CrowdSMILE

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National Chiao Tung

University

Institute of Computer Science and

Engineering

THESIS

–

運用社群網路群眾外包技術之行動學

習系統

CrowdSMILE – A Crowdsourcing based Social and Mobile

Integrated system for Learning by Exploration

研究生：彭丹尼 Student： Dennis Mohan Punjabi

指導教授：林寶樹 Advisor： Bao-Shuh Paul Lin

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CrowdSMILE – 運用社群網路群眾外包技術之行動學習系統

CrowdSMILE – A Crowdsourcing based Social and Mobile Integrated

system for Learning by Exploration

研究生：彭丹尼 Student： Dennis Mohan Punjabi

指導教授：林寶樹 Advisor： Bao-Shuh Paul Lin

國立交通大學

資訊科學與工程研究所

碩士論文

A Thesis

Submitted to Institute of Computer Science and Engineering College of Computer Science

National Chiao Tung University in partial Fulfilment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Master

in

Computer Science July 2013

Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China

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i CrowdSMILE – 運用社群網路群眾外包技術之行動學習系統 研究生：彭丹尼指導教授：林寶樹資訊科學與工程研究所國立交通大學

摘要

在日常生活和活動當中，學習隨時隨地不斷地在發生，不僅僅在教室裡，更多的是在教室之外，以透過自主性的終身學習達到學習不間斷的目的。而且這樣的學習是以學習者為中心，並經由身臨其境之社交與合作的學習活動，使學習者更容易地控制與參與這個學習過程。技術的應用使終身學習成為可能。技術使初學者容易地從網際網路存取學習內容。而移動技術的普遍性，如智慧行動裝置和高速寬頻網絡，提供了一個方便的使用平台，可隨時隨地存取基於多媒體的豐富學習內容。智慧行動裝置備有強大的中央處理器、圖形處理器和感測器，可以提供豐富、創新的用戶體驗來存取學習內容。社交網絡服務亦是另一個領域的技術，可以提供支持終身學習活動的合作環境。由於社交網絡已經廣泛地被大家所使用，因此其提供了一個熟悉的操作界面來支持社交性與合作性的終生學習。這篇論文提出了一個基於群眾訊息之社交性和移動性的整合系統，稱為 CrowdSMILE，藉由探索的方式來進行學習活動。CrowdSMILE 透過一個統一且整合的定位系統來實現終生學習，該系統整合了移動和社交技術，提供一個群體貢獻和合作性之容易伸縮與擴展的學習平台。我們已提出一個多元件的系統設計和實作一個原型系統以供測試。此外，我們也描述了 CrowdSMILE 系統的基本原理、系統設計、系統框架，使用情境和一些實驗測試結果。實驗結果顯示，第四代行動網路的高頻寬與低延遲特性可以協助實現我們所設計的系統；此外，社群網站的特性也能被使用在學習內容評分上，而CrowdSMILE 系統的確能在使用者學習上有所幫助。

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關鍵詞: 線上學習、行動學習、在地學習、群眾訊息、社交網絡、行動增強實境、第四代網路

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CrowdSMILE – A Crowdsourcing based Social and Mobile Integrated system for Learning by Exploration

Student: Dennis Mohan Punjabi Advisor: Dr. Bao-Shuh Paul Lin

Institute of Computer Science and Engineering National Chiao Tung University

ABSTRACT

Learning occurs every day, not just in classrooms but even outside the classroom in everyday life and in everyday activities at anytime and anywhere. Such learning is on-going, self-paced and voluntary; and is referred to as Lifelong Learning. It is characterized by a learner-centric learning process where the learner is more in control and is more engaged through immersive social and collaborative learning activities.

Technology can be a big enabler of Lifelong Learning. For starters, it can allow easy access to learning content from the Internet. The pervasiveness of mobile technologies, like smart mobile devices and high speed broadband networks, offers a convenient platform to access rich multimedia-based learning content at anytime and anywhere. Smart mobile devices are now well-equipped with powerful CPUs, GPUs and sensors that can now provide rich, innovative, and contextual user experiences for accessing learning content. Social networking services (SNS) is another area of technology that can offer the collaborative environment needed to support Lifelong Learning activities. Because SNSs are so widely used, it can offer a familiar interface to support the social and collaborative aspects of Lifelong Learning.

This work proposes a Crowdsourcing based Social and Mobile Integrated system for Learning by Exploration called CrowdSMILE that enables Lifelong Learning through a unified and integrated location-based system. The system integrates mobile and SNS technologies to provide a crowd sourced and collaborative learning platform that is easily scalable and extendable. We propose a multi-component learning system. The design rationale, system framework, and usage scenarios are also described. In addition, we also implement a prototype of the overall system for testing. Some experimental test results are

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also illustrated while using CrowdSMILE. We show that 4G networks are more suitable for our application and certain social networking features can be used as metrics for content ranking methods. Finally we also show that users found our system to be useful and showed positive attitude towards it.

Keywords: E-learning, M-learning, Location-based Learning, Crowdsourcing, Social Networking, Mobile Augmented Reality, 4G Networks

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Acknowledgement

I would like to show my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Bao-Shuh Paul Lin for his invaluable guidance and support over the course of my degree. He challenged me and provided effective advice and insight which greatly facilitated the completion of this work and my learning at NCTU. I would also like to thank Dr. Li-Ping Tung. This work would not be complete in this form without her useful suggestions and feedback. Furthermore, I would like to thank the staff and my fellow members of the Intelligent Information & Communications Research Centre and also the Broadband Mobile Laboratory for their support, advice and friendship especially Ms Jacqueline, Dr. H.Y. Lin, Dr. J. Hung, Anna, Anita, Chia-Yu, Lynn, Derek and Hsiao-Chin. A big thanks to all the staff and faculty at NCTU who helped me navigate around NCTU with much more ease than I could have without them. Thank you for working hard to accommodate the international students! 你們辛苦了!

I would also like express my love, appreciation and thanks to my wife, Helly, my parents and my family for their unconditional support and encouragement as always. I would not be here without them. Thanks to them for pushing me to work harder when I needed to be pushed! They have always been around to help when I needed them. A special thanks to all my friends, colleagues and past teachers who always encouraged me to strive for the best.

I would like to thank CSUCA (Consejo Superior Universitario Centroamericano) and National Chiao Tung University for providing me with the required scholarship assistance throughout my studies in Taiwan. Finally, thanks to everyone and anyone who offered advice, support, encouragement and help in any way along this journey. One Love.

