LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES

IN EDUCATION:
ISSUES AND TRENDS

Editors:
Cecilia Titiek Murniati
Ridwan Sanjaya

i
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION:
ISSUES AND TRENDS
© Soegijapranata Catholic University 2017

ISBN:
978-602-6865-40-3

Editors:
Cecilia Titiek Murniati
Ridwan Sanjaya

Setting layout:
Henry Ernanto

Publisher:
Soegijapranata Catholic University
Jl. Pawiyatan Luhur IV/1, Bendan Duwur
Semarang – Indonesia
Telp. +62448441555
Fax. +62248415429
Email: [email protected]

Soegijapranata Catholic University

Semarang - Indonesia
2017

ii
FOREWORD

Technology is changing our experiences. In education, the proliferation of

information and resources is provided through various gadgets and platforms.
Educational institutions invest millions of dollars to integrate technology in the
teaching and learning process to increase students’ engagement and improve
students’ achievement. While the actual impact of technology on learning
achievement has been inconclusive, it is commonly agreed that technology
brings about various benefits such as increased engagement, critical thinking,
and problem solving skills.

This book is a compilation of selected articles presented in International

Conference on Learning Technologies 2017. These articles focus on the ways
technology can be used to benefit students in their learning process. Some
articles highlight the role of e-learning while others discuss the issues of hybrid
learning and gamification in education. The contributors of these articles for
this book chapter shared their experiences, innovative and inspiring insights, and
their passions as well.

This book is a part of our research project funded by the Ministry of Research,
Technology, and Higher Education. It would not have been possible without
the support from the Ministry in the form of International Collaboration and
Publication Grant (Penelitian Kerjasama Luar Negeri). Our utmost gratitude goes
to Dr. Kristine Blair of Youngstown State University, our co-investigator in our
research project, who has been working diligently during our data collection and
analysis. We also thank the President of Youngstown State University who gave his
approval for the MOU so that our research project can be completed, the former
Rector of Soegijapranata Catholic University, Prof. Dr. Ir. Y. Budi Widianarko,
M.Sc., for his encouragement and support, the Dean of Faculty of Language and
Arts, Angelika Riyandari, PhD., and the Dean of Computer Science Faculty, Erdhi
Widyarto, ST., MT. for their approval and support. Last but not least, we also
like to thank colleagues, lecturers and ourstanding students who have dedicated
their time during the conference and the writing of this book.

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD iii

METHODS AND APPROACHES

Modest approaches for learning and emerging technologies

impact on learning 1
Evans Ochola

The Role of Technology (Social Media) in Exploration Study

Lesson at Elementary School Teacher Education Program 18
Muhammad Arief Budiman

E-LEARNING

Evaluation of E-learning Activity Effectiveness in Higher

Education Through - Sentiment Analysis by Using Naïve Bayes
Classifier 28

Eka Angga Laksana, Ase Suryana, Ai Rosita, Heri Heryono

Starting an Online Class Exchange: Gains, Fails, and Future

39
Mikio Fuse

Socio-cultural perspectives of a Virtual Learning Environment

through Schoolbook: The De La Salle University - Dasmarinas,
Cavite 49

Luis Carmelo Buenaventura

Infrastructure Readiness and Human Resources in the

Implementation of E-learning 63
Albertus Yoga Widiantoro

Online Learners’ Motivation in Online Learning: The Effect of

Online - Participation, Social Presence, and Collaboration 72
Andree E. Widjaja and Jengchung Victor Chen

iv
Design and Proposal of Interactive Distance Learning Media in
Rural Area 94
Eko Hadi Gunawan, Ridi Ferdiana, Sri Suning Kusumawardani

Engaging Students in Open Distance Learning Environments

103
Ku Tuan Lonik

GAMIFICATION AND LEARNING

Increasing Student Online Sessions Engagement via Gamification

118
Roland Lorenzo M. Ruben

Evaluation of ‘Prodigy’, an Online Educational Game-Based

Platform 130
Joseph Ma. Steven Cabalo, Rolando Panopio

Group-based Game Making for Descriptive Writing

142
Andreas Setiawan

A VR-based Educational Game for Studying Mathematics

166
Brenda Chandrawati, Erdhi Widyarto

LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES FOR SPECIFIC DOMAINS

iPon: A Personal Finance Mobile Application Software that

Encourages Smart Money Management and Financial Skills
174
Juanito Doctor, Marivic Mitschek, Khadie Maecel Paliza,
Garlene Mariel Sabile, Jamille Tiong

Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’: Accounting-based Digital Learning in

Enhancing Teacher and Student Engagement 213
Sandy Arief, Jariyah

v
vi
METHODS AND APPROACHES
Modest approaches for learning and emerging
technologies impact on learning

Evans Ochola

ABSTRACT

A key idea behind these new approaches and emerging technologies

model is that learning should be driven by a focus on students’
proficiency with specific aptitudes, and not by archaic school
models. Research on new approaches to learning and integration of
technology suggests that instructors and schools use new approaches
and technology to meet students need if (1) it supports already
existing, student-centered practices; (2) it is part of a systemic
initiative to implement student-centered learning; and (3) teachers
have access to professional development.

