PEER-TO-PEER COLLABORATIVE LEARNING WITH E-BOOK

DEVICES OVER 3G-WIFI AD-HOC NETWORK

Tiong-Thye Goh

Victoria University of Wellington, School of Information Management, Wellington, New Zealand

Boon-Chong Seet

Auckland University of Technology, School of Engineering, Auckland, New Zealand

Keywords: e-Book Devices, Peer-to-Peer Collaborative Learning, Ad-hoc Network.

Abstract: This paper describes the experience of evaluating an e-book device based peer-to-peer collaborative

learning system with a 3G-WiFi ad-hoc network configuration. Two evaluations were conducted followed

by two focus group interviews. Results show that future design of e-book devices should consider the

educational affordance of integrating web browser and Internet chat functionality to accelerate the potential

adoption of e-book devices for collaborative e-learning or m-learning environments.

1 INTRODUCTION

Learning should be facilitated to take place

anywhere at anytime. Since every individual is

unique in their learning styles and abilities, different

learning strategies should be provisioned in order to

enable the most effective learning experiences for

each individual. A well known learning strategy is

peer-assisted learning, where individuals

consciously assist each other to learn, and through

the process, become more effective learners

themselves (Barkley et al., 2005). Technology can

assist and accelerate such a learning process. E-book

devices have been around for some time (Burk,

2001). E-book devices offer various benefits over

traditional books. For instance most e-book devices

are extremely light and capable of storing hundreds

of text books within one device. This capability not

only lightens the load of primary school children

who may need to carry several books to school but

also has the added potential of motivating learning.

E-book devices offer many other features such as

book-marking, long battery life, font size options,

zooming option, auto-scroll, network connectivity

(wired/wireless), annotation, dictionary, music

player, e-ink display, touch screen and virtual

keyboard (E-book, 2009). These features provide

excellent educational affordance for e-book devices

to be integrated into collaborative e-learning (or m-

learning) environments. While there are recent

studies on the usability of e-book devices as a

reading platform (Clark, Goodwin, Samuelson, &

Coker, 2008), to the best of our knowledge, there are

no studies so far on how e-book devices can be

effectively integrated into a collaborative e-learning

(or m-learning) environment such as the proposed

ubiquitous 3G peer-to-peer learning context. This

project seeks to embrace the latest mobile

technologies to facilitate such peer-to-peer

collaborative learning by on the one hand, enabling

it to take place irrespective of the learners‟ locations,

i.e. ubiquitous learning, and on the other hand,

enhancing the effectiveness of existing platforms for

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

(CSCL) (Resta & Laferriere, 2007), through more

novel means of idea or concept exchange.

2 RELATED WORK

Wilson and Landoni (2003) conducted an evaluation

of the usability of portable electronic books. In their

study, five e-book readers were used. Of the five e-

book readers only three were considered actual e-

book devices and the other two were just standard

PDAs equipped with book reader software. Their

262

Goh T. and Seet B. (2010).

PEER-TO-PEER COLLABORATIVE LEARNING WITH E-BOOK DEVICES OVER 3G-WIFI AD-HOC NETWORK.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Computer Supported Education, pages 262-267

 SciTePress

evaluation methodology was to measure user

satisfaction based on questionnaires. Four key areas

were identified: quality, ease of use, likeability and

user effect. Size, weight and display quality were

issues highlighted in their findings. Most

participants reported that navigation through the e-

book was quite easy. In a more recent qualitative

assessment of the Kindle e-book reader, Clark et al.,

(2008) discovered that some participants were rather

excited about the e-book reader. This type of

excitement is similar to the impression given by

students in the initial trial of using PDAs (Waycott,

2002) and the ebook pilot study by Northwest

Missouri State University (Shieh, 2009). In some

sense e-book devices are similar to PDAs but e-book

devices normally have a larger screen size and

longer battery life span. The assessment by Clark

and colleagues also discovered various form factors

and design issues such as the outdated style of the

devices and the navigation buttons that were too

easy to strike accidentally. Technical issues

regarding wireless connections were also a problem.

Inconsistent wireless access was also reported.

Despite all these barriers, the Kindle e-book reader

is still one of the top brands in the e-book device

market. The study done by Northwest Missouri State

University (Shieh, 2009) with 240 students using

Sony e-book devices revealed that students were

rather frustrated with the limited interactivity

capabilities. The limited research in e-book devices

clearly indicates that there are gaps in the literature

on how to extend e-book devices into more

educational affordance that can further enhance the

adoption of such a device.

