a collaborative idea sharing tool based on online solution for

A Collaborative Idea Sharing Tool Based on Online Solution for Mobile Application

Assoc.

Prof. Dr Sulaiman Mohd Nor1,

Assoc. Prof. Zamani Md Zain2 ,

Mr Muhammad Haikal Satria3

This research is funded under the Instructional Develoment Grant (no 6016), Universiti Teknologi malaysia

1. Research Fellow, Centre for Information and Communication Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Lecturer Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

2. Lecturer, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

3. h.D candidate, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

2 3rd International Conference For e-learning & Distance Education

Abstract

Idea sharing ability in educational institutions is one of the most intangible assets for innovating and sustaining competitive advantages. Idea sharing capability when integrated with the existing e-learning systems available in an educational institution will enhance knowledge cognitively through the social interaction between peers and teachers. However, problems in communication in time and space create barriers of communicating ideas between the involved entities. There is a need to provide support by removing the time and space barrier and representing ideas as structured information. Based on the theory of Social and Collaborative Constructionism, we introduce an Idea Sharing Application with enriched mind mapping features as an asynchronous collaborative tool to solve the need on knowledge and idea sharing. This tool visualizes ideas or other information organized around a central key idea. It structures the knowledge in a hierarchical connection and provides tracking of changes and history from each involved entities. Relevant documents, pictures and related links can be embedded within the framework to support the ideas. It is based on online solution for mobile application which could be accessed anywhere with one-to-one or one-to-many access. This tool has been tested to support research ideas and framework between students and supervisors, especially at the postgraduate level in UTM. Initial incubated ideas and information are processed collaboratively between researchers and supervisors.

INTRODUCTIONNowadays, the acceptance of teaching and learning through the electronic media has been

common amongst students and teachers. A study conducted by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia discovered that most second year undergraduate Education course majoring in Computer and Science have a high level of knowledge for their readiness in using e-learning with a min of 4.14. The attitude of students in their readiness towards e-learning is also positive with a min of 3.67. However, the study also showed that the students motivation is low with a min of around 3.38[1].

The existing e-learning system can be further enhanced with new technologies to enhance the experience of learning through online. This includes lectures which can be recorded by students and the contents uploaded to a content server (an example being UTM video server, http://utmmotion.utm.my).

The purpose of this paper is to share on the development of an enhanced collaborative on-line mind map system for idea sharing and problem solving. The application can be used anytime and anywhere by groups of registered users. This system can be augmented into the existing e-learning system used at the university.

The motivation of the research centres on these questions;

المؤتمر الدولي الثالث للتعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد3


1- Will interaction between students (and teachers) help students to effectively solve their academic problems through collaborative on-line idea sharing system?

2- How does space and time limits and extends the effectiveness of idea sharing amongst students and students and teachers?

BACKGROUND A case study to design a teaching framework through an effective e-learning methodology has

been presented by N Vivekananthamoorthy et.al. [2] This study demonstrates how conventional teaching methodology can be complemented through e-learning to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning. In the study, the tools used to build the proposed framework include Googles Web, Google Docs and Google analytics which are available freely. The tools used are towards applying Osborne Problem Solving process.

Problem solving methodology used in education otherwise known as Creative Problem Solving Process (CPS) or Osborn-Parnes process was developed by Alex Osborn and Dr. Sidney J Parnes in 1950.[3] The CPS conceptual framework integrated with the theory of Social Constructionism or Collaborative Constructionism will be used in the second phase of the research methodology. The Osborn-Parnes process with six steps and divided into three phases can be summarized as follows; [4]

Process Level Step

Discover challenges

Find objective (identify goal, needs or challenges)

Discover facts (group relevant data)

Identify problems (elaborate the problems to solve in order to achieve goal)

Generate Idea Identify idea (identify idea to solve problem)

Readiness for actionFind solution (moving from idea to execution)

Acceptable results (plan for action)

Amongst the work done which demonstrates the strong relationship between usage of tools to support Social Constructionism and Collaborative Constructionism theory is Learning With Weblogs: Enhancing Cognitive and Social Knowledge Construction.[5] This study is based on the assumption that effective usage of weblogs will validate the constructivist model on teaching performance by supporting development of social and cognitive knowledge and enhancing responsibility of individual in teaching. This paper has given a good overview on learning theory based on constructivist theory. The key question in this research is whether the continuous use of


weblogs as online learning logs can affect students’ learning performance. As an initial step towards realizing the project, a study on existing mind map system which are used has been done. The purpose of the study is as such to see whether any of the existing system can be used instead of having to build the system from scratch. Sixteen idea sharing applications have been identified as a reference to study. These applications are either online or offline system, most of which are based on flash using asynchronous group transaction. The table 1.0 below shows the list with the development technology and the type of licensing.

