

concepts coming from Mechanics, relating them

with the human movement.

One of the problems faced by Biomechanics is

the development of didactical material with

characteristics appropriated to its specificities.

Printed materials, as the didactical books, are not

able to show dynamic images, just illustrations and

photographs, allowing illustrating one moment or

instant of the movement, but not all its dynamic

complexity. This didactical need can be filled by

computerised means, which allow the inclusion of

video, animations and simulations of real situations,

supported by hypermedia systems.

A hypermedia system is an electronic document

that has got its pages or knots organized in several

ways, being the hypertextual network the more

common one. This kind of arrangement facilitates

the non-linear assessment of the content. Besides,

these systems are able to support multimedia

documents, like photos, sound, video and

animations.

This work presents a methodology for the

evaluation and improvement of this kind of systems.

It makes use of concept maps and techniques of

multivariate data analysis.

2 THEORETICAL REFERENTIAL

It is common sense, among the teachers of

Biomechanics, that the student in general begins the

course with low knowledge in Physics. The students

seems to find little usefulness in this kind of

knowledge and consider having to study Physics an

arduous task, in spite of the value the concepts have

in the understanding of the content of the discipline.

As a result, they fail in assimilating the concepts,

jeopardising the learning process and its outcomes.

As the Physical Education studies, learns and

teaches with the human movement, computational

media may have a positive influence on the

teaching/learning process of the discipline. This is

possible by using tolls such as simulators, video,

static images and hypermedia systems.

Learning is a concept difficult to define. It makes

part of a quite obscure area of our psyche and we do

not know yet, for sure, what really means to learn

250

Macena da Silva A. and Santana S. (2004).

ACCESSING HYPERMEDIA SYSTEMS EFECTIVENESS IN LEARNING CONTEXTS.

In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, pages 250-253

DOI: 10.5220/0002646902500253

 SciTePress

and, consequently, how to evaluate the results of the

process.

Several theories concerning the subject can be

found in the literature, such as the constructivism of

Piaget, neo-behaviorism of Skinner and other,

significant learning of Ausubel (Ausubel, 1968),

instructionism of Brunner and connectionism

(Conklin, 1987), that it is the most recent approach

to the subject (Ohlsson, 1993).

The theoretical referential used in this work is

connectionism, which links some quite interesting

perspectives: psychophysiology; computer science

and cognitivism. Connectionism understands the

human memory as a semantic network that is, as a

representational outline of the knowledge by means

of an intricate scheme, formed by concepts and its

interrelations. These elements can be graphically

represented as knots and links, respectively

(Conklin, 1987). A semantic network may be

distinguished from a generic representational outline

by the indexed nature of its content.

The units of the semantic network are tied up to

each other by means of connections, built and

developed along the years by the knowledge

accumulation, experience and learning. These

connections are more complex than it can be

graphically represented and are able to link to each

other by the meaning and by the content, building a

multidimensional relationship. According to the

connectionism, learning elapses from the increase in

the number of connections between the concepts.

The development of Biomec is based on

connectionism, the theory of significant learning of

Ausubel and cognitive flexibility. Connectionism

needs a flexible material and a hypermedia system,

as Biomec, is the medium adequate to the approach.

The theory of significant learning of Ausubel was

used in the organization of the contents and the

cognitive flexibility theory guided the

implementation of the non-linear navigation.

The main goal of the present work is to describe

a methodology for the evaluation of Biomec. This

methodology can be used to evaluate any similar

hypermedia system developed to improve the

learning processes.

3 A METHODOLOGY FOR THE

EVALUATION OF BIOMEC

When developing a didactical material, the

evaluation stage is fundamental for the confirmation

of the theoretical presuppositions that have

supported its development. It is not enough to

develop the material; it is fundamental to evaluate it

near its target population.

3.1 Methodology proposal

The evaluation of the Biomec prototype was done

studding its impact on the process of

teaching/learning of students of the discipline

Biomechanics, at a Faculty of Physical Education

and Sports. The concept maps done by the students

and their attitudes with relation to the Physics were

appraised, before and after its interaction with the

system. Besides, the system was analyzed by a

group of teachers of the discipline, by means of a

questionnaire.

The evaluation of the attitudes in what it

concerns to the Physics was accomplished using a

model that can be classified as experimental,

because the scores of the attitude scale were

compared with the results of another independent

group. The investigation involves two equivalent

intact groups, belonging to a previous research

(Rezende and Imbiriba, 1999). The hypotheses of

this study are:

- Substantive hypothesis: a substantive

difference exists, in the attitude with relation to

the Physics, between the group that used

Biomec and the group that didn't use the

system.

- Null hypothesis: there is not a significant

difference, in the attitude with relation to the

Physics, between the group that used Biomec

and the group that didn't use the system.

- Alternative hypothesis: a significant difference

exists, in the attitude with relation to the

Physics, between the group that used Biomec

and the group that didn't use the system.

The evaluation of the accomplished learning was

done using a study model that can be qualified as

pre-experimental. It involved an intact group of

students whose concept maps on Physics of Sports,

elaborated before and after their interaction with the

system, were compared. The hypotheses of this

study are:

- Substantive hypothesis: there exist substantive

gains in the learning accomplished by the

students of the discipline Biomechanics that

used Biomec, verified by means of concept

maps.

- Null hypothesis: there are not significant gains

in the learning accomplished by the students of

the discipline Biomechanics that used Biomec,

verified by means of concept maps.

- Alternative hypothesis: there are significant

gains in the learning accomplished by the

students of the discipline Biomechanics that

used Biomec, verified by means of concept

maps.