In particular, education has always lived in tension between two

functions. On the one hand education is a matter of assuring
continuity. On the other, it is a matter of developing creativity and
change that push learners into the unknown. Both of these functions
relate equally to knowledge. They both touch the essence of the
instruction/learning process. They are simultaneously complementary
and conflictive. Complimentary in that new approaches to learning
are made possible by emerging technologies that consolidate policy
and further advance instruction and learning. The consensus among
education reformers is that improving instructional approaches and
emerging technologies, together with well-planned policy, are an
important tool for realizing a new paradigm of learner-centered
education and content interaction that better supports learners’
needs. Components such as providing interactive content, giving
immediate feedback, identifying learners’ needs, and having student

2 Methods and Approaches

electronic portfolios are seen as critical elements in learner-centered
instruction. Conflictive in that, some difficulties are encountered
not only by instructors but also by policy makers in the endeavor to
adapt instructional changes to meet students’ needs. The challenge
to integrate new approaches and technologies into education
is enormous, but so are the possible benefits. With educational
technologies and new approaches, the sky is not the limit. The limit
is human imagination and societal creativity.

INTRODUCTION
The rapid changes of today’s world present new challenges and put new demands
on the education system. Globally, there is a growing awareness of the necessity
to change and improve the preparation of learners in a continually changing
society. In this chapter, the focus is on new approaches and the infusion of
emerging technologies into the education system to create an impact on the
learning and instruction process. The education landscape is witnessing changes
in the way education is taught and in the way students learn. These approaches
with innovative methods are geared to enhance instruction and learning.
These methods undoubtedly influence the way instruction is presented and
how students learn. The approaches are generally applicable to any learning
environment. These approaches show positive learning effects for students under
widely varying conditions. Educators find the practices useful and valuable in
investigating the applicability of the new approaches and emerging technologies
in their particular circumstances. As with all educational practices, of course,
the new approaches can be conducted effectively or ineffectively planned, and
the results may vary in a rapidly evolving world.

Despite decades of research about uncovering the limited effectiveness of

traditional approaches of teaching, most instructors continue to teach the way
they were taught as learners. Most educators focus on the teaching, which
typically means conveying information. The research is clear. To educate today’s
learners to become citizens and professionals, they must be able to address
complex problems now and in the future; therefore, the primary focus for
educators must be learning.

In the book, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track,
Ackoff and Greenberg (2008) emphasize that today’s education system is
imperfect. They posit, the objective of education to teach how to learn, problem

Methods and Approaches 3

solve, and combine the old with the new is not just a desirable thing, but an
essential objective. To attain these results needed to be successful in modern
society, education must be authentic and engaging. Authentic in the sense that
what the student is learning has meaning to the student as an individual, and
as a member of society and the world of work. Engaging in the sense that the
student is involved in the learning process and conquering the skills needed in
the world of work.

The world of work demands that all members of society have a minimum level
of basic understanding of modern economic, social, political, and technological
requirements. No country can afford not to expose its members to these
requirements. People without the ability to acquire essential knowledge and
skills will have unstable lives, and society will be deprived of their contributions.
Similarly, education must reflect equity concerns so that in times of educational
change, historical disparities by gender, region, or social grouping are addressed.
The prevailing challenge is to reach groups and individuals that are historically
underserved: females who face cultural and physical obstacles to educational
institutions; rural populations that are too thinly dispersed to populate; and
persons with disabilities. In these circumstances educators need to be innovative
and think outside the box. Innovation then becomes a continuum, with no
marked beginning and end, which provides new paradigms for lifelong learning
to help individuals, families, workplaces, and communities to adapt to societal
and economic relations.

CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT APPROACHES

A combination of convergent and divergent instruction is essential. Offering

convergent and divergent approaches provide learners with the ability to find
their best way of learning. These approaches benefit each other. Convergent
instruction is where the instructor transmits the necessary information to the
students. This view is explored by Guilford, Green and Christensen (1950)
who described the convergent thinker as one who can be distinguished by the
ability to deal with problems requiring one conventional correct answer clearly
obtainable from the information provided. It is a way of thinking where the
learner draws on prior knowledge to answer the set of questions. This means
information is provided in a precise way, encouraging learning in a direct path.
Whereas, divergent instruction encourages the learner to take risks, learn how
to be flexible and to use imagination--a method of instruction where learners
are asked to produce as many answers to the problem as possible. This method is

4 Methods and Approaches

very student-centered. Indeed, this type of learning and thinking is associated
directly with creative thinking (White, 1990) because of the amount of thinking
required to solve a problem in divergent ways. The learners are encouraged to
explore different solutions. This approach encourages learners to be actively
engaged in the learning process since it requires the learner to produce
detailed answers. The tendency in the education system of today is toward the
convergent approach. There is a strong emphasis on setting convergent goals, an
example of standardized testing which is universally viewed as the best way to
determine the success or failure of the instruction and learning process. Other
means of evaluation which are more complicated and more demanding in terms
of application and interpretation, has been neglected.

There is a need for both convergent and divergent approaches to teaching

and learning. The increasing formalization and technological sophistication
of modern economies requires educators to meet the demands the education
system is grappling with in today’s world of work with its increasing complexity.
The importance of specific knowledge as a useful way to prepare learners for
productive future functioning in the world of work is paramount. A divergent
approach is needed today. With the great increase of knowledge and changes
in most fields as well as the arrival of many new fields, it is important to equip
learners with the ability for self-directed learning and self-growth. Therefore,
convergent and divergent teaching approaches are both needed and the
challenging question is how to strike the balance between them with-in the
intricacy of the process of teaching and learning. It is probable that the two
approaches may increasingly become not mutually exclusive but interrelated and
interdependent. Convergent problems often need divergent thinking, and there
are assessments that encourage both convergent and divergent processes.