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Text-based interaction is one of the popular modes

in computer mediated communication. Despite the

advent of voice communication such as Skype it is

still an effective medium in the on-line distributed

environment. In addition, text chat offers several

affordances that allow text conversation to be

searched, archived, analyzed and visualized (Looi,

2005) that are not readily available in voice

communication. Although voice communication is

considered more natural and direct, research has

shown that when collaborating at a distance

communicating through audio improves both task

performance and perceived affordances in

comparison to text-chat (Sallnäs, 2002).

Collaboration is an important learning process. To

make e-book devices more educationally affordance

(Kirschner, 2002) collaborative features should be

part of the e-book design. Unfortunately most

current e-book devices are not equipped with such

functionality. Previous evaluations were all based on

evaluating the e-book as a reading platform without

expanding its educational affordance. With the

availability of the new generation of e-book devices

such as the iRex e-reader (iRex, 2009) that allows

developers to create software based on the available

SDK, we think it is timely in this preliminary study

to expand the investigation of the e-book device as a

collaborative tool rather than a reading platform. To

this end our objective is to evaluate an e-book device

equipped with a text chat and uploading utility for

peer-to-peer collaborative learning. Since voice

communication can provide immediacy, the

secondary objective is to identify the affordance

factors of an e-book device that contains a direct

voice communication channel and uploading utility

with one that contains a text chat utility only. Hence

we have the following research questions:

a) What are the perceived factors related to

adopting the e-book device as a peer-to-peer

collaborative learning system?

b) What are the affordance factors in a text chat e-

book device and a voice communication e-book

device as a peer-to-peer collaborative learning

system?

4 METHODOLOGY

Because of the limited resources available to the

researcher, it was not possible to conduct a

quantitative evaluation. Hence, a task based and

qualitative exploratory focus group approach is

adopted in the evaluation. We conducted two focus

groups based on two potential scenarios. Each

experiment consists of two students. The first group

consists of one male and one female student and the

second group consists of two male students.

Participants were mainly information system

students with IT exposure. We used iRex‟s iLiad e-

book devices in our experiments as it is currently

one of the most popular types of e-readers. We

installed the Minimo web browser into the e-book

device for loading a small footprint Internet-based

chat application. In this project, we explored the use

of two types of wireless technologies commonly

found on mobile devices: Bluetooth and WiFi. We

investigated techniques for iLiad to communicate

with Bluetooth-enabled phones such as Sony

Ericsson K610i using a Bluetooth USB dongle; and

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to the newer generation of WiFi-enabled phones

such as Nokia N95 using iLiad‟s built-in WiFi

connectivity in ad-hoc mode. In turn, this allows

iLiad to access the phone‟s 3G Internet connection.

We used a Nokia N95 (Nokia, 2009) as a „walking

hotspot‟ for Internet connection depending on the

experiment scenarios. Before the experiment, the

principal investigator explained the tasks and

demonstrated all the necessary steps in operating the

e-book device to the students.

4.1 Procedures

Once the students were ready for the experiment,

they were separated into different rooms to simulate

the peer-to-peer learning environment. The tasks for

the participants include activating the e-book

system, make a WIFI connection with the 3G

walking hot spot, launch the Minimo browser,

launch the text chat application and communicate

with peer, read the database problem on the paper

provided, discuss the database problem with peer

using the chat application, switch to scribble

application, construct a solution with the scribble

application using a blank.bmp template and provide

a file name, switch to Minimo browser, use the chat

application to upload the solution to peer, identify

file location, receive solution from peer, read

solution, and end chat communication.

4.2 First Experiment

The first scenario as depicted in Figure 1 was

described to the students as follow:

“You are in a remote area. There is no wireless

hotspot for you to make an Internet connection.

However you have an assignment due and you need

to discuss the assignment with your peer as you have

pre-arranged. Your friend is out of reach of

telephone communication but is holding an e-reader

that is connected to the Internet and waiting for you

to start the chat. Luckily you have a 3G mobile

phone that is equipped with a walking hot-spot

solution and an e-book device. You activate the

walking hot-spot and make an Internet connection

and chat with your peer to discuss the problem.”

4.2.1 Observations

For this scenario, the investigator observed several

problems with the system such as difficulty

navigating from one application to another smoothly

and successfully, tabbing the stylus more than once

as there was no immediate response from the e-book

Figure 1: Scenario for Experiment 1.

device, no feedback on the current status, unable to

close the scribble application with the “x” menu due

to sensitivity issues of the e-book device and stylus,

difficulty finding the required interface to tab for

enlarging the font size, produced slanted writing

with the stylus, frequently tabbed to refresh the chat

program due to very slow responses from the e-book

device, uploading files through the chat program

frequently caused an “internal server error” problem.

