context-aware and lbs learning systems using ubiquitous teaching assistant (u-ta): a case study for...

Context-Aware and LBSLearning Systems UsingUbiquitous Teaching Assistant(u-TA): A Case Study forService-Learning CoursesCHYI-REN DOW, LU-HUI HUANG

Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan

Received 31 July 2011; accepted 13 November 2011

ABSTRACT: A ubiquitous teaching assistant (u-TA) system is developed using software agent techniques

to facilitate teaching purposes and often used for a virtual classroom or virtual laboratory. In these kinds of

virtual learning environments, u-TA is often used to assist learners by using desktop computers or laptops.

With the development of u-learning, u-TA should consist of good mobility for guiding students and answering

students’ questions on mobile handheld devices. Therefore, the mobility of u-TA should be enhanced. This

study proposes a system that uses the u-TA framework to construct a context-aware and location-based service

(LBS) guiding system to introduce the essence of Service-Learning courses to students and help them browse

the content of the course resources on campus. We gave a case study for using our proposed system to

promote the Service-Learning courses in Feng Chia University, Taiwan. Experiments were conducted to evalu-

ate the effectiveness of the proposed system. The experimental results show that the proposed system can

help students enhance understanding on Service-Learning courses in school and encourage students to partic-

ipate in these curricula. � 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ; View this article online at

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21552

Keywords: context-aware; location-based service; ubiquitous teaching assistant (u-TA); mobile learning

Service-Learning

INTRODUCTION

The ubiquitous teaching assistant (u-TA) system [1] is con-

structed using agent techniques for assisting students in solving

problems, and is often applied in virtual laboratory courses

[2,3]. The u-TA system applied the Web- and IM-based user

interfaces and provided communications to increase the interac-

tion between students and u-TA. In these kinds of virtual learn-

ing environments, u-TA is often used to assist learners by using

desktop computers or laptops. With the development of u-learn-

ing [4], u-TA should have good mobility for guiding learners

and answering learners’ questions on mobile handheld devices.

Therefore, the mobility of u-TA should be enhanced.

With the flourishing of mobile networks, location-based

services (LBS) are increasingly used in mobile devices. LBS

can be used to create rich information applications using the

geographical position of a mobile device. Certain e-learning

systems also use LBS to support outdoor learning for students.

Researchers have designed systems to provide students learning

contents based on their real-time locations. Studies that focus

on combining learning with geographic information provide

added values for students. These types of e-learning systems

are often used in specific areas and provide real-time geograph-

ic information for learners. Interaction with students in the

learning process is also a significant issue in the learning pro-

cess. According to the guiding method, this study classifies

Correspondence to C.-R. Dow ([email protected]).

� 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

1

these LBS e-learning systems into three types: tour guide,

game-based, and social learning group LBS systems.

(1) Tour guide LBS systems: Students can obtain knowl-

edge from the tour guide by an LBS system. The LBS

system often provides a learning environment for stu-

dents [5,6].

(2) Game-based LBS systems: These systems provide some

missions that require students to complete the tasks, or

ask students to observe the environment before answer-

ing questions [7–9].

(3) Social group-based LBS systems: These systems are

based on social groups and through cooperation and mu-

tual assistance [2].

LBS e-learning systems provide geographic information to

show rich content. However, an LBS e-learning system still

requires increased focus on student requirements [10]. Students

not only can obtain knowledge from the LBS e-learning system

when they face problems, but they also interact with teachers

and obtain certain explanations from the system. In virtual labo-

ratory [5] courses, they often use agent techniques to assist stu-

dents in solving problems [11,12]. Since LBS e-learning

systems are similar to virtual laboratories, they all provide

learning environments without teachers in the virtual classroom.

To solve this problem, this study used u-TA to play the teacher

role to interact with students. On the other hand, LBS has also

enhanced the mobility of u-TA.