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List of Figures

Figure 1-1: M-learning - a subset of E-learning ... 2

Figure 1-2: Features of E-learning and how CrowdSMILE enables those features ... 4

Figure 1-3: Ideal requirements of system that supports LLL ... 5

Figure 2-1: Duality of Learning – Content Consumption and Content Creation ... 10

Figure 2-2: Traditional (One-way) E-learning vs. Collaborative (Multi-way) E-learning... 11

Figure 2-3: Kloone’s FRAME model for M-learning ... 14

Figure 2-4: Delivering only context relevant Content to the Learner ... 15

Figure 2-5: Application using Location context to provide relevant content to the user. ... 16

Figure 2-6: Social networking services, platforms and sites ... 17

Figure 2-7: Facebook, an SNS site ... 19

Figure 2-8: Example of Graph API request and data returned ... 21

Figure 2-9: Login/Authentication on iOS, Android and Web ... 22

Figure 2-10: Android Platform Architecture ... 23

Figure 2-11: MAR Application with augmented content from Internet ... 24

Figure 2-12: A MAR Application with augmented information overlay ... 24

Figure 2-13: Cloud Computing Service models as layers ... 26

Figure 2-14: A Tag cloud presenting Web 2.0 themes ... 27

Figure 2-15: PIF files being created and reused in different SCORM compliant LMSs ... 28

Figure 3-1: CrowdLearn Crowdsourcing Concept ... 30

Figure 3-2: Client/Server architecture of Game based mobile learning system ... 31

Figure 3-3: System Architecture of Location-based Guided Tour M-learning ... 33

Figure 4-1: Learning Content Data Model ... 38

Figure 4-2: Representation of Learning Content Data Model showing n Missions ... 39

Figure 4-3: Overall CrowdSMILE System Architecture and Data/Control Flows ... 39

Figure 4-4: Server Architecture Details and Functions ... 40

Figure 4-5: Social Publisher Architecture Details and Functions ... 41

Figure 4-6: Explorer Architecture ... 42

Figure 4-7: Activity and Data Flow between components of CrowdSMILE ... 43

Figure 4-8: CrowdSMILE Network Architecture ... 44

Figure 4-9: Components use Standard Web Serivces for communications ... 45

Figure 4-10: Data and Control Flow between Server and other components ... 46

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Figure 4-12: Server integration with FBSNS ... 47

Figure 4-13: Server integration with FBSNS ... 47

Figure 4-14: Data and Control Flow between Social Publisher and other components ... 48

Figure 4-15: Social Explorer Functionality ... 49

Figure 4-16: Social Publisher integrating Web 2.0 based Google Maps interface for adding Quests ... 49

Figure 4-17: Social Publisher and FBSNS integration for authentication... 50

Figure 4-18: Social Publisher and FBSNS integration for social data ... 50

Figure 4-19: Social Publisher and FBSNS integration for social data ... 51

Figure 4-20: Social Publisher and FBSNS integration for social data. UI showing Missions listing ... 51

Figure 4-21: Social Publisher allowing export of SCORM PIF for reuse ... 52

Figure 4-22: Social Publisher allowing crowdsourced content creation and sharing... 52

Figure 4-23: Data and control flow between POI Explorer and other components ... 53

Figure 4-24: POI Explorer functionality ... 53

Figure 4-25: POI Explorer UI showing FBSNS integration ... 54

Figure 4-26: POI Explorer UI screens ... 54

Figure 4-27: POI Explorer showing MAR view ... 55

Figure 4-28: POI Explorer - Accessing learning content ... 55

Figure 4-29: Top: Users using CrowdSMILE and below, real-time MAR UI of POI Explorer ... 56

Figure 5-1: 4G Test Environment at NCTU ... 58

Figure 5-2: 3G Commercial Network ... 59

Figure 5-3: Summary - Test results of HTTPS get request to CrowdSMILE server ... 60

Figure 5-4: Summary - Test Results of ping requests to CrowdSMILE server ... 60

Figure 5-5: Visual comparision of ranking of items using the different methods. ... 64

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List of Tables

Table 2-1: Official Facebook API/SDKs Available ... 20

Table 2-2: Unofficial Facebook API/SDKs Available ... 20

Table 2-3: Some relevant tools that enable characteristics of Web 2.0 ... 27

Table 3-1: Matrix comparing related work with CrowdSMILE... 34

Table 4-1: System Usage Scenarios ... 35

Table 5-1: Kendall’s Tau Correlation Strengths... 63

Table 5-2: The questions of CSUQ ... 65

Table 5-3: CSUQ Categories and corresponding items in Questionnaire ... 65

Table 5-4: State at Start of User Test ... 66

Table 5-5: State at End of User Test... 66

Table 5-6: CSUQ Survey Results by Category and User Average ... 67

Table 5-7: CSUQ Survey Results by Category and User Average as % Score out of 7 ... 67

Table 5-8: CSUQ Survey Results by Question ... 67

Table 5-9: CSUQ Survey Results by User ... 68

Table 5-10: Survey – Some Negative aspects of the system ... 68

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List of Acronyms, Abbreviations and Definitions

3G: 3th generation wireless telecommunication standard 4G: 4th generation wireless telecommunication standard Android: Mobile Platform and Ecosystem created by Google API: Application Programming Interface

AWS: Amazon Web Services

CBCL: Computer based Collaborative Learning CMS: Course Management System

CrowdSMILE: A Crowdsourced-Social and Mobile Integrated system for Learning by Exploration

Crowdsourcing: The practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers

EPC: Evolved Packet Core GPS: Global Positioning System

iOS: Mobile Platform and Ecosystem created by Apple LLL: Lifelong Learning

LMS: Learning Management Systems MAR: Mobile Augmented Reality

Mashup: A web page or web application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services. The term implies easy, fast integration, frequently using open application programming interfaces (API) and data sources to produce enriched results that were not necessarily the original reason for producing the raw source data.

PIF: Package interchange file

P-GW: Packet Data Network Gateway SCO: A SCORM Sharable Content Object

SCORM: Sharable Content Object Reference Model, a collection of standards and specifications for web based learning.

