Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 57, Issue 3, November 2011, Pages 2077-2085
Computers & Education

Reducing the spatial distance between printed and online information sources by means of mobile technology enhances learning: Using 2D barcodes

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.05.019Get rights and content

Abstract

Online information sources, such as pictures and animations on web pages are frequently used for complementing printed course material in educational contexts. The concurrent use of online and printed information sources by students, however, requires going back and forth between physically separated course material, such as a course book and a computer screen, thus leading to suboptimal learning outcomes. Compatible with the principles identified by the recent theoretical frameworks for multimedia learning, mobile technology provides learners with the opportunity to bring online and printed course material close together. Mobile phones make online information available within a small desktop space, in close proximity to printed course material. The challenges that are relevant to text input methods can be overcome by the 2D barcode technology. This study investigates the use of camera-equipped mobile phone and 2D barcode technology as an alternative to the use of computer screen for complementing printed course material. The results of the experimental investigation suggest that, by facilitating the access to online information sources by 2D barcode tags on course books, mobile phones have the potential to enhance learning.

Highlights

► We examine the role of spatial distance between online and printed learning materials. ► Mobile phone and 2D barcodes help reducing the distance between learning materials. ► Decreasing spatial distance between online and printed materials enhances retention.

Introduction

Mark, a freshman at the Department of Computer Science Education, goes to the library to study for the final exam of the Computer Networks course. Using his course book, he starts studying the DNS (Domain Name System) chapter —a part of the course curriculum. He quickly grasps the basic functions of DNS: it is used for converting domain names, such as website addresses to IP addresses; this is how computers communicate on the Internet. Then he comes to the subsection How DNS Works. After reading the introductory sentences, he gets into trouble in understanding the underlying mechanisms of the DNS system, because he finds that the verbal descriptions provided in the book are not quite understandable for him. Fortunately, the authors of the book, who were also experienced educators, were concerned with this fact and they had already prepared a website which presents an animation of how DNS works. Mark decides to see the animation on the web page. He opens his notebook, connects to the web page and starts the animation. A snapshot of the animation is given in Fig. 1.

Following the instructions in the book, Mark plays the animation step by step by clicking the proceed button, thus going back and forth between the book and the computer screen. After studying for a while, however, he finds out that going back and forth between the book and the screen is exhausting because he has to split his attention between the two physically separated information sources.

The learning situation that is exemplified by this scenario is often referred to as multimedia learning (Mayer, 2009). The term multimedia is used for written or spoken language accompanied by static or animated depictive illustrations. The research in multimedia learning shows that, in its most basic form, humans learn better from picture and text than they learn from text alone. In other words, multimedia learning usually leads to better learning outcomes compared to learning from text. The facilitating role of multimedia in learning, however, can be achieved as long as a set of principles is followed in the design of the instructional material. For instance, Mayer’s (2009) principles of multimedia design summarize the principles attained within the framework of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning conducted in the last two decades by Mayer and colleagues. In particular, relevant to the present study is the emphasis on the importance of integrating physically and temporally disparate sources of information (Ayres and Sweller, 2005, Mayer, 2009). In the scenario presented above, Mark’s going back and forth between the book and the computer screen is such an instance of learning with physically disparate sources of information. In Mark’s case, those information sources are the course book and the computer screen. The relevant research in the domain of multimedia learning is presented in more detail in Section 2. We introduce how Jane, a classmate of Mark, studies the same topic below.

Reading the introductory sentences from the course book, Jane also quickly grasps the basic functions of DNS. Then she comes to the subsection How DNS Works, and she faces the similar difficulties that Mark faces: she experiences difficulty in understanding the topic by reading the verbal descriptions provided in the book. She decides to play the animation from the web page. Nevertheless, instead of using her notebook to gain access to the animation, she decides to use her camera-equipped mobile phone because she notes the two-dimensional (2D) barcode tag on the book. She knows that 2D barcode tags can be used to connect to the web pages by mobile devices. By starting the appropriate scanner and encoder software in her phone, she scans the tag on the book and starts the animation (Fig. 2).

Jane places her mobile phone near the book and by reading the verbal instructions, she follows the animation step by step by using the touch-sensitive screen of the phone. As Mark does, she goes back and forth between the book and the screen to study the printed and online material concurrently. As a result of the close spatial distance between the book and the mobile phone screen, however, Jane experiences less difficulty in her learning how DNS works compared to Mark. Consequently, Jane achieves better learning outcomes… or, does she? This is the major research question of the present study in operational terms.