Service-Learning integrates meaningful community ser-

vices to strengthen communities, enrich learning experience,

and understand civic responsibility [13]. To promote Service-

Learning courses, the MOE in Taiwan developed a 3-year

Service-Learning program for colleges and universities in the

2007 academic year. Many schools have established related pol-

icies for Service-Learning courses. However, Service-Learning

courses are still not highly pervasive in many schools. Although

Service-Learning is beneficial to schools, communities, and stu-

dents [14], increased efforts are required to promote Service-

Learning in Taiwan. To encourage national institutes of higher

education to promote Service-Learning courses, the MOE in

Taiwan approved another 5-year program for higher education

service learning in 2010. In addition to formulating regulations,

acquainting students with Service-Learning courses is also

extremely important. When students have an awareness of

Service-Learning courses, they are more likely to choose these

courses. This awareness promotes Service-Learning courses and

lays a foundation for this type of learning.

The proposed system uses u-TA to construct a context-

aware and location-based guiding system for outdoor courses.

Students can access information regarding Service-Learning

courses on campus through the proposed system using smart-

phones, mobile devices, or computers. The proposed system

displays appropriate course information based on student inter-

ests or expertise and uses u-TA to guide students to their desti-

nation or answer questions. This study also provides a case

study for Service-Learning courses. To provide students with an

enhanced understanding of Service-Learning courses, this study

introduces these courses. Students have the opportunity to un-

derstand Service-Learning courses and this introduction may

also inspire them to participate in these courses.

The rest of this article is organized as follows: The related

work is presented in the Background and Related Work Section.

The System Architecture Section presents the architecture of

our proposed system. The System Implementation Section

shows the implementation of our proposed system. The System

Prototype Section shows the prototype of our proposed system

and how student used our proposed system in the campus. The

evaluation and conclusions are shown in Evaluation and Discus-

sions and Conclusions Sections.

BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK

In our previous research [1], we proposed u-TA, a u-TA using

agent techniques to construct a system for assisting students to

solve problems in laboratory courses. The u-TA system uses

mobile agents to assist students in virtual learning environ-

ments. To construct a complete system architecture, u-TA com-

prises the following modules: event module, guiding module,

knowledge retrieval module, learning module, and feedback re-

cording module. The event module promotes learning efficiency

in students by observing the behaviors of their Web browser

and Instant Messenger (IM) dialog logs. The guiding module

leads users in a script-oriented manner. The knowledge retrieval

module provides answers corresponding to the questions. With

the growth of knowledge, the agent system must enhance its

knowledge, and the learning module is responsible for acquir-

ing new knowledge. u-TA can also enhance social skills to re-

duce the burden on teachers. The u-TA system comprises both

Web-based and IM-based interfaces, and u-TA can learn from

other agents by analyzing their dialogs. The u-TA system has

good communication ability and its two user interfaces can in-

crease interactions with students.

LBS systems offer new opportunities and challenges to the

field of e-learning. LBS systems are increasingly used in mobile

devices, and create rich information applications using the geo-

graphical position of a mobile device. Previous studies

[5,6,8,9,12,15,16,24] have examined approaches to increase

learning efficiency and convenience through LBS e-learning

systems. Certain systems have tour guiding abilities, while

others provide missions that require students to complete the

tasks, or ask students to observe the learning environment be-

fore answering questions. Context-aware e-learning systems are

often user-centered-designed and provide personalized learning

environments [16–19]. Through customized content, these sys-

tems allow learners to achieve learning efficiency more easily.

The Service-Learning course [13,14] is a structured learn-

ing experience that integrates community services with class-

room curricula. Community service is a Service-Learning

pioneer, with a long history on American campuses since the

19th century, which was revitalized in the 1980s. With the pas-

sage of time, service volunteers began to combine services with

learning to create a powerful curriculum. Today, colleges and

universities encourage students to participate in community ser-

vices and help confirm that this service includes academic

learning. Colleges and universities, private organizations, and

government institutions also provide opportunities or funds for

students wanting to participate in Service-Learning.