Educators and stake holders must recognize that change is a major part
of education, whether it is change in instruction and learning approaches,
technologies or policy. Most of the time the society continues to grapple with how
change occurs. For us to wrestle with the idea of new methods and maximize the
impact on learning, educators must look at what literature reviews say. Research
shows that good student outcomes depends on effective classroom practices and
that learners must be equipped with instruction in skills necessary to operate
success-fully in the society. Brophy (1988) described aspects of teaching practice
which are related to effective classroom learning and student outcomes. Triumph
is influenced by teaching strategies (Wang, Haertel & Walberg, 1994), and it
is therefore important that instructors modify approaches to ensure equitable
pedagogy.

Methods and Approaches 5

Thus, new approaches and emerging technologies that maximize the impact
on learning entail clarity, consistent, pedagogy, feedback and assessment.
Clarity within the classroom has been found to correlate positively with student
achievement, level of engagement, and student satisfaction. The instructor
simplifies the purpose and learning objectives and provides clear standards on
how students can be successful. The instructor presents examples to students
so they can see what the outcome looks like. In conjunction with clarity, the
power of consistency definitely lies in the fact that most things worth doing
are difficult to do and take a lot of time and effort. Consistency clarifies the
cause and effect of positive thinking. Inconsistency confuses cause of learning.
Consistency is about repetition--repeating over again, gaining feedback and
adjusting accordingly to help stay on track towards the goal. And that is the
difference between success and failure in the learning endeavor, and the key to
achievement is collective consistent pedagogy.

These modest approaches offer students concrete apparatuses to achieve learning

through questions, analogies, group learning, critical and reflective thinking.
Students must learn by dissecting information through active learning by using
a variety of resources, learning beyond the classroom and ultimately, real-life
experiences. Students should review their performance as they apply knowledge
learnt. Students must be encouraged to ask them-selves what they learned from
a specific experience. Why did they give the incorrect answer? Did they miss
understand the question? Such questions could enhance the learner’s strategies
and learning outcomes as the learner apply knowledge learned to solve new
problems. In fact, Metcalfe (2009) content that applying knowledge learned
by students to solve new problems is one of the key elements that increases
understanding and learning skills in general.

With a collective consistency, pedagogy represents a distinct way of making

learning engaging and satisfying. Understanding how to manage activities and
instruction in the class-room empowers the instructor to optimize the learning
potential of every learner. Learners who are engaged and challenged see a real-
world value to their school assignments. They are more interested in learning,
knowing where they are, where they are going, and how to get there. Therefore,
effective feedback provides information about how close the learner is meeting
the criterion and details what the learner needs to do to meet the goal. Shute,
(2008) explains that the role of feedback is to tell the learner whether or not
the learner is doing the right thing. Both the mastery of content and, more
importantly, the mastery of how to think re-quire trial-and-error learning are
essential to student success. Thus, the instructor must pro-vide students with

6 Methods and Approaches

the kind of feedback that increases motivation, builds on existing knowledge,
and helps students reflect on what they have learned.

Hattie and Timperley (2007) highlight the importance of being specific as possible
and supply students with specific information about what they are doing right
or wrong. For example, feedback like “excellent work” do not show the learner
what the learner did right, and likewise, a phrase such as “what does this mean”?
Does not give any insight to what the learner did wrong and how the learner can
do better the next time around. Instead, researchers suggest taking the time to
provide learners with information on what exactly they did well, and what may
still need improvement. They also note that it can be helpful to tell the learner
what the learner is doing differently than before. Has a student’s improved since
the last time you assessed their learning? Let learner know about it, even if
learner still has a long way to go (Figure 1).

Numerous studies indicate that feedback is most effective when it is given

immediately. The study from Opitz, Ferdinand, and Mechklinger (2011) looked
at delayed verses immediate feedback. The researchers found that participants
who were given immediate feedback showed a significantly larger increase in
performance than those who had received delayed feedback. Other research
showed that students who received lots of immediate feedback were better
able to comprehend the material they study. Effective feedback addresses the
learner’s advancement toward a goal. The feedback must be clear to the learner
in terms of how the in-formation they are receiving will help them progress toward
their final goal. Therefore, feed-back needs to provide information specifically

Methods and Approaches 7

relating to the task or goal process of learning that fills a gap between what is
understood and what is aimed to be understood (Hattie & Timperley, 2007), and
it can do this through affective processes, such as increased effort, motivation,
or engagement.

Some research noted that the way feedback is presented can have an impact on
how it is received, which means that sometimes even the most well-meaning
feedback can come across the wrong way and reduce a learner’s motivation.
Other research showed that not all feedback is equally effective, and it can
even be counterproductive, especially if the feedback is presented in a solely
negative manner. Research by Deci and Ryan (2008) identified three situations
in which feedback could be counterproductive: i) If learners feel that they are
being too closely monitored, they might become nervous and as a result, dis-
engaged from learning, ii) Learners may sometimes interpret feedback as an
attempt to control them rather than guidance on how to improve, iii) Feedback
shared in a group setting could cause learners to feel like they have to compete
with their peers.

To avoid these three situations, Deci and Ryan suggest fully explaining the purpose
and ensuring that learners understand how the feedback is meant to help them.
Students are what the instructor guides them to do. Learners are the center of
the classroom, not the instructor. However, the instructor is the most impactful
person in the classroom. With helpful feedback, students become more motivated
about learning and confident in their abilities. They take ownership of their
learning. Black and William (1998) found that instructors who used formative
assessment practices with their students, and provided consistent feedback,
significantly improved performance as students make significant gains.