SDK: Software Development Kit SNS: Social networking services

Web 2.0: Refers to concepts and technologies that enable a more participatory web than static web pages. It enables two-way interaction between users and websites/web systems.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1. Preface

Technology based teaching and learning activities have grown by as much as 35.6% in recent times and are replacing traditional classroom teaching methods in many situations. Commonly known as E-learning, it has rapidly become a valuable teaching and learning method as part of many formal education environments [37,65,73]. Because E-learning technologies can make it easy to access content, it is also seen as an enabler of what is known pedagogically as Lifelong learning (LLL). LLL is considered to be a largely informal process of on-going, self-paced and voluntary style of learning at one’s own convenience and desire [10]. It is also characterized as being social and collaborative in that it involves others around the learner to be part of the learning process, either directly or indirectly. As its name suggests, it is said to occur throughout one’s life. The LLL process is characterized by putting the learner in control of the learning content. It allows the learner the flexibility to learn when they want, how they want and from where ever they want.

One common and well-known form of E-learning systems is called Learning Management Systems (LMS). While LMSs work well in formal environments, they don’t necessarily work well for informal learning like LLL because informal learning requires the learner to have complete control of the learning process. As discussed in [11,50], LMSs tend to be administration centric, restrictive and were designed to provide content to the learner and not necessarily to enable the users to engage with the content, i.e. create it, share it, modify it, adjust it, contribute to it etc. LMSs tend to follow an outdated model of simply allowing one way access to content. New collaborative and social learning models and paradigms require and seek to engage the learner more than ever in the learning process [33], especially by way of interaction with others. As such, E-learning platforms that support social and collaborative features also tend to support LLL better.

To achieve social collaboration, learners need to be able to connect with each other freely and easily. In everyday life, people use their own mobility and mobility of objects to coordinate their collaboration with each other [39]. In E-learning, content has been traditionally accessed and generated using stationary desktop PCs and as such, has confined learners to their desks and hence excluded the mobile aspect of collaboration. Mobile

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technologies, on the other hand, provide a mobile, on-the-go type of E-learning as opposed to stationary E-learning and allow for more interactive collaboration, thus allowing the learners to connect better. Such mobile-anytime-anywhere type of E-learning is referred to as mobile learning or M-learning [51,54,55,62] and is basically a subset of E-learning as depicted in figure 1-1 below.

Figure 1-1: M-learning - a subset of E-learning

Over the last two decades, we have seen an increase in ubiquity and expanding functionality of mobile technologies. Rapid improvements in the area of information and communication technologies have resulted in mobile devices with advanced capabilities such as powerful processing, high-resolution touchscreen-displays and multiple sensors. Add the use of high speed broadband mobile networks into the list of capabilities and what we have is a platform that enables anytime-anywhere access to rich multimedia content stored in the cloud. The mobile platform is thus very suitable for learning activities and accessing rich learning content on the go and outdoors. Furthermore, mobile technologies like smart mobile devices, are now well-equipped with powerful CPUs, GPUs and sensors that can now provide innovative, interactive and rich user experiences for accessing learning content [38]. Studies conducted over the last decade prove the viability and efficacy of using mobile devices for LLL. For example, in 2000, Sharples et al. discussed that learning can take place at anywhere and anytime and not just in the classroom [62]. It is to be noted that since then, they realized the need for a highly portable mobile computing platform that supports LLL.

Social software may be broadly defined as “software that supports user interaction” [63]. An area that has also seen tremendous growth in the last decade is a type of social software called social networking services (SNS). There are now over 1.5 billion SNS users [21,23]. An SNS site may allow users to build and maintain social connections or relations

E-learning

- Technology based - M-learning - Mobility - - Always Connected - - Pervasive -

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among people based on real-life connections, jobs, interests, hobbies, activities or all of the above. Since SNS sites inherently support user interaction, they implicitly enable collaboration based activities such as knowledge exchange, networking and community building. Such activities can also be part of what is called social and collaborative learning platforms[33] and are considered to enable LLL. LMSs tend to have limited SNS features as they support administrative functions more effectively than teaching and learning activities [47]. However, as a result of the rapid impact and growth of SNS, more and more SNS features are finding their way into LMSs as the focus is moved from administrative functions to enabling features that support LLL.

This work combines mobile technologies with SNS to create an open-location-based scalable and collaborative learning application that promotes LLL. It is designed using open and/or easily available platforms so it is easily extendable and can be adapted to any other learning system. We create a system with an explore-and-discovery-based learning application that allows the user to locate content based on preferences and location to learn accordingly. Another part of the system also empowers the learner to upload learning content to share with other learners. Our system allows the learner to be not just a content consumer but also a content producer. We enable social learning and collaboration using SNS features so the learner may engage more in the learning process.

Figure 1-2 on the following page is a model of learning that depicts LLL through use of technology. Adapted from [64,68], the model depicts learner centric learning. Technology supports the LLL process by providing engaging environments and tools for learning. The figure then also includes and shows CrowdSMILE’s corresponding features that match the model. As may be inferred from the model and the figure, CrowdSMILE was designed to be about allowing the users to engage in social and location-based activities to support their LLL.

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Figure 1-2: Features of E-learning and how CrowdSMILE enables those features In figure 1-2 above, you can see some features of the CrowdSMILE highlighted in

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orange that directly address aspects of the model. Based on that model, we have inferred the ideal requirements of a system that enables true LLL and shown it in figure 1-3 below.

Figure 1-3: Ideal requirements of system that supports LLL

1.2. Motivation

While location-based learning, crowdsourcing, social collaboration, M-learning and E-learning are not new concepts or technologies; and systems which incorporate some of the features of those concepts and technologies exist; we deem that there are not many systems that incorporate all of them together in a combined fashion while providing an open, scalable and easily extendable system. Though they may have systems similar to what we are proposing, we show that our system can solve some of the problems identified with the other systems and also offers more features.

This project has provided us with an opportunity to create an open, scalable, flexible learning system. It incorporates crowdsourcing, SNS, mobile technologies, location-based services and combines them with a mobile augmented reality (MAR) and web based user interface to provide a unique end user learning system. The system does not just cater to content consumption, but also caters to content creation. By using an existing SNS platform, we can leverage the user base for creating new learning content and allow complete social collaboration for content creation and consumption. As such, CrowdSMILE can be a useful tool used in the process of LLL.