Service-Learning projects enrich the lives of students and

greatly benefit them. Students in Service-Learning courses can

devote themselves to provide social services to express their

concerns for the community. Through attending Service-Learn-

ing courses, students can also gain opportunities to face real

social issues and solve problems. Students may reflect on their

2 DOW AND HUANG

service experiences. Reflection time helps students combine

classroom and community learning. Students can integrate the

experience gleaned from service activities and link it to formal

knowledge obtained from teaching materials [20].

Taiwan has conducted service education for a period of

time. The earliest service education was at Tunghai University

in 1955. Some other universities also provide related strategies

for implementing Service-Learning courses. However, Service-

Learning courses still require more promotion impetus. In

Taiwan, there are 165 colleges and universities and 1.3 million

students [21]. Among them, approximately 87 schools have set

up Service-Learning courses, and approximately 1,373 teachers

have been involved in the programs, with 62,212 students hav-

ing participated in these courses [22]. However, only 4.78%

of students ever participated in Service-Learning courses. To

encourage national institutes of higher education to promote

Service-Learning, the MOE in Taiwan approved the higher edu-

cation Service-Learning program [23].

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

The proposed system can be separated into four layers, as the

data services layer, the persistence layer, the application logic

layer, and the multi-modal user interface layer, as shown in

Figure 1 students interact with u-TA through the multi-modal

user interface layer, which supports Web browsing. The appli-

cation logic layer comprises three system modules, including

the Global Positioning System (GPS) access and process mod-

ule, the user profiles analysis module, and u-TA guiding mod-

ule. Each module plays an important role in the proposed

system. The persistence layer deals with storing and retrieving

data from the data services layer. The persistence layer has an

open database connectivity (ODBC) component to serve as an

interface between the data service layer and the application log-

ic layer.

Multi-Modal User Interfaces

The proposed system provides multi-modal user interfaces,

such as Windows forms and Web pages. Students can obtain

course information and interact with u-TA in different interfa-

ces. When students use Windows forms on mobile phones, they

receive a location-based guiding service from the proposed sys-

tem using the position information of the GPS receiver. Other-

wise, if students use Web pages on their computers or laptops,

they can only acquire the context-aware guiding service from

the proposed system.

Application Logic Layer

The Application Logic Layer comprises three modules: the po-

sitioning module, the user profile analysis module, and the u-

TA guiding module. If students have smartphones, they can use

the client application of the proposed system. The smartphone

can obtain messages from its GPS receiver, which receives mes-

sages of student positions from satellites or network resources

to locate satellites in poor signal conditions. After the proposed

system obtains user location information, the client application

transfers student position information to the receiving GPS Web

service, which stores the student position information into a

campus map database. By calculating the relationship between

GPS messages and a map scale, this module can acquire the

current location of the student on the campus map. If the stu-

dent does not have a smartphone, a Web-based application of

the proposed system can be used on laptops or desktop com-

puters. Students can choose one place from the dropdown list

on the Web page and start browsing this place on the map.

Figure 2 shows the operation of the positioning module.

The user profile analysis module can be used not only to

gather student personal data, but also to analyze the data. When

students use the proposed system, they take a short time to fill

in the questionnaire, which is used to investigate their personal

information and previous lesson learning states. When students

Figure 1 The architecture of the u-TA guiding system. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is

available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

CONTEXT-AWARE AND LBS LEARNING SYSTEMS USING U-TA 3

start navigating the system, this module records student event

logs, such as moving to another place, or choosing a guiding

target. By analyzing student data and behavior, the user profile

analysis module provides the student personal profile to the u-

TA guiding module.

The u-TA guiding module is established based on the u-

TA architecture [1] and leads students in a script-oriented man-

ner. The agent first helps students learn how to operate the

system. When users ask the agent questions, the agent attempts

to provide appropriate answers. If users cannot solve their prob-

lems in a short time, the agent requests them to follow its

instructions step-by-step to solve the problems.