However, while the instruction principles are similar, the landscape between the
traditional models where the instructor is the sage on the stage has changed
quite dramatically in recent years. With flexible instructional approaches and
technological capacities which are evolving with increasing rapidity, teachers
can use multiple ways of teaching and assessment. New paradigms, technology,
and interactivity in themselves do not necessarily constitute an enhancement
of the quality of instruction and learning, quality of content is important, but
new approaches are an enabler for such enhancement. The bottom line, is great
opportunity for both instructors and learners to draw on a wide range of materials
in a variety of formats which can improve the quality of the curriculum. All things
considered, students are exceptional, and so is the way they learn. Thus, the
instruction tools used in schools should cater to diverse ways of learning, with

8 Methods and Approaches

the learner at the center. Most learners will learn better and faster with the help
of interactive technologies and new instructional approaches. A combination of
these, as well as, improving the effectiveness of learning, such adaptation to
learners’ needs leads to significantly better outcomes. A model in learning that
is founded upon modest approaches in education whose aim is the development
of the capacities of each learner. Developing the capacities of individual learners
using technologies to enhance learning goals is an effective approach to teaching.

THE IMPACT OF MODEST APPROACHES

The impact of modest approaches is intensified by the parallel emergence of

new economic relations at the universal level, subsumed under the emerging
technologies. The gadgets alone will not answer all the challenges in an educational
system. It is difficult for countries to meet the objective of effective learning, for
all, anywhere, anytime. The body of literature shows that the inability to meet
educational challenges, however, is self-inflicted because of linear scaling, that
is, using the same model of education but more of it and on a larger scale. What
educators must do is think outside of the box. The education ideal developed
for the Stone Age or Indus-trial Age cannot achieve educational empowerment
effectively in the twenty-first century. “The Stone Age did not end because we
ran out of stones. The Stone Age ended because we invented bronze tools, which
were more productive.” With technologies, we should be able to evolve the
components of the conventional ideal into the corresponding components of the
new approaches and emerging devices. The rise of new approaches and emerging
technological tools are profoundly changing the way learners learn, live and
work. From preschool to college there is no doubt that technology is having a
major impact on teaching and learning. This in turn is affecting the skills needed
in the world of work. The gap in technology related skills required in the world
of work must be bridged together with new approaches.

Modest approaches together with emerging technologies and the type of school
curricula can create tension. The competing and often conflicting demands are
in fact ensuring that new approaches, technology and the curricula type remains
alive and well. Tension between new approaches, technology, and the curricula
functions are complimentary. Technology is to improve education and education
is a matter of assuring continuity that is, passing on what is known. On the other
hand, it is a matter of nurturing creativity that is propelling learners into the
unknown. The emerging technologies and new approaches are at the same time
complementary and conflicting. They touch the core of the teaching and learning

Methods and Approaches 9

process. Both the educator and the learner want creativity, but they want it to
emerge from what is known and understood. The learner want continuity, but
when the result is the inability to solve problems, the learner is disappointed.

Often time, technology is referred to in the singular whereas technologies are

very different in their potential and use. The potential of different technologies
depends on how educators use them. Different technologies have the potential
to contribute to different aspects of effective learning. These technologies
can provide and expand access, promoting efficiency, improving the quality of
learning, and enhancing the quality of teaching. Educators must under-stand
how to utilize the technologies to meet the challenges of the learners and make
education relevant, responsive, and effective for anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Technologies have both the potential for knowledge dissemination and effective
learning environment. Yet, if the educational policies and approaches are not
right, and if the conditions for using these technologies are not met at the same
time, this possibility cannot be realized to compliment the world of work.

Justifications for the inclusion of emerging technologies and new approaches

in school curricula must focus on the integration. The reason for technology
integration is the advantage it has for teachers, students and parents. Technology
enables dynamic interaction that is more readily exploited, allows learners to
collaborate, and provides tools to increase productivity. Thus, technological
literacy incorporates the development of occupational skills and participation
in a technological society. At the same time it is a delicate balance for the
schools to predict those occupational skills that will be needed in the future.
It is important to expose students to different types of technology which is the
mainstream of typical life and world of work.

Technology is changing far faster than the schools and policy formulation. As a
result, involvement in a technological society requires an understanding of the
ways in which technology is changing society. Humans are used to a rate of change
that is somewhat contingent and at least allows for reasonable stability. Today,
however, rapid and accelerating technological change is constantly overthrowing
the stability. The complexity of this relationship between technology and society
cannot be overstated, for technology shapes and is shaped by society. In a
global society, these modest approaches, emerging technologies have enormous
potential to effect change in schools. They enable schools to meet a broader
range of learners’ necessities, adapting instruction methods and allows learners
to learn anywhere, anytime.

10 Methods and Approaches

MIXED MODEL
Consequently, education will not be a location anymore, but an activity: a
teaching/learning activity. The ultimate purpose of technologies is to assist
education in teaching and learning activity. Highly interactive mixed model
multimedia learning experience be-tween distant locations and networks. A
mixed model allows learners to obtain simultaneous distance learning services
from dispersed schools and other instructors. In this sense, technologies are
not a substitute for schooling. Technologies constitute one integral element of
education and its learning environment.

In a mixed model course, with the typical instruction and homework, content-
related work that was commonly done in a classroom is now given as homework.
Short video instructions are viewed by students at home before they come to
class, while in-class time is dedicated to exercises, projects, or discussions.
Besides, posting instructions online is not a brand-new idea, nor is it a first
for academic settings. The pedagogical model of flipped learning identifies a
core curriculum with concepts and lessons that can be taught through posting
condensed instruction video clips. Flipped learning changes instruction into
collaborative and interactive sessions where students practice that curriculum
and explore their passion.

