Piloting the eBig3

A Triple-screen e-Learning Approach

Atis Kapenieks

, Bruno Zuga

, Ieva Vitolina

, Janis Kapenieks jr.

, Aleksandrs Gorbunovs

Merija Jirgensons

, Janis Kapenieks sr.

, Ieva Kudiņa

, Kristaps Kapenieks

Rudolfs Gulbis

and Antra Balode

Distance Education Study Centre, Riga Technical University, Azenes Iela 12, Riga, Latvia

Latvia University of Agriculture, Jelgava, Latvia

Keywords: e-Learning, t-Learning, m-Learning, eBig3 Learning.

Abstract: In this report / study we present our recent progress on multi-screen e-learning development entitled eBig3.

It is a new approach to technology supported education encouraging involvement in lifelong learning

education. The approach effectively integrates the popular technologies of television, Internet, and mobile

phones Here we present the results of ten course pilots offered in 2013 with the eBig3 media formats. The

target group for the courses was the general public. And the three-pronged approach worked; the response

showed a radical increase of registration for eBig3 courses compared to traditional registration for online

courses. The course delivery formats were also more successful than blended learning formats. Our results

showed that the new approach significantly increased the availability of eCourses and that users felt

encouraged to stay the duration of the course. Moreover, the results indicated that the approach helped to

close the gap between expectations and actual achievements for life-long-learning in general.

1 INTRODUCTION

Each big breakthrough in education technology has

announced and encouraged the creation of a new

type of learning (Pfeffer, 2012). TV-education was

inspired by the large scale penetration of television

into people’s homes; m-learning developed together

with smart phones (Ducey and Phalen, 2011), (ITU-

D, 2010), (ITU-D, 2009), (ITU, 2008), (Google,

2012), (Zaller, 2013), (Turrill, 2013), (Byers, 2013).

E-learning initially was regarded as a Personal

Computer technology for education. Nowadays we

usually refer to all digital education technologies as

learning. The new twist and challenge is when

learners are using all three technologies to suit their

style and convenience. Developers, however, design

separate approaches for each of the big three

learning technologies: e-learning, m-learning and t-

learning. To meet the challenge of applying all three

technologies at the same time and adjusting them to

the habits of users, we designed an approach that

was user sensitive and functioned with the three

approaches simultaneously. The eBig3 pilot

incorporates these adjustments and forges a new

path for technological learning (Kapenieks et al.,

2012b) .

With the eBig3 approach, we assign

complimentary applications for TV, Internet, and

mobile phone to ensure high quality user-friendly

learning. eBig3 has the capacity to respond to the

skills/habits of a large target group of users that

spans all age groups of life-long learners. eBig3

learning tends to reach, deliver content, and learning

support to a diverse group of users; nor does it

require continuous upgrade of technology and

special skills (Kapenieks et al., 2012c).

The project has been carried out in a cross-border

region of Latvia and Lithuania and included

universities from both nations. The target group for

the eBig3 courses was the general public. This paper

reports on the Latvian results. At the beginning of

the project researchers have used "Enterprise

Knowledge Development (EKD) method to capture

and systematize the experts’ and stakeholders’

knowledge about various learning approaches and

content delivery technologies. Each of three selected

technologies (computer, internet, mobile, and

television were tested for material qualities and

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Kapenieks A., Zuga B., Vitolina I., Kapenieks jr. J., Gorbunovs A., Jirgensons M., Kapenieks sr. J., Kudina I., Kapenieks K., Gulbis R. and Balode A..

Piloting the eBig3 - A Triple-screen e-Learning Approach.

DOI: 10.5220/0004848603250329

In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2014), pages 325-329

ISBN: 978-989-758-020-8

 2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

interaction capacity to determine which was the

most suitable for each function. Then the

Technologies were combined to be responsive to the

widest possible audiences. We achieved audience

interest and engagement by: a) exhibiting

entertaining videos clips on TV, each lasting about

12 minutes; one of more such video clip had been

prepared for each course; b) ensuring a smooth

registration process and providing regular

organisational and context dependant learning

support over the SMS messaging service; c) making

full instructional material available in an online

learning environment. After initial review of the

outcomes and formulating the first eBig3 model we

designed the prototype for the eBig3 course

(Kapenieks et al., 2012a).

2 eBig3 COURSE PROTOTYPE

The eBig3 three course prototype consists of three

learning contents formulated to fit each media type:

t-content, e-content, and m-content. We modelled

the t-content on the Discovery documentaries. We

designed an engaging video on course topics and

exhibited it on TV. This video is as interesting to

watch as a traditional TV movie. At the bottom of

the film appears a banner inviting the public to join

the course with complete registration details

provided (Figure 1).

Figure 1: eBig3 course T-component with banner at the

bottom of the screen inviting the public to join the course

by sending a SMS to: “eBig3, first name, last name and

course number”.

The procedure to sign-up for the course is simple. A

viewer only needs to give his first and last name and

course number she is interested in and send this

information with an SMS. Signing up for additional

courses follows the same procedure.

It is a simpler procedure than completing a user

profile in an Internet environment. The response is

almost immediate; in about the minute a user

receives a login. Our system corrects some typical

mistakes, and most registration attempts are

successful. In case of an unsuccessful registration,

the user receives an error massage and repeats the

registration process. Nearly all users successfully

attempt.

Typical problems encountered are users losing

logins. The recovery process is simple. The eBig3

system sends an SMS with the password that looks

like this: “ebig3 password”.