1.3. Problem overview and purpose

As discussed earlier, some key requirements of true LLL can be inferred to be mobility, content availability and access, collaboration capability, information and idea

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exchange capability, and content authoring capability, etc. The purpose of our work is to provide an innovative, highly scalable and open collaborative platform for learning based on location and social contexts. The system is designed for use especially when on the go, anytime and anywhere, to encourage and enable LLL. We propose to do that by combining mobile technologies with SNS to provide a uniquely integrated system for collaborative learning where users can truly work with each other to create and share content for learning. The learning content is generated for the users of the system by other users of the system, in a truly Crowdsourced fashion.

Various E-learning systems that included features of SNS, mobile technologies and crowdsourcing were studied. While many offered features that were useful, they did not utilize the various technologies to the extent they could have to provide a truly integrated system that met all the identified requirements of LLL.

Some systems

 used mobile platforms but they did not necessarily utilize access to content in the cloud.  did not allow means for generation of user content using crowdsourcing. Some did not

allow any content authoring at all.

 were restrictive in how they allowed content to be presented and only allowed limited formats.

 were limited by their ability to be used in different scenarios and had limited use cases.  limited to only mobile use while others only desktop use.

1.3.1. Problem scope

The notion of LLL suggests that more learning takes place outside formal environments than within. People may want to learn on the go, at anytime and anywhere. LLL is about being engaged in the learning process. To the best of our knowledge, there exists limited unified tools or systems that can fully engage a learner in support of LLL activities such as choosing and accessing content at will and anywhere, sharing the content, collaborating based on content, building learning communities based on content and of course contributing to content and even authoring new content.

While learners can use various systems to help with their learning, they may not find it convenient to access many different and fragmented systems to fully immerse themselves in the learning process. To further define the problem, we can say:

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1) Users may get discouraged for not being able to access relevant learning content at anytime and anywhere. They may thus abandon the learning altogether or not start it in the first place. There is can be a lack of access to content or a lack of access to tools that enable content access.

2) Users may get discouraged and not achieve LLL because of not being able to share, exchange or collaborate based on the learning content.

3) Users may get discouraged from having to access multiple non-integrated systems to take part in LLL activities.

As a result of the above, a user may have less inclination or ability to learn constantly.

1.4. Contribution

To solve the problems defined, our proposal is to create CrowdSMILE, an open, reusable and integrated system that integrates existing technologies and systems to form a Mashup type learning application. Mashup type integration allows reuse of existing systems that are already familiar to the user; thus making it easier for the user to use and learn. Integration also allows leveraging existing technologies and services such as SNS. Using an existing SNS platform allows us to benefit from its existing user base for crowdsourcing based activities such as content generation by the masses, thus solving the problem of content generation. Our contribution entails building an integrated system that supports the various LLL activities by engaging the user in an immersive and integrated learning environment.

To summarize, this work proposes a Crowdsourcing based Social and Mobile Integrated system for Learning by Exploration called CrowdSMILE that enables various activities of LLL.

1.4.1. Key features of contribution:

1) Develop an open, scalable and extendable system by integrating familiar technologies and systems to form CrowdSMILE.

2) Provide LLL functionality and maintain learning context within system making it easier for user to learn.

3) Provide innovative mobile and non-mobile interfaces to support LLL activities. 4) Allow reuse of learning content by allowing content to be exported.

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As a result of using CrowdSMILE and enabling Crowdsourcing based content generation, another problem is introduced. The problem is that of showing the most relevant and best content from a possibly large set of content submitted by many learners.

To solve the problem of showing only useful content, we also propose a method for content ranking based on SNS features. The ranking is then used as a metric for evaluating relevancy and quality for content which is then used to decide what to display to the learner.

1.5. Research Methodology

We address the issue of not having a unified system that enables LLL by designing and implementing CrowdSMILE. This work takes a systems approach in approaching the problem. First we review the notion of LLL to understand its requirements. We then identify the requirements of a system that would allow a learner to accomplish LLL. We then assess the requirements of the system that will be needed in order to meet the requirements of LLL. After defining system requirements, we proceed with designing and developing the system. The proposed system is developed based on integration of different technologies, APIs and SDKs to form the end result. Finally, we test the system to see if it has met the requirements identified and report the results of the following evaluations and experiments:

1) Network and Application performance testing on 3G Vs. 4G networks 2) Content Ranking Mechanism evaluation

3) System Usability Test

1.6. Thesis Organization

This thesis is divided into five chapters. Following is a brief description of the remaining chapters:

Chapter 2: In this chapter, we provide background information that led to our integrated system design.

Chapter 3: Related works are introduced, discussed and compared.

Chapter 4: In this chapter, we provide a complete overview and details of the proposed system solution to.

Chapter 5: In this chapter, we provide the results of experiments we conducted to show that our system meets requirements as defined in previous chapter.

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Chapter 2: Background

This chapter provides a background to various concepts and technologies as related to this research. It provides a good basis for understanding the overall system design and functional role and capability.

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2.1. Background Concepts – Learning, Crowdsourcing and SNS

In this section, we introduce key concepts and theories that serve as the basis and rationale for this work.

2.1.1. Lifelong Learning (LLL)

LLL is the “on-going, self-motivated and voluntary” pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons [10]. The concept of LLL recognizes that learning does not take place only in formal educational environments but throughout life and in everyday situations. It basically means that learning cannot be characterized as to only take place at a particular time or location. Research and everyone’s personal experience can show that as individuals, we learn over time in different situations and activities; and especially outside the formal classroom environment. Because learning can occur at anytime and anywhere, there is always a chance for a social and collaborative element to be present. Individuals may learn from others, they may want to help others solve a problem, they may want to consult and discuss with others and so on. Such social and collaborative work naturally engages the learner more deeply in the learning process and is a key element of LLL.

While LLL can take place at any time, how it happens is largely environment and situation dependent. The environment and situation will be a factor in how and what an individual can learn. Internet enabled technology can provide an environment with tools to access rich learning content. While technology and systems can provide a learning-conducive environment, some of the relevant requirements they must meet to support LLL are [20]: 1) Users must set most of the learning goals, not the system.

2) Systems should support not just individual work and learning, but enable collaborative learning with others. The systems should support the improvement of collective knowledge as well as individual knowledge.

3) Although the learning system itself may have some built-in expertise about a particular topic, users will find most expert knowledge by locating other people who have the

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knowledge through social and collaborative channels.