Mixed model courses have succeeded when strategically aligned with the
school’s mission and goals. The development and delivery of mixed model
courses can be used to address a variety of school, faculty, and student needs.
Mixed model course success has been proven in terms of performance in part
because instructors gain access to real-time data about student performance at
each stage of the learning process. Research by Dziuban, Moskal, and Hartman
(2005) used factor analysis to identify two dimensions of satisfaction, which
they identify as “learning engagement” and “interaction value.” They later
identified eight elements that con-tribute to learner satisfaction in a mixed
model courses (Moskal, Dziuban, & Hartman, 2010). Educators should continue
to ask: how can instructors make the best use of the classroom time they have
with learners in the classroom? Another way to move learners toward higher
levels of understanding is to move the instruction out of the classroom, and use
in-person time for interactions that require applying, relating, and creating.
Furthermore, Dziuban, Hartman, Cavanagh, and Moskal (2011) maintains that
in the mixed model tools such as videos, podcasts and online quizzes enhance
in and out of class activity work together. The instruction must be clear about
setting and articulating expectations for digital work and participation.

The benefits gained for students by a mixed model course are realized only if the
associated risks are lessened; for, without careful course planning and design,

Methods and Approaches 11

the mixed format could offer the worst aspects of both the face-to-face and
online modalities instead of offering the best. The self-motivation is a must for
students to be successful in online learning. With a supportive environment for
instructor and students, the potential of mixed model learning can be realized.
In the mixed model, instructors have the flexibility to incorporate teaching and
learning approaches to increase and enhance their students’ learning processes.

These emerging technologies and new approaches to education are already having
a positive impact on education. Educators must support efforts within the new
paradigm agenda to enhance the quality and reach of education globally. Research
supports many of the propositions of the new approaches. We are already seeing
the facilitation of better quality learning and instruction, as more interactive
content for learning are employed. Methods of instructions and learning are
tailored to individual learners’ needs and learning analytics are allowing quicker
feedback on learners’ performance. The fusion of new approaches, policy and
technology results in interactive environment (Figure 2).

In the body of literature, approaches to orient emerging technologies with

interactive content are discussed. All of them are based on an understanding of
the shifting educational landscape. The shifting educational landscape requires
the integration of these approaches to be infused with emerging technologies
and policies that facilitate integration. Policymakers can influence technological
integration as part of an innovation agenda to meet the shifting educational
landscape. Good policy will stimulate and change the conditions for better
implementations.

12 Methods and Approaches

The emergence of technologies and the evolution of digital games has shaped
the new ways in which learners are learning, communicating, collaborating,
operating, and forming paradigms. In fact, research shows that these
technologies are shaping the way learners think, work, and live. This is especially
true of many learners who are soon to be leaving and entering the workforce
and society-at-large, it is a fully integrated aspect of their lives (Green & Han-
non, 2007). Thus, emerging technologies when utilized the right way help many
learners, particularly isolated students. Isolated students, either because of
their location or because of their disability, can become part of communities of
learning in ways that could have not happened before. These are good reasons
to support new approaches and emerging technologies. As research indicates,
for these approaches and emerging technologies to be successful there must be
good pedagogical frameworks. There are still concerns on whether technology
and pedagogy are complimentary or contradictory to each other. The literature
review suggest that technology-rich learning resources must be driven by
pedagogic. The introduction of any technology into the classroom must enhance
existing practices. The question to be asked then, with act of contrition to John
F. Kennedy, is not what the technology can do for instructors and learners, but
what can instructors and learners do with the technology?

POLICY CONCERNS

From the standpoint of policy makers who are aware and informed about the
issues that arise in the current global society. Sound policy making requires
determined and focused goals. No goal is more important than ensuring access
to education by removing barriers. Global society must respond to forces within
and without to embrace new approaches and emerging technologies. The policy
concerns are effective curriculum planning involving sub-jects and instructors
with interest in new approaches, emerging technologies and solid policies.
Topics must be explored in multi-disciplinary ways, while not losing touch with
the content, skills and assessment targets of the curriculum.

The curriculum must be built round a sequence of learning journeys. The scope
and focus of each journey must be mapped. With these approaches, every
subject begins with anticipation. The interest is to get learners inspired and
make them want to know more. This approach gives clarity to the breadth of
learning involved. In between the excitement, inspiration and the outcome.
Offering a variety of approaches, including access through technologies, means
that students do not give up when they encounter a problem. At the end of every

Methods and Approaches 13

learning, students will be able to evaluate the experience in terms of the skills
they have acquired or improved and the knowledge and understanding they have
gained.

The body of literature points to the need for the preschool teacher to be placed
crucially with regard to literacy learning in the early childhood years. Much of
children’s accumulated knowledge could be utilized in the transition process.
The literacy curriculum in the early years of childhood must become seamless
and ensure that children are engaged in satisfying literacy based activities on
a regular and systematic basis. Professional development programs must be
conducted on the issue of new approaches, emerging technologies and policy.
Professional development programs must make sure that schools are certain
about how to respond to these changes. So that the initiatives that are dispersed
and are not inept, policy planners must al-ways clear obstacles that might
prevent integration of new modes and emerging technologies into the education
system.

CONCLUSION

We established that new approaches to learning and teaching are made possible
by emerging technologies that complement and consolidate policy and further
advance instruction and learning. The chapter showed that moving away from
the traditional modes toward modest approaches of flexible, modular, and
interoperable learning arrangements (Bush & Mott 2009) help schools, instructors,
and learners. However, it would be ingenuous to suggest that by changing the
traditional way of instruction and learning will result in teaching and learning
improvements of any kind. As White, Ringstaff, and Kelley (2002) note, while
new approaches and emerging technology are supporting and bringing change in
education, they will have little impact without clear policies.

