Eighth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies
Design and Management of Material Sharing System for Ubiquitous
Vocabulary Learning
Xin Jin, Masatoshi Ishikawa, Keiichi Kaneko, Haruko Miyakoda and Norihide Shinagawa
Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan
50007646135@st.tuat.ac.jp, {masato-i, k1kaneko, miyakoda, siena}@cc.tuat.ac.jp
Abstract
In our project, we are developing a system that
helps learners in vocabulary acquirement. In the sys-
tem, learners can create their own materials for mobile
learning, and they can also exchange their materials.
This paper focuses on a sub system, SIGMA, to share
and exchange materials among learners. In addition,
SIGMA enables learners to give evaluation scores and
comments to all learning materials stored in the system.
In this paper, we will discuss the management policy of
the system based on the reliability of the evaluation
scores given by the learners to select appropriate
learning materials. From the result of our experiment,
we concluded that the evaluation scores have some re-
liability but an instructor should guide the learners.
1. Introduction
When acquiring vocabulary, it is said to be effective
to memorize words with related images and sounds as
well as to spend time on repetitive memorization activi-
ties [4], [5]. We have developed a system called PHI
(Personal Handy Instructor) with which learners can
acquire vocabulary at anywhere and anytime by using
iPods, and discussed its effectiveness [1]. Furthermore,
we have developed a system, PSI (Personal Super-
Imposer) that helps creation of learning materials for
PHI, and we have succeeded in reducing the heavy load
of learning material creation imposed on instructors [2].
We have also examined the effectiveness of the learn-
ing materials created by PSI.
There are many previous and related works with re-
spect to mobile learning and/or vocabulary acquirement
based on information technology. From the survey, we
concluded that we should provide a system where 1) a
learning material created by a learner can be uploaded
and distributed to reduce the burden of material crea-
tion, 2) a learner can create a learning material easily to
collect many learning materials, and 3) a learner can e-
valuate the materials created by others to encourage the
creation of learners. According to this conclusion, we
978-0-7695-3167-0/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ICALT.2008.49
have developed a system, SIGMA (Special-Interested-
Group Material Accumulator). In this paper, we will
discuss the reliability of the evaluation scores given by
learners for selection of appropriate learning materials
and the management policy of the system.
2. System and materials
2.1. Vocabulary learning system
In this subsection, we will explain the vocabulary
learning system, PHI (Personal Handy Instructor),
based on iPods. In PHI, a five-second movie is used for
each word as a learning material. Figure 1 shows a flow
of vocabulary learning by PHI. First, the learner selects
materials from a material list managed by PHI. The
chosen materials are copied to a folder called ‘vocabu-
lary book.’ Then, the learner downloads the materials
into iPod by dragging and dropping the folder onto the
iTunes window. PHI has the learning history of the
learner and it can display the number of acquired words
to encourage the sustainable learning of the learner.
Figure 1. Personal handy instructor
2.2. Personal superimposer
PSI is a system that supports in the creation of
learning materials by learners. By providing the system
with a five-second movie related to the word, spelling
and meaning, learning materials can automatically be
created. Since the learners may use the system to create
their own materials, the burden of instructors is greatly
reduced because it would not be necessary for them to
solely prepare a large number of materials beforehand.
338
Furthermore, a high learning effect can be anticipated
because the learners themselves are involved in cre-
ating the materials (Figure 2).
server
http server
movie, word,
meaning execute
user
(WWW browser)
create
learning
materials
learning
material
files
Figure 2. Personal SuperImposer Online
2.3. Vocabulary learning materials
Figure 3 shows snapshots of materials. From a pre-
liminary experiment, we fixed the length of materials to
be five seconds so that learners can browse the materi-
als repeatedly without stress. The pronunciation is re-
peated twice in the material. The first and the second
pronunciation start from one and three seconds after the
beginning of the movie, respectively. The spelling is
displayed from the beginning, whereas the meaning two
seconds afterwards. By postponing display of the
meaning, we expect that a learner concentrates on the
spelling at first, and connects it to the pronunciation
and the movie for memorization.
Figure 3. Examples of Learning Materials
3. Learning material accumulator
3.1. Design
We have designed the SIGMA system so that learn-
ers can register their own learning materials, and down-
load the materials created by other learners. In addition,
we added a function that allows learners to evaluate the
learning materials and to give comments to them be-
cause user-driven reputation systems are often useful
when there are many materials [3]. In the designing
process, we encountered two problems: selection of ap-
propriate materials and exclusion of malicious learners.