The learning situation that is exemplified by Jane’s studying of the topic is usually called mobile learning, m-learning (e.g., Kukulska-Hulme and Traxler, 2005, Peng et al., 2009, Sharples et al., 2002) or ubiquitous learning (Hwang and Chang, 2011, Hwang et al., 2010). For educators, the attractiveness of mobile learning is due to the capability of mobile devices to make information available independent of location and time. The facilitating aspects of mobile learning, however, are limited by a set of constraints such as the limitations introduced by the small size of mobile device screens and the difficulties in text input by mobile device keyboards. On the other hand, the research conducted in mobile learning has not reached at a stable state recently; it is even “in its infancy and in an embryonic stage” (Motiwalla, 2007, p. 582). In consequence, specific research on the potential use of mobile devices and wireless communication technologies, such as the use of 2D barcode technologies in education, has been scarce. Mobile learning research, the 2D barcode technologies and the use of 2D barcode technologies in education are introduced in more detail in Section 3 and Section 4.

The present study aims at contributing to the research at the intersection between multimedia learning and mobile learning. The basic research question, in terms of the scenario introduced above, is whether Jane achieves better learning outcomes by using her camera-equipped mobile phone and employing the 2D barcode technology to gain access to the animation, compared to Mark who uses a computer screen to gain access to the animation. This question is scientifically relevant because the two students are in a multimedia learning situation under different conditions with respect to the spatial distance between the two information sources. Accordingly, the research question in more general terms is whether the reduced spatial distance between the printed information source and the online information source enhances learning. In the present study, this research question was investigated by an experimental study in which two groups of participants represented Mark’s and Jane’s method of study. The learning outcomes were measured in terms of the answers to a set of posttest questions. In the following sections, the theoretical aspects of the study are introduced. The experimental investigation is reported in Section 5. The last two sections discuss the results and conclude the paper by presenting proposals for future work.

Section snippets

Multimedia learning

The term multimedia learning, in its most basic form, refers to learning from words and pictures (Mayer, 2009). In a multimedia learning environment, the words may be written or spoken, and the pictures may be static or dynamic. Accordingly, multimedia instructions cover a wide range of instructional material, ranging from a written text accompanied by pictorial illustrations in a textbook to an animation accompanied by spoken language in a web-based learning environment. The most general

Mobile learning

Having been called mobile learning or m-learning by some researchers and ubiquitous learning by some others, recent findings in this research literature show that digital learning resources, alongside the real-world learning contexts, improve students’ learning interest, motivation (Chen et al., 2008, Chen et al., 2003, Liaw et al., 2010, Liu et al., 2010, among many others) and their learning achievement (Chu et al., 2010, Chu et al., 2010, Hwang and Chang, 2011, Hwang et al., 2010, among many

2D barcode technologies and their use in education

A barcode is the representation of data that can be optically read by specific barcode readers. The most widely used barcode is the linear barcode, which is composed of vertical lines of varying thickness. A 2D barcode, also known as a matrix code, is another type of barcode, which has much higher capacity compared to the linear barcode (see Kato and Tan, 2005, Kato and Tan, 2007, for a classification and benchmarking studies on 2D barcode types).1

Participants

A total of 44 participants (14 females and 30 males) from the Atilim University participated in the experiment for extra course credit after signing the informed consent for the experiment. All the participants were undergraduate students, with an age ranging from 20 to 27 years (M = 22.43, SD = 1.69). The participants were randomly divided into two groups (each with 7 female and 15 male), corresponding to two experimental conditions, namely the paper-plus-mobile phone condition and the

Discussion

The major goal of this study was to empirically investigate the learning situation in which the learner has to integrate information contributed by separate information sources, such as printed textbook and screen-based instructional material. In particular, we tested whether bringing physically separate information sources close together by means of using mobile technology enhances learning compared to the more conventional learning with computer screen. According to the cognitive theory of

Conclusion

Despite the rapid technological development in electronic learning systems, recent studies show that regardless of their individual characteristics such as their experience in computer use, students do prefer textbooks rather than e-books (Woody, Daniel, & Baker, 2010). Mobile devices provide the opportunity with learners to integrate online information sources and printed information sources, such as animations and textbooks. The present study shows that mobile devices have further advantages

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