4) The system should be open and allow modification depending on context. The needs of lifelong learners will not be met by closed systems. While this refers to the system itself, for this work, we refer to the requirement of having open and modifiable content within the system. Users must be able to access learning content but also add and modify it.

LLL and systems that enable it, highlight the distributed nature of knowledge, i.e., learners can learn from a computational environment, but, if they desire, they can also contribute to the environment.

Figure 2-1: Duality of Learning – Content Consumption and Content Creation

Figure 2-1 above (adapted from [20]) illustrates the duality between learning and contributing through use of the system .

To summarize and re-iterate, we can define the ideal requirements of a system that supports LLL as:

1) Supports many users/learners

2) Allows users to set learning goals, thus be personal

3) Has high volume content availability with ability to provides context-relevant content 4) Is highly portable and pervasive (anytime and anywhere content accessibility)

5) Has content authoring and modifying capability

6) Has social and collaborative features to enable users to interact.

2.1.2. E-learning and collaborative learning

E-learning can have a very broad definition and can be defined based on a completely pedagogical point of view. For purposes of this research, we look at E-learning as the use of information and communications technology in education and learning activities and how it is applied to meet some of the pedagogical goals of LLL. Although E-learning was coined

Adding/Modifying Content (Contributing)

On Demand Learning

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around the year 1998, the concept is much older. In as early as 1960, the University of Illinois conducted a class where students accessed informational resources on computers while listening to lectures [71]. Around the same time as well, Stanford University experimented with using computers to teach math and reading to young children. Between then and now, E-learning has become quite popular and has evolved very much. In present day, most institutes of higher learning use some form of E-learning in respective learning environments.

Many E-learning systems were based on traditional autocratic teaching methods where there is a one way flow of transferring knowledge from teacher/system to student. Over the last decade and recently, E-learning systems have moved towards becoming collaborative learning systems, where they support a shared-development-of-knowledge approach [31] through various collaborative activities. The difference between the two types is illustrated in the figure 2-2 below.

Figure 2-2: Traditional (One-way) E-learning vs. Collaborative (Multi-way) E-learning One of the goals of E-learning is to enhance learning and teaching by using technology to either provide better access to learning content, to author and publish the learning content or simply to collaborate based on the content. E-learning employs Information and Communications technology (ICT) such as software, servers, desktops, laptops, mobile devices, communication networks, etc. for use as tools of the E-learning environment. Using these tools, the learning environment can provide better content accessibility and easier content authoring mechanisms especially when used with the Internet. Furthermore, ICT tools can also be used to promote a learning environment where everybody

E-learning Tools, Resources &

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can work with others to build on the knowledge and add value to the content. While such tools and E-learning are used in formal learning environments like classrooms and learning institutions, they can also be used outside in informal or non-formal environments, thereby supporting the notion of LLL.

One of the reasons for the increase of the collaborative nature of E-learning systems is Web 2.0. Web 2.0 refers to Internet based concepts and technology that enables websites that are dynamic, vibrant and interactive and allow users to do more than just retrieve information. Web 2.0 allows for a more interaction-based and participatory access to content on the web where there is a strong emphasis on community and social aspects to the content access and even content creation. Web 2.0 allows users to interact with a website, its content and through it, also with other users, in more ways than before [52]. Web 2.0 has subsequently also had its effect on E-learning systems by making them more participatory and engaging. E-learning systems are now moving towards becoming collaborative learning systems that incorporate many different social based activities to engage the leaner more. Some examples of Web 2.0 applications used in learning are: Wikis, Blogs, Social Networking Sites, Collaborative tagging systems and other mashups that try to combine different social activities into one system [61]. As E-learning becomes more collaborative and engaging, it is also being referred to as Computer based collaborative learning (CBCL), where the focus is clearly on the learning though collaboration.

2.1.3. M-learning

The immobile nature of Desktop PCs has restricted the anytime-anyplace potential of E-learning [6] to when a learner is positioned in front of the PC. While on the move, a learner is not able to access E-learning content and tools. With the ability of wireless internet communications, a mobile device overcomes such a restriction and allows anyplace access to learning content via the mobile device [54]. Mobile Learning or M-learning falls under E-learning but with an emphasis on mobility afforded through mobile technologies, i.e., anytime and anywhere access to learning through use of mobile technologies. In addition to mobility, the fact that a mobile is personal, it affords the user control of the device and as such, over how they learn using the device.

In [6], the authors discuss and identify benefits of mobile connectivity and technologies. Mobile connectivity and technologies empowers the learner to access content

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when and wherever they want, i.e., the learner can control the flow of information. It can also provide collaboration through real-time or instant interactivity irrespective of location or time. These benefits can also be applied to learning as they support interactive and real-time environments while providing the user with control of what is accessed for learning. Considering the benefits of mobile connectivity, we can also list some of the benefits of M-learning:

1) Mobility – Anytime –Anywhere access to content

2) Personal nature – Allows personal control and contexts to learning 3) Control of learning – Allows users to control information flow

4) Interactivity – Allows real-time interactive social exchanges with other users

With more than 6 billion mobile subscriptions in the world at the moment and more of those subscriptions gaining access to high speed mobile broadband connections every day [27], the mobile platform is fast becoming the choice platform for accessing cloud content such as rich and high fidelity multimedia. With the proliferation of mobile technologies like smart mobile devices and high speed communication networks like 4G, learners now have access to portable technology that also allows them to access multimedia rich E-learning content from the Cloud at any time and everywhere. Furthermore, mobile devices have become smarter and allow rich software applications to be run on the devices themselves. A quick search on the internet reveals more than a total of 140,000 education categorized applications available on the two most common mobile platforms, IOS and Android [1,3]. Applications can thus be developed that allow various interactive mobile learning activities and when combined with the internet, gain access to learning content from the cloud. Together, mobility and connectivity present an excellent anytime-anywhere platform for supporting LLL.

In [34] the author discusses a FRAME model – Framework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education which is depicted in figure 2-3. The model describes M-learning as a process resulting from the convergence of mobile technologies, human learning capabilities and social interaction. This model serves as a useful guide for developing mobile learning systems and environments.

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Figure 2-3: Kloone’s FRAME model for M-learning

The author discusses that M-learning experiences take place within information contexts. Within the information context, the interaction between learner and information content is mediated through the mobile technology. The Device (D), Learner (L) and Social (S) aspects of learning and M-learning are depicted using the three circles. The intersections show an overlap between areas and show how they converge to form M-learning. The area in the middle, where there is a complete overlap of mobile devices, social interaction and learner aspects, depicts an idea situation for M-learning.