Further it took about five minutes to draw the ERD

diagram and upload the file and battery consumption

was rather fast for the N95 device equipped with a

“walking hotspot”. This will have implications for

the mobility of the user and the duration of the

mobile application.

4.2.2 Summary of Focus Group 1

Participants commented that navigation was a major

problem. They could not switch smoothly from one

application to another application. There were

multiple steps needed and they were not intuitive.

The response from the e-book device was very slow.

They commented the response speed of a mobile

phone was even faster than the e-book device

response. In addition, participants felt that it was

rather time consuming to switch from one

application to the other without a clear view of the

application and its status. Participants commented

that downloading and uploading files from the chat

application was acceptable as it was similar to other

chat applications with which they were familiar. No

major problems were encountered. The steps for

uploading were quite simple and speed was

acceptable depending on file size. The “send” file

feature was very useful under such a scenario.

Participants commented that the chat application

was simple and easy to use however they tended to

manually refresh the page very often as the auto

refresh was rather slow. The application response

could be slow at times. Participants felt that the chat

text input was rather quick but there was some delay

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displaying the text on screen. However it was faster

than expected. Participants felt that the e-book

device connection to WiFi was very quick and easy

to establish and they did not encounter any major

problems with the WiFi connection. Participants

agreed that the chat application was useful in

drawing the solution and upload. The peer-to-peer

system was very useful. Drawing using stylus was

very easy and useful compared to one on a PC using

a mouse but it lacks an annotation feature that would

be helpful in order to avoid creating many files.

Participants felt that using the chat application was a

similar experience to sending text messages. They

felt very close and able to communicate with

someone. Emotionally they felt that the other party

was quite close and in the vicinity while using the

system. Participants commented that the mono color

display is a bit dull but it did not hurt their eyes.

However it is preferable to have a color display if

there is a need to send pictures. One participant

however commented that a black and white screen

can be seen as a formal setting for the discussion of

an assignment or business. Given the scenario, all

the participants agreed they are likely to adopt the

system. However they commented on the urgent

need to have a better e-book system that has more

intuitive navigation. The ability to use Task bar to

switch and search applications would be useful. The

file upload feature along with the ability to use voice

communication will be ideal.

4.3 Second Experiment

For the second experiment as depicted in Figure 2,

the participants were given the following similar

scenario:

“You are in a remote area. There is no wireless

hotspot for you to make an Internet connection.

However you have an assignment due and you need

to discuss the assignment with your peer as you have

pre-arranged. You can communicate with your

friend using a mobile phone and chat with him via

an e-book device that is connected to the Internet.

He is waiting for you to start the discussion. Luckily

you have a 3G mobile phone that is equipped with a

walking hot spot solution and an e-book device. You

activate the walking hot spot and make an Internet

connection and communicate with him to discuss the

problem.”

The tasks involved in the second experiment

were similar to the previous experiment. The

participants were given a run down on the steps to

perform each task. The investigator explained the e-

book device and the 3G-WiFi ad-hoc connection to

the participants. They were allowed to use the 3G

phone for direct voice communication or text chat

communication during the experiment.

Figure 2: Scenario for Experiment 2.

4.3.1 Observations

For this scenario, the investigator observed major

problems such as frequent tabbing with the stylus

which caused further response problems and opened

up multiple browsers, fail to send a file, frequent

“internal server errors” while trying to send a file.

During voice communication participants could not

use the chat application as it was suspended and

when voice communication was terminated, the chat

communication resumed. However it would be risky

to assume that chat communication will always

resume as the session time may have expired. If that

is the case then users may need to re-activate the

chat application. This is not a good experience for

users.

4.3.2 Summary of Focus Group 2

Participant M felt that navigating through the e-book

device was easy once the steps were given.

Participant M had no problem establishing the WiFi

connection to the N95 device. With respect to folder

organization within the e-book device, participant M

felt that the ability to identify the correct paths and

folder was crucial in identify the correct file to be

send to peer. Participant M encountered frequent

“Internet server errors” while sending the file. He re-

created another file to resolve the problem. It was

not clear what caused the “Internet server error”. It

might have been due to the file itself. Participant M

felt that voice communication was quicker and had

less delay than text chats. Emotionally he felt that he

needed to get answer quickly and voice

communication can achieve that better than text chat

where he needed to wait. Participants preferred to

use voice for more complex tasks and text chat for

easy tasks. They would not hesitate to use voice

communication even if they do not know the other

party. Participant M commented that if he had

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265

unresolved problem using text chat he would revert

to the phone. They felt that the distance between

participants was nearer while using voice

communication than that of text chat. However,

participant M felt that text chat allowed him to draw

the ERD diagram and upload the file and was more

effective than voice communication. Both parties

could check the files to view the solution. They

recommended using voice communication to discuss

how to do it but not to actually doing it while it is

clearer to explain using mobile voice

communication. Both participants acknowledged

that the scribble application was easy to use and no

major problems were encountered. Participants felt

that a main barrier to using the system was that the

system was not very responsive. There were no

instant feedbacks when tabbing with stylus. They

needed to wait and refresh to see what happening.