An important application of the m-component is

sending learning support. E-learning courses

traditionally experience a high drop-out rate; we

therefore used the mobile SMS system to send

additional messages in certain selected situations to

encourage user efforts. We have identified these

events as follows:

 Sending a congratulatory message after joining the

course;

 Sending friendly reminders to be more active in

the course;

 Confirming active participation in a Course Unit;

 Informing about face-to-face seminar sessions and

providing the time and place;

 Sending a congratulatory message after course

completion;

 Sending information about newly published

courses;

 Other important communications about learning

events.

The SMS system helps to maintain virtual

contact with learners. It strengthens the living

contacts that are maintained by seminars and phone

contacts.

The SMS messaging system is triggered by the

following events:

 Planned event data base;

 Unique actions of users (like registration);

 Users’ behaviour analysis and results.

E-content is central to the course material

delivery process; it ensures that the content is

consistent with the level of the learning objectives

and that the volume, assessments, tests etc. are well

matched to user learning levels. The e-content is

located in the Moodle learning environment. The

users’ behaviour is registered by mouse click data in

each course unit.

3 eBig3 COURSE DELIVERY

eBig3 course delivery was organised after

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registration. Ninety percent of the registered users

entered the course using a login received via a SMS

(Figure 2).

The eBig3 courses and seminars were organised

at four universities in Latvia: Riga Technical

University, Daugavpils University, Liepaja

University, and Latvia University of Agriculture.

After the first week of activities a motivational

SMS was sent to all participants. The SMS content

was selected on the bases of user activities in the

course.

Figure 2: Registered users and users entering the course.

The seminars were organised every week on regular

rotating basis at one of the participating universities.

The information for the next seminar was sent by

SMS to each registered user. These activities

maintained the momentum of the on-going learning.

The users completed the tests, exercises and final

assessment work; they also communicated with the

course teachers.

The users who successfully completed the course

with final assignment work received the partner

university certificate.

4 ebig3 COURSE PILOTING

The information on eBig3 courses-- titles, learning

objectives, delivery approach-- was published in the

www.ebig3.eu portal.

1. Professional Communications (23 Learning

Objects (LO))

2. Basic Business (190 LO)

3. Information Society and Telework (82 LO)

4. Computers for Beginners (58 LO)

5. Computers for Users (170 LO)

6. Landscape Architecture and Design (54 LO)

7. Renewable Energy Resources (39 LO)

8. Latvian-Lithuanian Communications (27 LO)

9. 23 things to know for Business Beginners (59

LO)

10. Internet Marketing and Advertising (1 link to

course in an external environment)

The most popular courses were:

1. Professional Communications

2. Basic Business

3. Information Society and Telework

4. Computers for Users

5. Landscape Architecture and Design

The course content was uploaded in Moodle

except for the Course No 10 that was located in

another e-learning environment linked to Moodle.

There were was a 12 minutes long video

broadcasted 30 times on Latvian Regional TV. Each

course had separate video clip with a banner at the

lower end of the screen inviting viewers to join

eBig3 courses by sending an SMS. The Project

flyers were also distributed in libraries and

municipalities in the vicinity of surrounding the

partner universities.

The number of participants rapidly increased.

Figure 3 shows the number of participants in first

eleven days of course delivery

Figure 3.

Figure 3 shows the number of participants in the

Latvian speaking area of the first eleven days of

course delivery. No. 1 graph eBig3 course

registration that is accomplished by sending an SMS

giving first and last name as well as course number;

No. 2- are public IT courses available in the Riga

City portal www.riga.lv. The public was informed

about them through large scale advertising, No

registration was necessary. No. 3- public business

courses advertised on a medium scale; users were

required to give profile information online.

Figure 4 shows the increase of eBig3 users

during the first 13 weeks of course delivery.

Each course had number of learning objects,

from 23 to 190 eBig3 information system collected

data by mouse clicks for each course.

We calculated the cumulative ratio of the number

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Figure 4: The number of participants in Latvian speaking

area in the first 13 weeks of eBig3 course delivery (1); and

number of new registrations every week (2).

of average user mouse clicks for each course:

1. Professional Communications – 1,50

2. Basic Business – 0,48

3. Information Society and Telework – 0,83

4. Computers for Users – 0,59

5. Landscape Architecture and Design -1,39

The cumulative ratio is the average ratio of

mouse clicks per the number of learning objects for

all users who entered to course. The next Figure 5

shows the increase of the cumulative ratio vs. the

number of learning objects.

Figure 5: Cumulative ratio (mouse clicks / number of

learning objects) vs. the number of learning objects for

five of the most popular eBig3 courses.

Figure 6: Number of effective volume of eBig3 courses vs.

the number of users.

We calculated how many learning objects were

clicked by each participant. The next Figure 6 shows

that more than 216 participants from 523 used

content with volume for more than one eBig3

course. More than 267 participants used content with

size for more than 0,5 eBig3 course; and more than

403 participants used content with size for more than

0,1 eBig3 courses.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The conclusions are listed below:

1. The registration for e-courses with SMS with the

eBig3 approach shows a strong increase of

participants compared with the traditional

internet registration procedure.

2. Half of the eBig3 learners who joined the course

covered at least 50% of one course content in

terms of volume.

3. The triple screen eBig3 approach better met the

needs of life-long-learners than traditional single

screen based eLearning.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has been supported by a grant from the

European Regional Development Fund

(ERFD/ERAF) project “New User behavioural

interpretation algorithms to facilitate an efficient

transfer of knowledge within an e-ecosystem

(JAUZI)”, Grant Agreement 2013/0071/2DP/

2.1.1.1.0/13/APIA/VIAA/023.

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