The (D) device aspect refers to the functional and physical characteristics of mobile devices such as portability, user interface, connectivity, input/output capabilities, sensors capabilities, software capabilities etc. Since the mobile device is the bridge between humans and content/technology access, it must be built with sufficient physical and psychological comfort. The (L) learner aspect refers to the learner’s motivation, environment, emotions, cognitive abilities, prior knowledge and memories. When designing an M-learning interface, the learner aspects must be taken into account so the interface can be designed appropriately to match the learner capabilities and situation. The (S) social aspect takes into account the social interactions and cooperation. Individuals, within their social contexts, must follow their context’s social norms for social exchange of information to be able to successfully collaborate. The M-learning system must be designed according to the expected social settings and environment.

The (DL) Device Usability Interaction refers to elements from both the device and the learner. This section relates to how the devices accommodates for learner to use the device

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itself. Examples of such accommodations are: Does it provide an intuitive interface? Does it cater to people with learning disabilities? This in turns affects how easy it is for the learner to use the device to perform the desired functions and tasks and thus to their physical and psychological comfort and in turn their satisfaction with the device. The (DS) Social Technology intersection describes how the device enables communication and collaboration amongst multiple learners and systems. This section focuses on the means, such as network connectivity, SNS collaboration capabilities, etc., that are available for information exchange and collaboration between people with various goals and purposes. The (LS) Learning intersection describes how social interactions promote, enable and enhance learning processes. It focuses on how collaboration through social interactions allows one to extract meaning from multiple social sources. It basically represents a combining of learning and social instructional and learning theories.

DLS – The Mobile Learning process is the final outcome of combining the different aspects described above. It is the result of integrations of the Device, Learner and Social aspects. M-learning provides enhanced collaboration among learners as a result of its mobile and social characteristics.

As can be deduced, the FRAME model has characteristics related to the requirements of LLL such as mobility and social collaboration. We can conclude that by using the FRAME model as a basis for system design, we can create a system that also supports LLL.

2.1.4. Location-based contexts and learning

Figure 2-4: Delivering only context relevant Content to the Learner

Informal and LLL takes place in different environments. This places constraints on the learning system to deliver content that is relevant to the learner’s current environment and situation. The figure above depicts the nature of having access to content but only delivering content that is relevant to the context. The learning system has to anticipate typical tasks and

E-learning Content, Tools, Activities, Services Relevant Context

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scenarios through modelling of different contexts. This holds true especially in mobile environment [66] where environments and learning contexts can change as quickly as the learner moves.

Figure 2-5: Application using Location context to provide relevant content to the user. Since learning has now become mobile with M-learning, the location has become an important context, both in terms of the learner’s physical location and also the opportunities for learning to become location sensitive [8]. In learning, the location of a learner can be used as one of the contexts to provide relevant content and is referred to as Location-based learning. Mobile devices are starting to come equipped with sensors such GPS, RFID, etc. which can capture contexts including location, and this can be used to deliver an experience and content that changes according to the location [5]. Previous research work shows the use of Location-based learning in tour Location-based applications, simulation gaming, field trip applications, etc. where the location is used to identify context and deliver content accordingly.

2.1.5. Exploratory Learning

Exploratory learning is a learning approach where learners are encouraged to explore, experiment, discover and learn on their own [9,58]. Exploratory learning allows the user to engage in explore and discover activities to achieve learning. With reference to this work, we refer to explore and discover type activities using mobile devices, applications and location-based contexts to explore and discover physical locations to learn about them.

2.1.6. Crowdsourcing

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or

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suppliers. [44] The reason for getting a large group to contribute is so that each may, relatively easily, perform a small portion of the task in order to achieve the overall task, goal or objective. In [24], the authors discuss a number of areas and examples of crowdsourcing, showing that crowdsourcing is common and that it can be useful when leveraged to complete tasks.

Crowdsourcing can be considered a type of social collaboration as it allows many people on the internet to come together to work, either directly or indirectly to achieve a bigger common goal. With relation to this work, we look at crowdsourcing to complete content creation and publishing tasks for learning systems. One prime example of an existing and successful execution of crowdsourcing for content generation is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a free-content encyclopaedia available for everyone to use on the internet. It leverages crowdsourcing to create and edit all its articles and has proven to be very successful. In [67], the authors use similar Crowdsourcing to generate content for a more defined E-learning system.

2.1.7. Social networking services

Figure 2-6: Social networking services, platforms and sites

Social software is software built around the goal of allowing users to communicate and interact with each other in some form or another [63]. SNSs are the fastest growing type of social software [56]. As can be seen from the figure above [41], many SNS sites exist today. An SNS site may allow users to build and maintain social connections or relations among people based on real-life connections, jobs, interests, hobbies, activities or all of the above.

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From the SNS user’s point of view, the basic idea of an SNS site is to establish an online identity and presence, and to then build an online social network around that identity.

One of the first tasks of users on SNS sites is usually to set up their “Main Page”, a web page that will showcase their identity and their activity on the SNS site. Setting up their identity, may also refer to as setting up their SNS site “Profile”. After setting up their “Profile”, users proceed to start building connections and social networks. Building social networks entails finding connections which is commonly known as finding “friends”. The connections may or may not be real-life ones. They can be strictly online-only connections. After finding connections, the SNS sites offer some form of “contact management” to keep a track of all the connections. The social-network building and maintaining task also involves communications and exchanges of messages with connections. SNS sites offer such messaging capabilities either by way of private messages or also by posting not-so-private messages to their connections “Main Pages”. “Group pages” such as wikis or blogs also offer a method for a larger number of non-connected SNS users to exchange messages and carry out a discussion.

With the basic building blocks and functions identified earlier, users then proceed to build and maintain their connections, communities, groups and networks. The basic idea of SNSs is to allow online social contact with others in a user friendly and easy to do manner. By allowing multiple users to communicate and exchange message, SNS sites inherently support user interaction and implicitly enable collaboration based activities such as knowledge exchange, networking and community building. Such activities can also be part of what is called social and collaborative learning platforms [33] and also thus support LLL. Research has also suggested that SNSs can be used for learning purposes [42,48,59,60]. Authors in a research study [40] discuss some of the education potential of SNS sites and show that students did claim to use SNS sites for informal learning purposes, albeit that was not their main reason for use of SNS sites.

