A THEORETICAL ACCESSIBLE APPROACH FOR

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN MOBILE DEVICES

Rocío Calvo, Ana Iglesias and Lourdes Moreno

Computer Department, UC3M University, Av. Universidad 30, Leganés, Spain

Keywords: e-Learning, Mobile learning, Collaborative, Mobile devices.

Abstract: The concept of accessing to the Internet has changed in the last decade. Nowadays, the access to the Internet

is more flexible and users are able to surf on it from different Mobile Devices. Then, why not learn through

mobile devices as mobile phones? The main aim of this paper is to propose a theoretical model of a web

collaborative module for mobile devices. It pretends to provide a list of features that all mobile Learning

Management Systems (LMSs) should have in their collaborative modules and how they should be

implemented in mobile devices.

1 INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, users access to the Internet from

different mobile devices, they use them not only for

communicating with other people through phone

calls, but also for accessing to online services such

as: publicity services, banks services, etc.

In the educational environment, teachers and

students are used to access pedagogical resources

digitally and most of educational institutions provide

Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Besides,

taking into account the number of mobile devices in

the world currently outnumbers the number of

desktop computers by three to one (CSS Insight,

2010), why not take advantage of it and allow users

to learn through mobile devices? They provide

students more flexibility to learn.

This document presents a brief summary of the

state of art of m-learning specifically in

collaborative learning and its accessibility problems

in section 2. Next, section 3 describes a theoretical

approach for collaborative learning in mobile

devices. Finally, section 4 presents the main

conclusions and further research.

2 PREVIOUS WORK

2.1 Accessibility of Mobile Devices

Mobile devices should be accessible for everybody,

as it is gathered in the W3C’s mobile guidelines

(W3C, 2008a). However, not all mobile devices

accomplish it. These devices have some restrictions

which can be similar to the accessibility problems

that users have when they access to the Internet

(Newell, 1995); it provokes accessibility limitations

to people with and without disabilities. For instance,

if the images do not have alternative text, low band

width provokes accessibility problems for a user

without disabilities. Also, some mobile devices do

not support screen readers or do not have any button

to navigate through the mobile device. These

problems will be the same as the problems that a

visual impairment person has when tries to surf on

the Internet. Also, due to the small screen size, some

people cannot read the text, so it presents the same

accessibility problems as a user with visual

impairment. As a result, some people cannot use

mobile devices regularly (Harper, 2008). Because of

that, it should be useful to consider the accessibility

problems that a mobile device could present during

the design process of learning applications.

The features that all mobile devices should have

to be accessible for everybody are explained by

(Tiresias, 2009). And, related to collaborative

learning system, (Yan, 2009) proposes some

requirements that smartphones should have. In these

two proposals is mainly based on this research.

2.2 M-Learning

These days, e-learning is deeply-rooted in our

375

Calvo R., Iglesias A. and Moreno L..

A THEORETICAL ACCESSIBLE APPROACH FOR COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN MOBILE DEVICES.

DOI: 10.5220/0003557703750378

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CeLS-2011), pages 375-378

ISBN: 978-989-8425-50-8

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

society and it has evolved to m-learning. M-learning

is defined by some authors as “the ability to learn

everywhere at every time without permanent

physical connection to cable networks” [Georgiev,

2004]. In general, the use of m-learning refers to the

use of mobile devices to try to access to the learning

content everywhere and every time.

Comparing m-learning with e-learning, m-

learning has some advantages. For example, the

price and size of mobile devices are lower than

desktop computers and the content can be adapted to

the geographical situation of the user. But the best

advantage is users can learn when and wherever they

want, being especially useful for people with few

resources (Brown, 2008). Nevertheless, m-learning

has some disadvantages already related to the

accessibility problems described in Section 2.1. An

example of architecture of LMS in mobile devices is

proposed in (Jin, 2009).

2.3 Collaborative Learning

After the evolution of Internet to Web 2.0, the

interaction between users through Internet has

changed. This concept can be extrapolated to the

electronic education too. Nowadays, students are not

static users who connect to the Internet to get

information from it; they share their own knowledge

(Peters, 1998). These days, it is important to mention

that our individual knowledge is not useful because

people need to collaborate with each other to solve

problems (Johnson, 1994). Also, there are some

researches (Yan Yu, 2010) which show that

collaborative e-learning environments provide a

huge relationship between partners. A proposal of

architecture for a collaborative learning environment

is proposed by (Wang, 2009).

2.4 Discussion

This paper is based mainly on four approaches that

are discussed in this subsection. The architecture

proposed by (Wang, 2009) which explains the main

processes and features that a collaborative learning

environment should have. However, this approach is

not adapted for mobile devices and moreover it does

not take into account how to do it accessible for

everybody. The approach presented in this paper is

based in this architecture, but taking into account

accessibility.

Related to mobile LMS, our proposal is based on

(Jin, 2009). It converts a LMS to a mobile LMS, but

it only explains some LMS’s modules and none of

them is a collaborative module. Moreover, it does

not explain how the different modules should be

implemented. The proposal presented in this paper is

based on the description of the collaborative module

in mobile devices based on this research.

Finally, although (Yan, 2009) proposes some

requirements that smartphones should have for

collaborative learning, this specification does not

take into account the accessibility problems that

people have when they use mobile devices. This

proposal is based on this research too, but adding the

accessibility point of view based on the work of

(Tiresias, 2009).