Otherwise the system was rather easy to use and

easy to understand. Participants acknowledged that

they would adopt the system as it is very handy to

have and able to communicate ideas and drawing to

peers. They suggested other useful features to

enhance the system such as word processing

software emailing, colour display and faster

response.

4.4 Discussion

In evaluating the Peer-to-Peer Collaborative

Learning with E-book Devices over a 3G-WiFi Ad-

hoc Network, we looked at three perspectives

namely from usability heuristics approach (Nielson,

1994), technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989)

and mobile and educational affordances (Norman,

1998; Kirschner, 2002) to answer the research

questions. The usability heuristics principles could

explain some of our findings rather well. For

example the principle of Visibility of system status

explains the lack of appropriate feedback of our

system. The principle of Error prevention explains

our system was error-prone and errors were not well

prevented. File upload and switching application

were not based on the principle of Recognition.

There is also a lack of Accelerator principle where

no short cuts were available to expert users. Some of

these issues identified can be overlapped with

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which has

been widely adopted as the basic framework to

examine various adoptions of technologies. In TAM

Perceived usefulness (PU) defined the degree to

which a person believes that using a particular

system would enhance his or her job performance.

Perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) defined the degree to

which a person believes that using a particular

system would be free from effort. A summary of

issues mapped with adoption factors we identified in

our evaluation is show in Table 1.

Lastly, the concept of affordance (Norman,

1988) can also explain some of our findings.

Norman described affordances as “the perceived and

actual properties of the thing, primarily those

fundamental properties that determine just how the

thing could possibly be used”. Based on this

concept, we identify some affordance factors in

Table 2.

Table 1: Summary of adoption factors.

Observed issues

Adoption

factors

Navigation interface of the e-book device

Responsiveness of the e-book device

External

Sensitivity and accuracy of the stylus

PEOU

Overall System performance

External

Text chat application

3G voice communication – direct and

responsive

Scribble application – file exchange

Lacking Feedback

External

System stability and error tolerance

Ease of connecting to wifi

PEOU

Expectations of the system performance

Table 2: Affordance factors.

Items observed

Affordance

factors

e-book system is light weight and

small and allow ease of set up

Mobility

e-ink display allow sustainable

interaction

Sustainability

e-book is easily connected with WiFi

and Bluetooth for Internet access

Connectivity

Browser – a major interface to other

learning environment to obtain

learning resources

Accessibility

Scribble and text chat application –

provide information exchange,

storage and record

Communication

The system provide group work and

discussion

Collaboration

e-book system allows resource to be

obtained when needed

Immediacy

e-book with voice communication

Responsiveness

and proximity

5 CONCLUSIONS

The e-book device based peer-to-peer learning

system with a 3G-WiFi ad-hoc network was viewed

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favourably by the participants. The potential

adoption of such a system is very likely. While some

of the findings are similar to previous studies (Shieh,

2009) several major issues needed to be resolved

before such a system can be widely adopted to

compete with netbook. These issues are the

navigation interface of the e-book device, the speed,

response and feedback of the e-book device and the

sensitivity of the stylus. Moreover, the e-book

device must include a proper browser with clear

features for file saving, font size adjustment,

navigation history and favourites. The advent of

colored e-ink display from Pixel Qi may provide

some solutions. In addition, this project has enabled

us to gain an insight into the current technical

features of iLiad, such as its processor speed, battery

energy consumption, touch-sensitive e-ink display,

and wireless connectivity. It has also demonstrated

the possibility of using our everyday mobile phones

as a wireless gateway for iLiad to access the Internet

anytime anywhere. This in turn allows us to adapt

current web-based learning applications for iLiad to

achieve our goal of a mobile peer-to-peer learning

experience. With respect to theory, the three

perspectives namely usability heuristics approach

(Nielson, 1994), technology acceptance model

(Davis, 1989) and mobile and educational

affordances (Norman, 1998; Kirschner, 2002)

explain well with our findings and potentially useful

to provide a primary conceptual model for future

studies on the adoption of ebook devices using

quantitative and structure modelling approach.

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