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251

3.2 Instrumentation

The methodological approach involves a group of

procedures that seek, fundamentally, to access the

potential of Biomec as a teaching/learning tool.

The attitude scale, with relation to the Physics,

was developed by Rezende (1988). This scale

contains 29 statements (items), distributed by four

sub-scales: content, teacher, applicability and

sensations. Sixteen items have positive polarity and

the other negative polarity.

The questionnaire uses a five points Likert scale,

coded in an interval scale (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) for the

positive polarity statements and in the inverse order

for the negative polarity ones.

Reliability was accessed through the Cronbach

alfa coefficients, which evaluate the internal

consistency of the attitude scale, obtained separately

for each of the four subcategories of the scale. The

internal consistency levels are shown in Table 1. The

values confirm the results of another previous study

(Rezende, 1988), showing good reliability in all the

categories and also indicating homogeneity among

the categories of the scale.

Table 1: Reliability coefficients for the four categories of

the attitude scale

Sub-scales Cronbach alfa

Teacher 0,82

Content 0,79

Application 0,78

Sensation 0,81

A concept map is the representation of the

significant relationships among the concepts of a

subject area in the form of propositions. It is

constituted by concept terms linked by words to

form a semantic unit (Novak and Gowin, 1996).

Concept maps are good to make clear the key

ideas in that the teacher and the student owe to focus

the learning task. The elaboration of concept maps is

a technique that allows the graphical externalisation

of concepts and propositions (Novak and Gowin,

1996). The concept maps were elaborated by the

students, at the beginning and the end of the

educational process.

In agreement with Novak and Gowin (1996), the

concept maps evaluation should be done in the

following way:

- points should be given to all the forms of

relationships that are valid or that form valid

propositions. It should be tested if the line that

connects them indicates the relationship

between the two concepts and if the

relationship is valid. If these conditions are

satisfied, one point should be attributed for

each valid and significant proposition;

- the valid levels of hierarchy should be counted

and punctuate X times more than the

relationship. For this to happen, the map should

reveal a hierarchy, what implies to observe if

each one of the subordinated concepts is more

specific than the previous ones. If these

conditions are satisfied, five points should be

attributed for each valid hierarchical level;

- transversal connections must be verified; the

transversal connections that reveal valid

relationships between two segments different

from the concept hierarchy may denounce an

important integrative reconciliation that can be

a better indicator of significant learning than

the hierarchical levels. Ten points should be

attributed for each traversal connection that

reveals to be valid and significant. In case it is

valid but not significant two points should be

attributed. Specific examples can be asked to

the students, to certify that they know what

kind of event or object corresponds to the

designation of the concept. The valid examples

can worth one point each.

The teachers of the discipline also interacted

with Biomec. The interaction was observed and the

teachers answered to a questionnaire. The results

will serve as a base for the evaluation of Biomec in

the pedagogical, contextual and technological

ambits, of its documentation and of its relevance for

the discipline.

3.3 Data collection and analyses

The data of the attitude scale with relation to the

Physics was collected using a scale applied in the

end of the students' interaction with the system and

will be compared later on with the results obtained

in a previous investigation (Rezende and Imbiriba,

1999).

The data of the concept maps was picked up by

means of the representations developed by the

students before and after the interaction with

Biomec. A previous appointment with the students

was necessary to teach them how to develop the

maps, in agreement with Novak and Gowin (1996)

proposal.

The teachers' questionnaire was applied after

their interaction with the system.

The significance level of the difference between

the attitudes with relation to the Physics of the

different groups will be verified using statistical

procedures. The test of the null hypothesis will be

accomplished by means of the Qui-square test

(Dawson-Saunders and Trapp, 1994), with

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alfa=0,05. The use (or not use) of Biomec will be

taken as independent variable. The scores, general

and by category, obtained with the Likert scale for

the same test will be used as the dependent

variables.

The evaluation of the concept maps will be

performed calculating scores accordingly the method

indicated by Novak and Gowin (1996), which take

in consideration the propositions, the hierarchy, the

crossed connections and the examples. Another form

of evaluation can be used, which involves

comparing the maps produced by the students with a

selected reference. All the mentioned characteristics

receive punctuation, in agreement with the scale

receive a qualitative treatment.

The test of null hypothesis in the study involving

the concept maps will be accomplished by means of

a t-test (uniform distribution of the result) or a

transformed t-test (non uniform distribution of the

result), with alfa set to 0,05.

4 CONCLUSION

When developing new didactical materials, it is

fundamental to access its real value and outcomes. A

well-conducted evaluation can help developing a

good tool, by accessing its field performance. The

final goal is to create a didactical instrument that

really helps the student to learn more and better.

Apparently, a hypermedia system like Biomec is

adequate to the teaching/learning of Physical

Education. This area needs a didactical material able

to represent different forms of knowledge and

different concepts and their relationships in a

multidimensional and dynamical form and that is

exactly what Biomec does. On the other hand, by

beginning the learning process with concepts that

really makes sense in the cognitive structure of the

Physical Education students (according to the

significant learning theory), and allowing for the

non-linear navigation through the contents

(according to the cognitive flexibility theory) it is

expectable the achievement of improved outcomes.

However, only an astringent evaluation, with the

target public, can assert what are its real benefits.

This work has presented a methodology for the

evaluation and improvement of the hypermedia

system Biomec. It makes use of concept maps and

techniques of multivariate data analysis and can be

used to evaluate any similar hypermedia system

developed to improve the learning processes.

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