New instructional approaches and emerging technologies together with well-

planned policy have been identified as an important tool for realizing a new
paradigm of learner-centered education and content interaction that better
supports learners’ needs. Components such as providing interactive content,
giving immediate feedback, identifying learners’ needs, and having student
electronic portfolios are critical elements in learner-centered instruction for
learners (Reigeluth et al., 2008). Thus, new instructional approaches, emerging
technologies and clear policy have the potential of greater success in the new
paradigm shift. They remove traditional models, allow mixed models and open
up learning thereby removing the barriers that stand in the way of innovation

14 Methods and Approaches

and employ new learning methodologies.

The dialogue of methods to implement changes in the approach to teaching

and learning come from the realization that often the attempts at reforming
the education system tend to be ineffective. The attempts to use standardized
testing in addressing the problems of the complex education system have never
produced the best outcomes. Certainly, there are no simple general solutions to
those diverse and complex problems. Undoubtedly, a mixed model with modest
approaches offers a practicable solution. The above recommendations of some
differentiated approaches are beneficial and can have significant positive effects
on the teaching and learning process in education system.

In the modern world that is rapidly evolving, both the learner and the instructor
must work hard and persist when there is an obstacle or change. Change is a
major part of life, whether it is change in education or emerging technologies
that have an impact on learning. Infusing teaching approaches with students’
characteristics are critical steps toward solving the particularly difficult problems
of instructional approaches and learning processes. Certainly, some difficulties
are encountered not only by instructors but also by policy makers in the endeavor
to adapt instructional changes to meet students’ needs.

REFERENCE

Ackoff, R. L., & Greenberg, D. (2008). Turning learning right side up. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing.

Black, P. & William, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through
classroom assessment. London: King’s College.

Brophy, J. (1988). Educating teachers about managing classrooms and students.

Teaching and Teacher Education, 4, 1-18.

Bush, M., & Mott, J. (2009). The transformation of learning with technology.
Educational Technology, 49(1), 3–20.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Facilitating optimal motivation and psychological
well-being across life’s domains. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie
Canadienne, 49(1), 14-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0708-5591.49.1.14

Methods and Approaches 15

Dziuban, C., Moskal, P., & Hartman, J. (2005). Higher education, blended learning
and the generations: Knowledge is power-no more. In J. Bourne & J. C.
Moore (Eds.), Elements of quality online education: Engaging communities
(pp. 85-100). Needham, MA: Sloan Consortium.

Dziuban, C., Hartman, J., Cavanagh, T. B., & Moskal, P. D. (2011). Blended
courses as drivers of institutional transformation. In A. Kitchenham (Ed.),
Blended learning across disciplines: Models for implementation (pp. 17-
37). Sterling, VA: Stylus. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-479-0.
ch002

Green, H., & Hannon, C. (2007). Their Space: Education for a digital generation,
online version, accessed August 4 2017, http://www.demos.co.uk/files/
Their%20space%20-%20web.pdf

Guilford, J. P., Green, R. F., & Christensen, P. R. (1950). A factor-analytic study of

reasoning abilities: I. Hypothesis and description of test. Report from the
Psychological Laboratory, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational
Research, 77, 81–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487

Metcalfe J. (2009). Metacognitive judgements and control of study. Current

Directions in Psychological Science 18:159-163

Moskal, P.D., Dziuban, C., & Hartman, J. (2010). Online learning: A transforming
environment for adults in higher education. In T. T. Kidd (Ed.), Online
education and adult learning: New frontiers for teaching practices (pp.
54-68). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Opitz, B., Ferdinand, N. K., & Mecklinger, A. (2011). Timing matters: The impact of
immediate and delayed feedback on artificial language learning. Frontiers in
Human Neuroscience, 5(8). http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00008

Reigeluth, C. M., Watson, W. R., Watson, S. L., Dutta, P., Chen, Z., & Powell, N.
(2008). Roles for technology in the information-age paradigm of education:
Learning management systems. Educational Technology, 48(6), 32–39

Shute, V. J. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research,

78, 153–189. http://dx.doi.org//10.3102/0034654307313795

Wang, M. C., Haertel, G. D., & Walberg, H. J. (1994). What helps students learn?
Educational Leadership, 51, 74-79.

16 Methods and Approaches

White, N., Ringstaff, C., & Kelley, L. (2002). Getting the most from technology in
schools. San Francisco: WestEd. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED471137)

White, W. F. (1990). Divergent thinking vs. convergent thinking - A GT anomaly.

Education, 111(2), 208-213

Methods and Approaches 17

The Role of Technology (Social Media) in Exploration
Study Lesson at Elementary School Teacher
Education Program
Muhammad Arief Budiman
Murywantobroto

ABSTRACT

The use of technology in teaching has become a natural thing lately.

The purpose of this research is to know the influence of the use
of technology in the exploratory study lesson in the elementary
school teacher department, School of Education, University of PGRI
Semarang. This research is qualitative descriptive. The subject of
research is 45 students of fourth semester majoring in elementary
school teacher department, School of Education, University of
PGRI Semarang who take exploratory study lesson. Data collection
tools use observation, interview and documentation. Data analysis
techniques is using Miles and Huberman techniques. The results
indicate that the use of technology in the lesson of exploration study
is considered succesful seen from the students’ responses. Students
provide positive feedback regarding the use of technology, especially
youtube social media as a medium of uploading final assignment.
The students can provide an evaluation of the use of the technology
they have experienced in exploratory study learning, but they still
provide an abstract description when asked to explain the technology
suitable for the learner in college. While the explanation they
provide for the use of technology in primary school learning is a bit
clear with the mention of examples. For that we still have to keep
looking for the right technology to apply to the students in college.