In [7,16,53] authors also suggest making use of some features within SNS for different content ranking methods. SNS features offer a wealth of data that can be mined and used in various machine learning tasks such as automated ranking of content, sentiment analysis, etc.

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Facebook Social Networking Services (FBSNS) 2.1.7.1.

Figure 2-7: Facebook, an SNS site

Facebook is a social networking services site and platform that has become one of the most popular means of communication. Launched in 2004, it is presently one of the most popular SNS sites with more than 1 billion active users. Some of the key features and features of FBSNS relevant to this work are:

1) Facebook Profile - This is the online identity of the user on FBSNS. It can contain information about the user such as name, date of birth, home city, school information, list of friends, gender, etc. Once a user signs up for FBSNS, their profile gets populated and created automatically with the information supplied by the user.

2) Friends – Friending is the act of sending another user a friend request on Facebook. Upon the other user’s approval, the two users are connected to other and are referred to as Friends. Friends can also be “Unfriended”.

3) Wall – FBSNS user’s main page, home page or profile space; where user’s content is shown. It allows posting of messages by the user for sharing with others as any Friends of the user, can also see the wall of the user. Messages posted on the Wall are known as Wall posts and also “Status Updates”. Users may also post messages to Walls of their friends. A user and their friend’s may also make comments on the wall post and start a threaded discussion based on the post.

4) News Feed – A feature of the home page that is constantly updated to show activity of a user’s friend. Users can see all public activity of their friends in near real time.

5) Like – Described by Facebook as “a way to give positive feedback and connect with things one cares about”. Users can like posts, messages, and comments among other things

6) Share – Users often post links or other web content on their walls. Those posts may be “Shared” by their friends. Sharing is basically a form of reposting.

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7) Messages and Inbox – Email like messaging facility

8) Groups – A Group can be created by any user and joined by anyone if set to open. It basically offers a separate space/page for the group where they can post content.

The FBSNS can be accessed across both desktop and mobile platforms. While it is a web based app and can be accessed via mobile browsers as well, mobile devices have native client apps to access the FBSNS.

2.2. Background Technologies

As mentioned previously, this work is a Mashup based integration of various systems and component to achieve the desired end result. In this section, we discuss some of the main technologies that we use and implement in this work.

2.2.1. Facebook SNS Platform for Developers

The Facebook Platform is a software environment provided by the social networking service Facebook for third-party developers to create their own applications and services that access data in Facebook [32]. “Facebook offers tools, services and SDKs to developers who want to integrate social experiences into their applications. Whether or not the application is on iOS, Android, mobile web or desktop web, Facebook offers tools to make integration easy.” [17]. Table 2-1 shows the API/SDKs available for different environments. The Facebook platform offers various tools, services and SDKs to leverage their social platform within 3rd party applications on different platforms such as Web, iOS and Android. By using the various tools, services and SDKs, one can access much of the social content and functionality available within the platform and use it to make their 3rd party application social-enabled.

Table 2-1: Official Facebook API/SDKs Available

Platform API/SDK

Web JavaScript, PHP

Mobile iOS, Android

As can be seen in table 2-2 below, additional unofficial SDKs exist and have been contributed by the developer community.

Table 2-2: Unofficial Facebook API/SDKs Available

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Web Flash ActionScript, Ruby NODE.js, c#

High Level Facebook Platform Components [15,17,19] include: (certain parts retrieved verbatim from documentation available on the FB developer site)

1) Graph API: The Graph API is the core of Facebook Platform. It is a simple HTTP-based API that gives access to the Facebook social graph, uniformly representing objects in the graph and the connections between them. Most other APIs at Facebook are based on the Graph API. The Graph API is the primary way to get data in and out of Facebook's social graph. It's a low-level HTTP-based API that you can use to query data, post new stories, upload photos and a variety of other tasks that an app might need to do.

The API works using HTTP Get, Post, Delete methods. After making the request to the server using one of the methods above, the server responds with appropriate data, usually in JSON format.

Figure 2-8: Example of Graph API request and data returned

In the figure 2-8 above, we can see that after making the request using HTTP GET, the server returns JSON data along with the HTTP headers. In the figure proceeding shows some of the returned JSON data after requesting for user information using the Graph API.

2) Social plugins: Features such as the Like Button, Recommendations, and Activity Feed – enable developers to provide social experiences to their users with just a few lines of HTML.

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Figure 2-9: Login/Authentication on iOS, Android and Web

3) Authentication: Facebook authentication enables developers’ applications to interact with the Graph API on behalf of Facebook users, and it provides a single-sign on mechanism across web, mobile, and desktop apps. Figure 2-9 shows the different login screens.

4) Open Graph protocol: The Open Graph protocol enables developers to integrate their pages into the social graph. These pages gain the functionality of other graph objects including profile links and stream updates for connected users.

5) Iframes: Facebook uses HTML iframes to allow third-party developers to create applications that are hosted separately from Facebook, but operate within a Facebook session and accessed through a user's profile. Applications that work within the iframe are also known as Canvas applications. Canvas applications can be built using any language that supports web programming. Because canvas applications run inside an iframe, they have the appearance of running directly of the Facebook site.

2.2.2. Android Mobile Platform

Android is the world’s most popular mobile platform [2]. Released by Google in 2007, it is a Linux based platform that offers a complete software stack and can be run on a wide variety of mobile devices from different vendors. Because Android is open source, it is quite popular as it can be easily extended to incorporate new and cutting edge features as they emerge.

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Android delivers a complete set of software for mobile devices: an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications [68]. It provides a wide range of useful libraries (written in C/C++) and tools that can be used to rapidly develop rich featured applications. The libraries expose APIs which are used by applications. Applications on Android are built using a customized version of the Java programming language.

The following figure shows the architecture stack of Android. The Application framework, as can be seen, is very modularized and its components are designed for easy reuse by developers. Android applications run in Dalvik, a customized Java virtual machine that is optimized for low-resource environment. The actual code for applications are written in Java but are translated to Dalvik code and run in Dalvik.

Figure 2-10: Android Platform Architecture

One of the key features of Android is the development ecosystem. A rich development environment is available: SDK, emulators, debugging tools, memory and performance profiling tools are all part of it. The SDK supports Linux, Windows and Mac platforms for development of applications. Android is considered to be secure, lightweight and effective OS.