Persistence Layer

The persistence layer is an abstraction layer to connect different

platforms and different Database Management Systems

(DBMSs). The proposed system uses ODBC to implement this

layer. ODBC is a low-level interface designed for relational

data storage and a bridge between any platform and DBMSs.

Any application can query data from DBMSs through ODBC.

Data Service Layer

The data service layer comprises physical DBMSs and files

data. The proposed system includes a course material database

and campus map database. The course material database stores

course data, and the campus map database stores campus maps

and geography information. Because the campus map is our

own, certain related figure files and data files stored in the cor-

responding file folders are related.

SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

This section describes implementation of the proposed system.

This study also introduces detailed information regarding the

proposed system, including system environment, Windows

forms application, custom cartographic design, and GPS receiv-

ing Web service.

System Environment

The Internet Information Services (IIS), Microsoft .NET

Framework and Android software development kits (SDK)

are used to implement the proposed guiding system, which

provides two types of user interfaces. According to the

requirements, students can select an appropriate user interface

to use the proposed system. Students can use a smartphone

with Windows forms to access the system data outside, or a

computer or laptop with Web pages to browse the proposed

system by accessing the Internet. First, we introduce the im-

plementation of the client application using the Java program-

ming language and the Android SDK. We designed the GPS

receiver to receive GPS messages and record them by request-

ing our GPS-receiving Web service. With the Web browser

component of the Android SDK, we added Web browser ca-

pabilities to our application forms. Therefore, we can use our

application forms to access course materials through Web

pages. The Web-based GUI is implemented using HTML and

ASP .NET. To promote student interest, we use the u-TA

agent to act as a tutor.

Custom Map Design

Because campus map details are unavailable from free maps

(such as Google maps), self-made maps become imperative

for implementation. To create a custom map, this study used

Google maps to obtain the ratio of the real campus size before

drawing detailed items of the custom map using the campus

map available from the FCU website. Lastly, we used smart-

phones to access GPS positions information of our customer

map, and used the GPS positions information of Google maps

to verify our results.

Figure 2 The positioning module. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at

wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

4 DOW AND HUANG

Receiving GPS Client Application

The receiving GPS client application was created using the

Java programming language and used in the smartphone. The

receiving GPS client application has two main functions: re-

ceiving GPS signals from satellites, and sending the messages

to receive GPS Web services. The other function is used to

guide users with GUI, which was built using the Web browser

component. When the receiving GPS client application receives

signals from GPS satellites, it sends a request to the receiving

GPS Web service.

Receiving GPS Web Service

Students can use smartphones with a GPS receiver, or they can

use the client application to send XML messages of GPS data

to the Web service of the proposed system. We used ASP.NET

to build a receiving GPS Web service and a GetUserPosition()

method that accepts student position information, including

three strings: latitude, longitude, and smartphone identifier.

Figure 3 shows the XML message of the GetUserPosition()

method. We sent three parameters to the GetUserPosition()

method to store user location information on the database.

Converting User’s GPS Messages to Map Position

Because GPS messages cannot be used directly to map user

locations, it is required to convert these GPS messages to the

map coordinate. We can see buildings, scenes, or roads on

the map and divide the map into areas indicated by a few coor-

dinate points. According to possible campus tour routes, the

campus map is divided into many rectangles, as shown in

Figure 4a, and each rectangle is assigned an identifiable num-

ber, as shown in Figure 4b. We store identifiable numbers and

four corresponding map coordinates of each rectangle in the

database for calculating map coordinates of user locations.

SYSTEM PROTOTYPE

This section presents the prototype of the proposed system. The

scenario we describe in the following sections starts with the

generation of course-based domain knowledge for students to

use the proposed system, and demonstrates its usability and

convenience.

Before Guiding

When students use smartphones to access course information

navigation, they first see GPS signals of their location from the

GPS position receiver, as shown in Figure 5a. When the GPS

position receiver obtains GPS signals from satellites, it sends

these GPS messages to the receiving GPS Web service and dis-

plays the response hints. To enable u-TA of the proposed sys-

tem to know student-based personal data, students must pretest

the questionnaire, as shown in Figure 5b. The u-TA guiding

module analyzes the questionnaire results and provides a con-

text-aware framework to guide students.