No Name Developed Platform Authentication License Group Transaction

1 MindMeister Java, VML

Browser based,

agent (standalone,

mobile)

Signup,

crosssite commercial synchronous

2 Mindjet,

MindManager Flash, .Net

Agent standalone,

(Windows) Sign up commercial

Asynchronous

(push/pop)

3 Bubblus Flash Browser based Sign up commercialAsynchronous

(push)

4 Mindomo Flash

Browser based,

agent,(Windows,

Apple)

Signup,

crosssite commercial

Asynchronous (push/pop)

5 Mind42 Java Browser based Sign up Free Real‐time

6 Dabbleboard Flash, Ajax

Browser based Sign up commercial Real‐time

7 WiseMapping Java, SVG,

VLBrowser based Sign up Open source

asynchronous

(push/pop)

8 Ekpenso FlashWeb browser,

standalone agent

Sign up,

OpenIDFree

asynchronous

(push/pop)

9 XMind Java Agent standalone Sign up commercialasynchronous

(push/pop)



10 iMindMap Flash

Browser based,

agent (standalone,

mobile)

Sign up commercial synchronous

11 SpicyNodes Flash Browser based Sign up commercialasynchronous

(push/pop)

12 MAPMYself .Net,

Silverlight

Browser based

SignupSign up commercial

asynchronous

(push)

13 Spider scribe FlashBrowser based

SignupSign up Free synchronous

14 Comapping FlashBrowser based,

standalone agentSign up commercial synchronous

15 3D Topicscape

mindmaps .Net

Standalone

agent (Winbase

OpenGL)

License commercial Offline

16 Seavus

DropMindFlash

Web browser, standalone

agent

Signup, cross‐site

commercial synchronous

Table 1.0 Available Mind map applications

Based on the study done, it was discovered that the way forward is to develop a customized idea sharing system that can be easily integrated with the existing infrastructure.

METHODOLOGY This project is divided into two phases. The first phase is to do a comprehensive requirement

analysis, to develop a prototype system that can be deployed in a controlled environment with identified group of users. The second phase is to study the effectiveness of the project in the light of Social Constructionism and Collaborative Constructionism theory complemented by Creative Problem Solving Process (CPS). Sets of questionnaires will be developed to the identified target groups using the system and the results analyzed with the given framework as stated before.


Software Requirements Specification for UTM Idea Sharing System The Software Requirement Specification provides a complete description of all the functions

and specifications of UTM Idea Sharing system. It explains the purpose and features of the system, the interfaces of system, what the system will do and the constraints under which it must operate. The purpose of UTM Idea Sharing system is to develop a web based and online application of management and idea mapping between students, lecturers or amongst them, augmenting the current UTM e‐learning system. Modeling of requirement analysis, system designs and framework design is based on Unified Modeling Language (UML) version 2.1. The system was designed and developed to augment UTM e-learning system and to allow users to login using ACID, add / create the idea, update the idea, manage the idea and share the ideas either by “One to One” sharing or “One to Many” sharing. ACID or Academic Computing ID (Identification) of UTM is a centralized user account and password management system for all academic users in the university. The description of ACID can be obtained from http://acid.utm.my/info.php. The idea sharing data will be deployed in a server provided by Computer Centre. The system also provides Add/Delete Object on child‐parent object, Auto‐Save workspace, Cut and Copy Object, Export/Import enable, viewing with Navigator, Print Enable, Relation Generator with Auto‐Backup function. The group transaction type is asynchronous

Requirement Analysis Functional Requirements are those that refer to the functionality of the system, i.e., what

services it will provide to the user. The requirements can be broken up into three distinctive measureable sub functional requirement of the application.

The first sub requirement – Asynchronous Online Application The UTM idea sharing application will be implemented as an online web based application.

The server application will be placed in UTM intranet, and follows the networking rule of UTM. The application is a cross‐major web browser platform as an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter‐operate on multiple web browser platforms. Platforms identified as major web browsers are Mozilla, Google Chrome and Safari. The users login is provided by ACID login, where application are provided with scripts to pass login message from or to Academic Computing ID (Identification) of UTM.

The second sub requirement – Idea mapping The UTM idea sharing application will be implemented as a mind map diagram. The diagram

starts with the display of a (center) parent with an oval shape containing a key text of the topic. This is typical in any mind map program. The diagram is a hierarchical tree map of child node from the center parent. The child node is a key text with no shape and contains note. A note contains a



paragraph based description text, image and hyperlink. The third sub requirement – Project Management A project is a single generated mind map diagram created by a user. The user can delete saved

map, generate new map, alter saved map and share saved map to other user. Each of users could see the list of saved or shared projects generated by him/her and shared project provided by other users.