2.2.3. Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR)

Augmented Reality (AR) is not a new concept and has been discussed in detail since 1997, but has just recently started to gain acceptance and use due to advanced processing and graphics capabilities of computing devices. AR is where the view of the real world is

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augmented to enhance the user’s sensory perception and information about the real world. An AR environment is accessed through a computing device whereby the real world view is augmented by sound, text, video, other data/information and additional interface interactions as a result of using AR with the device [4]. An example of using AR would be using a mobile device to record a video of a well-known landmark and while recording, information about the landmark would be super imposed automatically on the recording to provide the user with the information about the landmark, thus providing the user with additional information that would have not been available as easily/naturally without AR. While AR has many applications on fixed computing devices, with high speed mobile networks, cloud availability and high processing power in mobile devices, Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) is now gaining popularity and has many applications such as gaming, navigation, training, etc. [57]. Figure 2-11 is an example of a MAR application which shows a live camera view of the environment with overlaid content retrieved from the internet.

Figure 2-11: MAR Application with augmented content from Internet Figure 2-12 shows a MAR based tourism application [14].

Figure 2-12: A MAR Application with augmented information overlay Internet

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MAR also provides a tremendous opportunity to enhance M-learning by providing a very natural and intuitive method for accessing high quality information using a mobile device. MAR based exploratory learning activities such as field trips, tours and simulated games can use location-based contexts to enhance the learning environment and provide relevant content accordingly. In [36] authors propose a design for a MAR based system for engineering education. In [72], authors discuss a guide based application and make use of MAR in a museum environment. Many other published works also showcase the use of MAR in E-learning systems [12,13,70].

2.2.4. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the notion of providing computing services and hardware as a utility, in a request-and-use-as-you-need model. It is a model for providing ubiquitous, on-demand access via networks to a shared pool of computing resources such as other networks, servers, storage, applications and services [43]. Some essential characteristics of Cloud computing are:

1) On-demand self-service: A user can unilaterally request for and provision additional computing capabilities when needed without requiring human interaction from the service provider.

2) Broad network access: Cloud computing resources are available over the network and can be accessed by using standardized mechanisms used by platforms such as mobile phones, laptops, desktops, etc.

3) Resource pooling: The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple users using a multi-tenant model. The recourses are allocated dynamically according to consumer demand. This allows leveraging of a finite set of computing resources to seem to be infinite, as users only request for additional resources when needed and release those resources when not needed.

4) Rapid elasticity: Capabilities and resources can be rapidly and elastically provisioned and in some cases, to automatically scale out when no longer required. Lik**e resource pooling, this gives the customer the impression of infinite resources available for use. 5) Measured service: Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resources usage by

ensuring metering capabilities at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service. E.g.: Storage space used, bandwidth used, # of user accounts, # of IP addresses, etc.

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Cloud computing can be offered as one of three types of services:

1) Cloud SaaS – Software as a Service – This type offers applications running in the provider’s cloud infrastructure as service to the customer. The applications are accessible from various client devices through thin client interfaces like a web browser or remote desktop clients. The consumer does not manage or control any underlying infrastructure to run the applications. They simple have end user access to the application for use. E.g. Web based Email services

2) Cloud PaaS – Platform as a Service – This type offers a platform to the customer so that they may deploy their own or acquired applications on the provider’s cloud infrastructure. The consumer does not manage or control any underlying infrastructure to run the applications but they do have the ability to control their application and possibly some environment settings.

Figure 2-13: Cloud Computing Service models as layers

3) Cloud IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service – This type allows the customer to control and provision the underlying infrastructure such as networks, storage, processing capabilities, memory, etc. on their own to be able to deploy and run arbitrary software which can include operating systems and applications.

2.2.5. Web 2.0

Web 2.0 refers to web concepts and technology that enables websites to be more interaction-based and provide more participatory access to content on the web. The term was coined in

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1999 by Darcy DiNucci and was popularized Tim O’Reilly. It emphasises on community and social aspects to the content access and even content creation. Web 2.0 allows users to interact with a website, its content and through it, also with other users, in more ways than before [52]. It has forced the creation of new tools that allows websites to have more interactive and rich user interfaces that promote social collaboration.

Web 2.0 allows building of virtual applications on top of existing applications for rapid deployment. It allows reuse of modular components and frameworks to create Mashups and integrated systems. Web 2.0 is about sharing, communicating and facilitating community, be it to share code, content or ideas [45].

Figure 2-14: A Tag cloud presenting Web 2.0 themes

Table 2-3: Some relevant tools that enable characteristics of Web 2.0

jQuery, jQuery Mobile and jQuery UI are a set of open source, multi-browser, lightweight JavaScript frameworks designed to make client-side scripting of HTML much simpler and easier. They are the most popular JavaScript libraries in use today. The modular approach to the jQuery library allows the

creation of powerful dynamic web pages and web applications. It allows for creation of rich-user-interface based websites as per Web 2.0s concepts [29].

Google Maps has a wide array of APIs that let you embed the robust functionality and everyday usefulness of Google Maps into your own website and applications, and overlay your own data on top of them [22].

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From a learning point of view, Web 2.0 will allow the same characteristics of itself to be embedded in learning systems that are designed with the Web 2.0 concept. If Web 2.0 systems are more social, collaborative, the same will be for learning systems based on Web 2.0.

2.2.6. SCORM

Sharable Content Object Reference Model is a collection of standards for web-based E-learning. SCORM is a specification of the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, which comes out of the Office of the United States Secretary of Defence. It is composed of three sub specifications:

1) Content Packaging – specifies how learning content is packaged and described. It is XML based.

2) Run Time Section – The section that specifies how the package content should be launched. It communicates with LMSs.

3) Sequencing – This section specifies how the learner can navigate between different SCOs and parts of SCOs. It is a set of rules and is also XML based.

Figure 2-15: PIF files being created and reused in different SCORM compliant LMSs In order to allow reuse of learning content, SCORM defines how content may be packaged into a transferable ZIP file called "Package Interchange Format (PIF)” so that the content may be used on other compliant learning management systems as shown in figure 2-15. The PIF must contain an XML file, referred to as the “manifest file” at its root. The manifest file contains all information about the learning content. The manifest divides the course into one or more parts called SCOs. It also contains information about how to launch

Learning Content SCORM Compliant - Package Interchange Format LMS 1 LMS 2 LMS 3