Start Context-Based and Location-Based Guiding

Upon completing the questionnaire, according to the results

and student location, the proposed system provides student con-

text-based content and guides the student to reach interesting

destinations to obtain more information. Figure 6a shows infor-

mation of various Service-Learning courses resulting from the

analysis of student interests, expertise, and experience. Students

can choose their interested course to navigate with the campus

map, as shown in Figure 6b, and will see their current location,

certain hints with heart-shaped marks for course information,

and the u-TA system. The proposed system shows the direction

of the destination, and u-TA guides the student in time.

Using Web-Based Application to BrowseCourse Information

To enable students who do not have smartphones to use our

systems, the proposed system also supports a Web-based inter-

face. Students can choose one place from the dropdown list on

the Web page and start browsing context-aware content with

the Web-based application. Students can browse campus map

information using the larger window instead of the mobile

phone screen size.

EVALUATION AND DISCUSSIONS

Experiments were conducted with students of Feng Chia Uni-

versity to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the

proposed system. This section describes the experiment and

evaluation.

Figure 3 The XML message of receiving GPS Web service.


Experimental Environment

The experiment was planned to evaluate the location-based and

context-aware benefit of the proposed system and the interac-

tion between the proposed system and the students. This re-

search first focused on introducing the Service-Learning

courses to guide students to learn how to join an appropriate

Service-Learning course and to understand the purpose of

Service-Learning courses. The proposed system helps students

to browse Service-Learning course information.

We invited 69 volunteers who are students of FCU to join

the experiment. These students contained different levels of

freshmen, sophomores, the institute, and so on. Students were

divided into an experimental group and a control group. The

experimental group comprised 34 students and 35 students in

the control group. The experimental group used the proposed

system with smartphones to complete tasks, and the control

group only used smartphones.

In this experiment, both the experimental group and the

control group must use smartphones on campus for learning the

Service-Learning course, where the experimental groups used

the proposed system and the control group did not. The experi-

mental group students were required to fill in a questionnaire

before the experiment began. The goal of the questionnaire was

Figure 4 (a) Converting user’s GPS messages to map position. (b) Part of magnification map. [Color figure can be

viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Figure 5 (a) GPS position receiver. (b) Questionnaire pretesting. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue,

which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

6 DOW AND HUANG

to investigate personal basic data, expertise, interests, and so on

of the students. The system subsequently provided context con-

tent to students, so that they could browse interesting informa-

tion using the map mode. After a period of time, when students

completed courses and filled in another questionnaire, they

completed the experiment. Before the experiment began, the

control group of students was also required to fill in the ques-

tionnaire. They tried to understand the Service-Learning course

information using only Internet-enabled smartphones. After stu-

dents filled in another questionnaire, they completed the experi-

ment. Due to equipment limitations and seeking volunteers,

students took turns using smartphones. We spent approximately

three weeks to complete the experiment.

In our experiments, the proposed system provided the ex-

perimental group of students with context-aware and location-

based course content. The proposed u-TA system also guides

students when browsing data. However, if students who did not

use the proposed system must access Service-Learning informa-

tion, they must inquire on the information on websites. Students

must also confirm where the classroom or office of the curricu-

lum is. The control group spent more time than the experimen-

tal group.

Experimental Pretest Results

Both the experimental group and the control group were re-

quired to fill in the same questionnaire before the experiment to

understand students’ basic knowledge for Service-Learning

courses. Certain questionnaire results are discussed below.

Figure 7 shows that most students did not know what

Service-Learning courses are. This indicates that before a

Service-Learning course becomes a compulsory subject for uni-

versity students studying general education, the MOE in Taiwan

is still required to expend more effort for its promotion.

Figure 6 (a) List of Service-Learning information. (b) Navigating student to the destination. [Color figure can be


Figure 7 The prevalence of Service-Learning courses. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is



Figure 8 shows that although most students had little un-

derstanding of Service-Learning courses, they were still inter-

ested in participating in the courses.