Table 2.0 summarizes these requirements

Sub Requirement – Online System:

Cross Platform browser : Mozilla, Google, Chrome and Safari

Server side script to provide client side interface

Provide Login and security based on ACID UTM

Sub Requirement – Idea Mapping

Center parent as rectangular shape

Extensible size of child node tree

Notes inside each child node

Notes provides test, image and hyperlink text

Add/Delete child node

Auto arrange child node tree

Text Sizing and formatting

Hide/Unhide child node.

Theme selection

Sub Requirement Project Management

List of project belong to User

List of project shared by other user to a User

Description of each project

Snapshot of project


Table 2.0 Summary of requirements

The use case scenario for new project depicts many of the use case scenarios in developing the application.

Figure 1.0 – Use case for new project scenario

Table 3.0

summarizes the steps in the case of a new project being created by the user.

Brief Description The creation of a new project and sharing mechanism

Initial StepsFor this use case to be initialized, students must be connected to the internet and connected to the application website with authenticated credential from the authentication process. One of the student has already initialized / create new project at project management page

Steps Description

1. A Student creates new project or alter an available saved project created by they own authentication account. 2. Student then proceed to save the new project or alter the project then proceed to the project management page 3. Student click the project and get the project description at the info panel 4. At the info panel, the student clicks share button and the system displays a message box with text input. 5. Student fills up the text input with some username (email address) separated by semiolon. 6. When the student clicks the OK button, all of listed students get notification via their account and shared project at their project list page. 7. For every alteration, amendments done by a user, notification will be send to other users in the group.

Table 3.0 – Steps based on the use case for new project



RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The figure 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 shows typical display of the system.

Figure 2.0 – User login interface

Once a user goes to UTM idea sharing page, the page as shown in figure 2.0 is displayed. In the specification, user account management will be integrated with UTM ACID system. However, for the prototype, user account is created via an interface not shown here.

Figure 3.0 – User management interface

Once a user has successfully login, the user management interface is displayed. Here, the user


can open an existing (or create) a project, delete an existing one or share with other members the project. By clicking on the panel, the following display will be shown (figure 4.0).

The user can now rename the New Mind Map with an appropriate title. The bubble represents nodes which can be added or deleted as needed. It can be moved accordingly and links, documents and images inserted.

Figure 4.0 – User idea interface

As mentioned earlier, the system can function as an on-line mind map system with multiple users sharing and collaborating ideas. This reduces having local physical interaction. Thus a student (or lecturer/supervisor) can initiate a project and share with his/her peers. Traditionally the group have to meet to initiate this sort of activity. Now it can be initiated by anyone with invitation to other participants via e-mail. The session might not be interactive in real time as needed in the traditional method. Whenever an idea crops up, the participant can put the idea with the framework, update the idea etc provided he or she is on line. With the current version, the idea can also be viewed off-line. Also as mentioned earlier, images can also be inserted in the nodes to enrich the ideas.

The prototype system has been successfully implemented on a Dell Poweredge 1U rack mounted server with Windows 2003 operating system, single CPU and 2 GB RAM. The database uses MySQL with Apache Tomcat as the servlet and JSP Web Server.



CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

The system developed is not fully complete. The login part is still not integrated with UTM ACID system so as to allow all users in the university to use the system without having to create an account. The system has also to be fully tested according to all the features mentioned with the ability to support a maximum number of users concurrently. Thus the supporting hardware, the tools must be able to do so. In essence, performance consideration has to be really taken care of. From experience, users tend to find alternatives once the system starts to degrade in performance, no matter how good and extensive the features are. In addition, the effectiveness of the system based on the aforementioned theories has to be established. Based on the current practice still carried out by many students and project supervisors, the system is expected to enhance the learning experience through the collaborative on-line mind map system.


REFERENCESYahaya ,Noraffandy and Ling, Ning Ning, “The readiness to use e-learning amongst second year

Education degree students majoring in Science and Computer, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia – A study (Kesediaan Penggunaan E-Learning Di Kalangan Pelajar Tahun Kedua Kursus Sarjana Muda Sains, Komputer Serta Pendidikan, Fakulti Pendidikan, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia - Satu Tinjauan)”, (2010) accesible through http://eprints.utm.my/10960/

http://creativeproblemsolving.com/ accessed on 24th April 2011

Vivekananthamoorthy, N et. al, “An effective E-learning framework model - a case study “, Proceedings 2009 Seventh International Conference on ICT and Knowledge Engineering, pages 8 – 14, 1-2 Dec 2009

H. S. Du dan C. Wagner, “Learning With Weblogs: Enhancing Cognitive and Social Knowledge Construction”, pages 1-18, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 50, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

a collaborative idea sharing tool based on online solution for

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