Keywords: technology in education, social media youtube,

exploration study

18 Methods and Approaches

INTRODUCTION

The world of education at the present time is very advanced and tight in the
competition so the stakeholders in it that is the educational foundation must
participate in a tight competition in maintaining its business which can be seen
from the quality of service, learning innovation, and educational funds being set.

From various aspects, there are some problems. The problem in the world of
education in general, in the learning process in particular is the lack of innovation.
Innovation meant here is the concept of an interesting learning that can make
the learning process becomes fun and interesting so that learners do not become
bored in following the process of learning in the classroom. Students who are not
bored will become active in participating in class lessons in the classroom. To
create it, there needs to be innovation in the world of education, especially in
the learning process that can create a fun learning process.

Based on description above, the solution is the use of technology in general

and the use of social media in particular. The use of social media becomes
an interesting thing because students who are younger generation cannot be
separated from the reach of social media wherever they are. There are many
social media used by the students, among others: Facebook, twitter, instagram,
path, YouTube, and others.

Here being discussed is YouTube as one of the social media for the final assessment
tool for students 4th semester Elementary School Teacher education Program,
Faculty of Education, Universitas PGRI Semarang. From the practice initiated by
this tutor, it was found that there were various responses from the learners who
took the exploratory study course. Various responses are divided into two. The
first is the abstract response for answering questions of what kind of technology
they want that can be applied in education. The second is a rather clear response
for answering questions of what kind of technology are suitable for children of
elementary school.

TECHNOLOGY

Technology is a knowledge aimed at creating tools, action processing and

extraction of objects. The term “technology” has been widely recognized
and everyone has their own way of understanding the notion of technology.
Technology is used to solve problems in our daily lives. Briefly we can describe
technology as a product, process, or organization. In addition, technology is used

Methods and Approaches 19

to expand our capabilities, and that makes people as the most important part of
any technological system. (Supardan, 2010: 69).

Technology is also an application of science to solve problems. But what we must

know is that technology and science are different subjects that work from hand-
to-hand to accomplish a particular task or solve a particular problem.

Technology is applied in almost everything we do in our lives; We use technology

in the workplace; We use it for extract material; We use technology for
communication, transportation, studying, manufacturing, creating tools,
securing data, business scale, and more. Technology is a human knowledge
involving tools, materials, and systems. Application of technology produces tools
or products. If the technology is applied properly, it can be beneficial to humans;
but if incorrectly applied, it can cause damage to humans.

Many businesses use technology to stay competitive, they create new products
and services using technology, and they also use technology to deliver products
and services to their customers in a timely fashion. A good example is mobile
companies like Apple and Samsung, these two electronics companies, using top-
notch technology to create new smartphones and other electronic devices to
stay competitive. This competitive advantage is obtained through the use of
advanced technology.

MEDIA SOCIAL

Social media is an online medium, with its users can easily participate, share,
and create content including blogs, social networks, wikis, forums and virtual
worlds. Blogs, social networks and wikis are the most common form of social
media used by people around the world. Another opinion says that social media is
an online medium that supports social interaction and social media is using web-
based technology that turns communication into interactive dialogue. (Briggs,
2006: 50).

Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as “an internet-
based application group that builds on the foundation of Web 2.0 ideology and
technology, and which enables the creation and exchange of user-generated
content”.

Social networking is a site where everyone can create a personal web page, then
connect with friends to share information and communicate. The biggest social
networks include Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. If traditional media uses print

20 Methods and Approaches

media and broadcast media, then social media use the internet. Social media
invites anyone interested in participating by contributing and feedback openly,
commenting, and sharing information in quick and unlimited time.

As internet and mobile phone technology is getting more advanced then social
media also grows rapidly. Now to access Facebook or twitter for example, can
be done anywhere and anytime just by using a mobile phone. People can access
social media fast resulting in a big phenomenon against the flow of information
not only in developed countries, but also in Indonesia. Because of the speed of
social media, it also began to appear to replace the role of conventional media
in spreading the news.

The rapid development of social media is now because everyone is like to have their
own media. If to have traditional media such as television, radio, or newspaper
required a large capital and a lot of workforce, then another case with the
media. A social media user can access using social media with internet network
even the slow access though, without big cost, without expensive tool and done
alone without employees. We as users of social media can freely edit, add, and
modify texts, images, video, graphics, and various other content models.

EXPLORATORY STUDY

There are various kinds of lessons in the Elementary School Teacher education
Program, Faculty of Education, Universitas PGRI Semarang. The subjects are
generally aimed to form learners to become a person who has a good character
so that later they will be eligible to become teachers and deserve to be role
models for their students later. In addition lessons in Elementary School Teacher
education Program also aims to prepare the learners to have the provision of
sufficient skills to become elementary school teachers. Various kinds of skills are
implanted in the participants so that they will be able to master the demands of
the work world that requires teachers with various skills.

One of the lesson in Elementary School Teacher education Program is exploratory

study. This lesson aims to educate the learners to have the skills in the field,
among them: observing, being structured, interviewing, socializing, being polite,
being responsible, reporting, cooperating, being meticulous, being organized,
and others. In exploratory studies, students are given the task to go to the field.
In one class of 45 students, they were divided into five groups. This group takes
place in one semester. Then they were given the task of 5 major projects which
are all field projects: regional library observation, tugumuda observation, old

Methods and Approaches 21

town observation, mangrove forest observation, and Bali observation. In these
projects, all students / all groups must go to the field. They make observations,
and at the end of the semester they make observation reports.