Service-Learning courses are currently optional. Figure 9

shows that even though most students are willing to participate

in Service-Learning courses, unless under pressure, they are not

willing to take the initiative to participate. Therefore, they are

unable to experience Service-Learning courses and cannot ob-

tain benefits from service activities. Figure 10 shows that volun-

tary service activities also have the same phenomenon as

student passive natures.

Figure 11 shows that only few students attend Service-

Learning courses, irrespective of their own interests and exper-

tise. The proposed system delivers context-aware content

according to the interest and expertise of students. We want to

help students to select appropriate Service-Learning courses.

Experimental Results

Following the experiment, both the experimental group and the

control group were required to fill in another questionnaire. We

discuss the source questionnaire results. Figure 12 shows that

after completing the results of the experiment, students of both

the experiment and control groups had a basic understanding of

Service-Learning courses. Among the two groups, the experi-

mental group had a higher number of agrees for this question.

Figure 13 shows that after the experiment, the experimen-

tal group and the control group of students were more willing

to participate in Service-Learning courses. Figure 14 shows that

among students who were willing to participate in Service-

Learning courses, the number of students who selected target

Service-Learning courses was higher in the experimental group

than in the control group. This result shows that using the pro-

posed system to assist student browsing of Service-Learning

courses is helpful.

Figure 15 shows that using the proposed system through

smartphones, most students in the experimental group agreed

that the system smoothly guides them to reach their destination.

The proposed system, which uses u-TA guiding ability and

GPS technology, can guide users smoothly to the place where

they want to go.

Our concern was whether the proposed system provides

context-aware content for users. Figure 16 shows that most stu-

dents in the experimental group also agreed that the proposed

system provides information regarding Service-Learning

courses based on student interests and expertise.

The control group looked up Web pages to learn of Ser-

vice-Learning courses on campus using smartphones. Because

Figure 8 Willingness of the students to participate in Service-Learning courses. [Color figure can be viewed in the

online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Figure 9 Participation of students for Service-Learning courses. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue,


8 DOW AND HUANG

Figure 10 Participation of students for volunteer service activities. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue,


Figure 11 Effect of interest and expertise to participate in Service-Learning courses. [Color figure can be viewed

in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Figure 12 Level of understanding of the Service-Learning courses. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue,



Figure 13 Willingness of the students to participate in Service-Learning courses after the experiment. [Color figure

can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Figure 14 Situation that the students have already selected the target Service-Learning course. [Color figure can be


Figure 15 The guiding ability of our proposed system. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is


10 DOW AND HUANG

the control group did not use the proposed system, no one could

guide them to course information. Figure 17 shows that after

the experiments, most students in the experimental group

agreed that they needed the software system to help them navi-

gate the courses.

Discussions

Experiments were conducted and surveys were taken to evalu-

ate the reliability, validity, and practicalness of our system. We

investigated the user satisfaction of our system from the point

of view of students for the following system metrics, including

interaction, guiding, and content. The interaction function could

provide a friendly interface between the student and our pro-

posed system and this function is provided by multi-modal user

interfaces of the u-TA system. The guiding function could be

used to guide the student to a destination based on the student’s

choice and assist the student in obtaining related course infor-

mation and this function is provided by the u-TA guiding mod-

ule. The content function could be used to provide the student

context-aware course information according to the student’s lo-

cation and this function is provided by the positioning module,

user profile analysis module, and u-TA guiding module. The

feedbacks of students for reliability, validity, and practicalness

are shown in Figures 16 and 17, respectively. We can observe

that students have positive feedbacks for our proposed system.

Both the guiding capability and context-aware functions can be

used to achieve students’ requirements.

The experimental results also show that most students in

both groups wished to participate in volunteer service activities,

but often lacked motivation, and therefore, took no real action.