3 THEORETICAL APPROACH

3.1 Architecture

The architecture’s proposal presented in this paper

for a collaborative mobile LMS is shown in the

Figure 1. This design is based on the framework of

mobile LMS of (Jin, 2009). Trying to solve the main

drawbacks of Jin’s approach, a new collaborative

module has been added to the architecture.

Figure 1: Architecture of a collaborative mobile LMS.

3.2 Mobile Device’s Requirements

In order to ensure the accessibility of a mobile

device, a subset of technological requirements based

on (Tiresias, 2009). These ones are listed next:

1) Able to install assistive technologies such as:

screen readers, screen magnificients, etc

2) Alerts should be showed with a visual, audio,

voice and vibrant signal.

3) Color, type size, contrast, audio and illumination

should be customized by the user.

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4) Screen touch sensitive areas are enough big to

avoid the activation by mistake.

5) Information and help should be clear and simple.

6) Provide a front camera for video-conferences.

7) The size and weight should be appropriate to be

portable.

8) The design of all mobile components such as:

card, battery and battery charger, easy to connect

and use in a fixed way.

3.3 Design of the Collaborative Module

for Mobile Devices

The main issue to create accessible content for

mobile devices is to adapt the task to the common

characteristics of mobile devices and consider the

different accessibility problems that a user can have

when s/he navigates through a LMS. For instance,

there are some tasks which are hard to complete in a

small screen such as modify or create a document.

Therefore, it has been considered that the

processes of the Wang’s study (Wang, 2009) can be

implemented in a mobile LMS tool, even in an

accessible way. Thus, the mobile collaborative

module should have next components:

Social Network (SN): the user should have the

possibility to choose who his friends are and decide

which people can see or discus his documents.

Exchange Files (EF): it is useful for users to

provide a tool for exchanging files between peers

and save them. This task is divided into three main

subtasks: upload, download and share files.

Save the Evolution of each document (SE): the

user will be informed about the different changes

produced in the document and it will show the next

changes that should be done.

Document Version Storage (DVS): each version of

all documents should be stored. It provides a great

control for the user because s/he can compare the

different versions and decide the best approaches for

the document.

Then, the main characteristics that all tasks

should accomplish to be accessible are shown next:

F1) The design of the controls must be accessible.

So they should be big enough to be pressed and

selected by a usual finger. Also, they should be

created according to WCAG 2.0 guidelines (W3C,

2008b) because screen readers and

Table 1: Main accessible steps for the mobile collaborative learning.

Task Steps ¿How to make it accessible?

SN Search the name of his friends

The text area where the user has to write the friend’s name and the confirmation

button should be designed according to feature F1.

SN Select friend/s

The friends are showed according to feature F2.

Each friend’s name has associated a check control that is checked by the user. This

check and the confirmation button should be designed according to feature F1.

The system sends a message/email

for the possible friend

A message is sent as described in feature F4. After that, an alert is showed as

described in feature F3.

The invitation is confirmed by the

friend

The friend should press a confirmation button designed according to feature F1.

The user receives a message/email

to inform him about the friend’s

confirmation

Idem to the task “Social network / The system sends a message/email for the

possible friend”.

EF Select the folder

The folders are showed according to feature F2.

Each folder’s name has associated a check control. This check and the confirmation

button should be designed according to feature F1.

EF Select the file

The files are showed according to feature F2.

Each file’s name has associated a check control. This check and the confirmation

button should be designed according to feature F1.

files

Press the button for sharing The button should be designed according to feature F1.

files

Select friends to share the file. Idem to the task “Social network/ Select friend/s”

SE Select the file Idem to the task “Upload files/ Select file task”

Fill a form to explain the evolution

of the document

The form should be designed according to feature F1.

DVS Upload file

This task has the same steps as the task “Upload file”. So it is divided into: select

folders and upload files. As a result, the way for make it accessible is the same as

described before

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377

screen magnificients could interpret the elements in

a good way. F2) The information must be shown in

small groups. For example, if a list is shown, it

should be divided into small groups of five or ten

elements.

F3) The system has to inform the user about all

completed tasks or the status of some tasks with an

alert. These alerts should be shown by the system in

a visual, audio, voice and vibration way to be

realized by the user.

F4) The message could be a text message and/or

an email. If an email is sent then it should contain

text, well-formed links and images with alternative-

text only.

Table 1 shows the different tasks and steps that

users should perform when they want to complete a

task. The first column shows the name of the task,

the second column shows the steps to perform in

each task and the third column explains how to make

each step accessible for everybody. This explanation

takes into account the features described in section

3.3 classified as F1, F2, F3 y F4.

4 CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER

RESEARCH

This paper presents a theoretical approach for

creating to create accessible collaborative learning

modules for mobile devices. This approach has as a

starting point some previous studies of m-learning,

accessibility in mobile devices and collaborative

learning for personal computers.

This research is centered in the collaborative

module which would allow teachers and students to

collaborate in the learning process through mobile

phones. Our study provides the architecture of a

mobile LMS which includes a collaborative module.

It specifies the main features that a collaborative

learning module should have to be accessible in

mobile devices. Finally, this approach specifies the

different features that a mobile device should have

to be accessible for everybody.

Currently, we are working on implementing and

evaluating the theoretical approach.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The work presented in this paper has been partially

founded by GEMMA (TSI-020302-2010-141)

research projects.

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