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The remainder of this paper is structured as fol-
lows. Section 2 presents related work while specif-
ically targeting the customization of functionality in
these systems. In section 3, we present preliminary
work on the (meta-)model and the base on the sys-
tem’s concept. Next, section 4 introduces an infras-
tructure and describes each part of it in more detail.
In addition, the opportunities provided for the lecturer
are motivated. Section 5 presents the results retrieved
from an initial user study and discusses the evalua-
tion within realistic scenarios. Finally, section 6 con-
cludes this paper and discusses the limitations and fu-
ture work to be done.
2 RELATED WORK
Current literature presents many systems that tar-
get the support communication in classic classroom
teaching, e.g., as listed by (Hara, 2016), (Meyer et al.,
2018), or (Kubica et al., 2019a). In order to adjust
the functional scope to the lecturer’s personal teach-
ing strategy, different approaches exist, which will be
presented in the following.
The most straightforward way to customize the
range of functions is to select specific functions. E.g.,
in Tweedback
2
, the lecturer can enable or disable
the features called “Chatwall”, “Quiz” and “Panic-
Buttons”. Furthermore, GoSoapBox
3
allows a more
fine-granular selection of the system’s functionality
by extending the selection of its core features called
“Barometer”, “Quizzes”, “Polls”, “Instant Polling”,
“Discussion” and “Social Q&A” by additional fea-
tures (or filters), namely a “Profanity Filter”, “Math
Formatting” and “Names Required”. In order to
help the lecturer to choose the system’s functional
scope, ARSnova
4
allows to select predefined use
cases. E.g., by selecting “Clicker Questions”, all sim-
ple question types such as Multiple Choice, Single
Choice, Yes – No, Likert Scale and Grading are en-
abled. Furthermore, (Kubica et al., 2017) investigates
a proposal-based function selection that is able to es-
tablish a connection between the considered scenario
and the system’s functional scope. The scenario is
characterized by entering values for predefined influ-
ence factors, e.g., the amount of students participating
in the lecture. Afterwards, a suitable functional scope
is proposed that can be adjusted manually to match
the lecturer’s personal preferences.
Although the mentioned function selections help
at targeting the function scope at a certain degree, they
2
https://tweedback.de/?l=en (accessed 3/19/20).
3
https://www.gosoapbox.com/ (accessed 3/19/20).
4
https://arsnova.eu/mobile/ (accessed 3/19/20).
lack at their limited functional scope as well as at pre-
defined limitations, e.g., the number of repetitions to
answer a question or the feedback whether a possible
correct answer is displayed to the students or not.
(Sch
¨
on, 2016) presents an approach that goes be-
yond a static functional scope by proposing a new
generic model that allows to define customized teach-
ing scenarios. The model consists of objects with at-
tributes, and rules with conditions and actions. Due
to the high generics of the model, almost any scenario
can be created. In MobileQuiz2
5
, the model was im-
plemented and evaluated in several realistic scenar-
ios. During the evaluation, the modeling task turned
out to be very complex. Although a scenario editor
did help the users to model valid scenarios, it could
not make the modeling process easier to understand.
For this reason, a didactic expert is required to de-
fine the application model of a custom scenario when
MobileQuiz2 is used. Another issue got obvious dur-
ing execution. Due to the problem that the generic
model produces deep-nesting objects, it lacks in per-
formance as soon as the participation count raises.
In summary, two directions can be recognized: On
the one side, approaches exist targeting the system’s
functional scope by function selections. On the other
side, a generic model was proposed that is able to ex-
press scenarios without predefined elements. Nev-
ertheless, both groups have their individual limita-
tions, which motivated us to create an approach that
overcomes those and surpasses existing approaches.
In order to give any lecturer the opportunity to tar-
get the function scope to his/her teaching strategy in
mind, collaborative functional blocks will to be pro-
vided, which have so far only been investigated in
smaller, non-anonymous scenarios, e.g., as presented
by (Lingnau et al., 2003) or (Dragon et al., 2013).
3 PRELIMINARY WORK
This section presents preliminary work that was done
in advance of the prototype creation. First, the con-
cept of an adaptable learning environment is de-
scribed. Second, the fundament of our concept is pre-
sented, namely a (meta-)model for defining elements,
parameters, and rules.
3.1 Concept of an Adaptable Learning
Environment
Our main concept combines the strength of both ap-
proaches, the application models with static func-
5
http://www.mobilequiz.org (accessed 3/19/20).
stARS: Proposing an Adaptable Collaborative Learning Environment to Support Communication in the Classroom
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