In the experiment, most students did not participate in voluntary

services. Because they did not know what Service-Learning

courses are, only a few students took Service-Learning courses.

Therefore, the guiding system is important to promote Service-

Learning courses. The proposed system uses u-TA to construct

a location-based and context-aware guiding system to introduce

the essence of Service-Learning to students and help them

browse the content of the Service-Learning course resources on

campus. When students have questions, they can interact with

u-TA and attempt to obtain answers. Most reactions from the

experimental results show that this guiding ability is acceptable.

These results suggest that the proposed system is helpful for

students. The proposed system not only guides student learning

of Service-Learning course information on campus, but also

gives rise to student interest in participating in Service-Learning

courses. Through learning about Service-Learning courses, stu-

dents can understand the current promotion situation of

Figure 16 Satisfactions with our proposed system. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is avail-

able at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Figure 17 Software demand investigations. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at



Service-Learning to help increasing a practical course of action.

Figure 18 shows the learning outcomes of the experimental and

control groups before and after the experiments. Before the ex-

periment, students in both the experimental and control groups

have basically the same trend in the chart distribution. Among

them, the number of students who did not understand the

Service-Learning course was more than the students who under-

stand servicing-learning. Following the experiment, the experi-

mental group of students learned more than before and the

control group of students also learned more than before. How-

ever, 14% of students still did not understand what Service-

Learning courses are. The results demonstrate that the proposed

system is effective in guiding students to learn about Service-

Learning courses on campus and helps students learn while

walking on campus.

In this experiment, most students were willing to partici-

pate in voluntary service activities, but realized no practical

actions because they are passive. Knowing that the MOE in

Taiwan is promoting Service-Learning courses raises student

willingness to participate. Understanding what services-learning

courses are encourages students to choose those courses. The

survey results of student attitude showed that the proposed sys-

tem increases students’ learning interest.

CONCLUSIONS

This article presents a system that uses u-TA to construct

a context-aware and location-based guidance system for out-

door courses and introduces the promotion status of Service-

Learning courses in Taiwan. The proposed system introduces

students to Service-Learning courses and helps them to learn

these courses via the application on a smartphone or a Web-

based application on the computer with u-TA, respectively.

Experiments were conducted and surveys were taken

to evaluate the effect of the proposed system for students.

Experiments were performed involving two groups of student

volunteers in the school. The experimental results demonstrate

the efficiency of the proposed system in the following points.

First, the u-TA system applied the application in the smart-

phone or a Web-based application in the computer to increase

interaction between students and the proposed system. Second,

students in different groups obtained different learning out-

comes. Students who used the proposed system had more learn-

ing outcomes than students who did not use the system. Third,

the experimental results show that the proposed system helps

student learning in outdoor courses. Therefore, the proposed

system has the ability to help promote Service-Learning courses

and outdoor courses.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the National Science Council

of the Republic of China for financially supporting this research

under Contract No. NSC99-2221-E-035-045-MY2.

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Figure 18 Students’ learning outcomes. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at


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BIOGRAPHIES

Chyi-Ren Dow was born in 1962. He received

the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Information

Engineering from National Chiao Tung Uni-

versity, Taiwan, in 1984 and 1988, respective-

ly, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in

computer science from the University of Pitts-

burgh, USA, in 1992 and 1994, respectively.

Currently, he is a Professor in the Department

of Information Engineering and Computer Sci-

ence, Feng Chia University, Taiwan. He also is

Dean of the Research and Development Office in Feng Chia University.

His research interests include mobile computing, ad-hoc wireless

networks, agent techniques, fault tolerance, and learning technology.

Lu-Hui Huang was born in 1976. She re-

ceived the M.S. degree in Information Engi-

neering and Computer Science from Feng

Chia University, Taiwan, in 2003. Currently,

she is a candidate for the Ph.D. degree in the

Department of Information Engineering and

Computer Science, Feng Chia University,

Taiwan. She is also a software engineer in

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., Taiwan. Her

research interests include learning technolo-

gies, network agents, and network marketing.


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