To help learners to select appropriate learning mate-
rials from the material list, we introduced material eval-
uation by learners into the system. A learning material
is evaluated by asking learners a question: “Do you rec-
ommend this learning material to other people?” Then
they answer it by selecting one of the seven choices:
“Absolutely Yes”, “Yes”, “Relatively Yes”, “Neutral”,
“Relatively No”, “No”, and “Absolutely No”. The an-
PSI
swers are changed into scores from +3 to −3, and their
average is calculated for the evaluation score of the
material. In the process of evaluation, learners are re-
use
data quested to use nicknames to establish anonymity to ex-
pronunciation
clude some bias based on human relation. In addition,
db learners are able to browse comments of learning mate-
rials. From this function, learners can find out advan-
tages of materials that cannot be identified only by their
evaluation scores.
To exclude malicious learners, the SIGMA system
manages learners by accounts and surveys their behav-
iors. For instance, SIGMA can detect a learner who
uses multiple nicknames and gives affirmative or nega-
tive scores to some specific materials. SIGMA can also
detect a learner who registers very poor or inadequate
materials by checking the average score of each ac-
count. Based a report by the system, an instructor can
give appropriate guidance to the malicious learners.
3.2. Implementation
SIGMA is a Web application that uses Apache, PHP,
and MySQL. Figure 4 shows the main frame of the
SIGMA system. Without any login operation, a learner
can browse the evaluation scores and comments of
learning materials, and also download learning materi-
als from the list in Figure 4. Moreover, an authorized
learner can register and manage his/her own materials,
create word tests, and give evaluation scores and com-
ments to all materials after login operation. SIGMA has
a test function by which score histories of authorized
learners are stored.
A management tool is prepared for instructors in the
SIGMA system. The tool has functions for account
management, vocabulary management, authorized
learners’ behavior management, and score management.
Figure 4. Main frame of SIGMA system
339

3.3. Management
In putting the SIGMA system into practice, there are
two choices with regard to its learning environment: 1)
an environment such as SNS, in which blog and bulle-
tin board systems are provided so that learners can
form a community to learn voluntarily; 2) an environ-
ment such as a classroom, where instructors take the
lead and give appropriate pieces of advice to learners.
The former has the merit of reducing the burden of
instructors, but we are not yet quite sure of the effects
of autonomous learning. In the next section, we report
on our preliminary findings.
4. Evaluation
To investigate the possibility of autonomous learn-
ing environment by learners, we measured the correla-
tion between the evaluation scores by learners and the
effects of learning materials taking 23 undergraduate
and graduate school students in our university as sub-
jects. The experiment is conducted as follows: 1) Sub-
jects were divided into Group A (13 subjects) and
Group B (10 subjects); 2) Group A subjects browsed
62 learning materials in the word list we prepared, and
they gave evaluation scores to them; 3) Group B sub-
jects selected unfamiliar words from the word list; 4)
We selected 13 words from the unfamiliar words that
the subjects in Group B selected so that the evaluation
scores of the corresponding materials are scattered
evenly; 5) Each subject in Group B learns the selected
10 words for 10 minutes by the materials; 6) Tests are
conducted for subjects in Group B just after and two
weeks after the learning activity. We selected the reten-
tion rates of materials to represent their effects.
Figure 5 shows the result of the experiment. The
correlation coefficient between the average evaluation
scores and the retention rates of the meaning of the
learning materials turned out to be 0.41 meaning that
there is weak positive correlation between them. The
result seems to suggest that the average scores have
some reliability, but it is preferable to assign an instruc-
tor to a learning environment based on the SIGMA
system to manage it as a classroom.
5. Conclusion and future works
SIGMA, the sub system in our learning system for
vocabulary acquirement, enables learners to give evalu-
ation scores and comments to all materials. Hence, in
this paper, we conducted an experiment to investigate
that the evaluation scores of materials correctly reflect
their effects. As a result, the correlation coefficient of
340
1
0.9
0.8
Retention Rates
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Evaluation Scores
Figure 5. Average Evaluation Scores and Retention
Rates (2 Weeks After) of Learning Materials
the scores and the effectiveness was 0.41 and we con-
cluded that the average evaluation scores have some re-
liability, but it is preferable to as-sign an instructor to a
learning environment based on the SIGMA system.
Future works include an extension of categorization
of learning materials by giving parts of speech, key
words, and so on to them.
Acknowledgements
This study is partly supported by the Special Coor-
dination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology,
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (MEXT) Japan. It is also partly supported
by MEXT Fund for Promoting Research on Symbiotic
Information Technology.
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