LEARNING MEDIA

The development of science and technology increasingly encourage renewal

efforts in the utilization of technology results in teaching and learning process.
Teachers are required to be able to use the tools that can be provided by the school,
and it is not possible that the tools are in accordance with the development and
demands of the times. Teachers may at least be able to use cheap and humble
tools but are required in order to achieve the intended teaching objectives.
(Arsyad, 2000: 41)

Besides being able to use the tools available, teachers are also required to be
able to develop the available tools; teachers are also required to be able to
develop skills to create teaching media that will be used if the media is not yet
available.

Learning Media means everything that can be used to stimulate the mind, feelings,
attention and ability or skills of learners so as to encourage the learning process.
Meanwhile, according to Briggs (1977) learning media is a physical means to
deliver content / learning materials such as: books, movies, videos and so forth.
Then according to National Education Association (1969) revealed that the media
learning is a means of communication in the form of printed media and audio
visual, including hardware technology.

Definition of the learning media is all the teaching tools used to help conveying
the subject matter in the process of teaching and learning so as to facilitate the
achievement of learning objectives that have been formulated.

22 Methods and Approaches

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION

The term FGD or Focus Group Discussion is currently very popular and widely
used as a method of data collection in a social study. Then, what is the FGD?
Simply FGD can be interpreted as a discussion conducted in a systematic and
directed way about a particular issue or problem. FGD or Focus Group Discussion
is a form of qualitative research in which participants can ask questions about
their attitudes to the issues in the topics covered.

Meanwhile, according to Irwanto (1998) put forward his opinion on the definition
of Focus Group Discussion is a process of collecting information of a particular
problem which is specific through group discussion. According to Hening and
Coloumbia (1990) mentioned that focus group discussions are interviews from
a small group of people led by a resource person or moderator who subtly
encourages participants to dare to speak openly and spontaneously about what is
considered important related to the topic of discussion which is being discussed.
(Irwanto, 2010: 33)

In FDG interaction among participants is a basis for obtaining information. Each

participant has the same opportunity to file and post statement, respond to,
comment or ask a question. The purpose of focus group discussions is to get
input or information about the problems that are local and specific. While
the settlement of the problem is determined by the other party after input is
received and analyzed.

DISCUSSION

Technology cannot be separated from our lives in all aspects, including education.
Technology in education is very helpful in the process of teaching and learning
so that learners are able to obtain all the skills they have to master. It cannot be
denied that the role of this technology is very helpful in that regard. Technology
is also in line with the development of the era. In the present era, the condition
of learners is different from the condition of learners in earlier times, the era
before technology was rampant. Now everyone, including children (also learners)
is addicted to technology (gadgets). This can be used by educational practitioners
to create something innovative so that learners are able to follow what we want
without having to let go of what they want (addicted to gadgets).

One of technologies that cannot be separated from children (learners) is social

media. There are so many social media, among them: Facebook, twitter,

Methods and Approaches 23

instagram, YouTube, path and others. Here it will be discussed about YouTube.
YouTube is a free service to upload, download, and view videos online. There are
various types of videos that exist on YouTube, including: music video, motivation
video, teaching video, tutorials video, and others.

With the above description, then YouTube can be used in the learning process. In
this case, it is in the learning process exploratory study lesson. The educational
practitioner takes advantage of YouTube as a means of evaluating the final project
for exploratory study courses. As described above, in the course of exploratory
study the students are divided into several groups and they are given the task
of five major projects. At the end of the assignment, students must gather their
observations in the five major projects. Here the teacher brings the students
to make the final report in the form of a video. And the teacher assigned them
to upload the video to YouTube. The teacher assigns a score after the video has
been successfully viewed online by the teacher.

The description above explains how the process of using technology (social
media: YouTube) in the learning process in exploratory study course. Teachers
take advantage of YouTube social media technology in the evaluation process.
From the results of observations of researchers, the process is said to have a
positive impact. The students become more thorough in making the final task
due to their awareness that their final video-shaped task must be uploaded to
YouTube where later the video will be accessible to all viewers from all over the
world. With that awareness they want to make the final video the best they can.

While in the results of interviews, researchers found two types of feedback.

The first is about their abstract responses when asked what type of technology
they want for their learning process. They respond that they want technology
that is fun, interesting, and good. The second is a rather clear response when
they are asked about what kind of technology is suitable for elementary school
children. They gave the answer that technology suitable for elementary school
children is a game. Because children are still in development then they still love
to play, with this awareness then the technology suitable for learning process in
elementary school is the game. While the data from the documentation when
they implement focus group discussion is the researcher found that there are
some obstacles mentioned by the students related to the application of social
media technology YouTube in learning exploration study course. Some of the
obstacles are: (1) they have no credit to access the internet to upload their
final assignment video, (2) when they use campus free Wi-Fi facility, sometimes
connections are down (3) when uploading videos they take a long time because

24 Methods and Approaches

the video file size is very large (4) when they make a video, they feel they do not
have the maximum ability in editing, so they make the final video in a simple way
(maximal in their capacity).

From the explanation, it can be seen that the use of YouTube social media
technology in learning in exploratory study course is able to support the purpose
of learning course that is this lesson aims to educate the students to have the skills
in the field, among them: observing, being structured, interviewing, socializing,
communicating, being courteous, being responsible, reporting, cooperating,
being thorough, being organized, and others. (1) observation skill occurs when
they go into the field and this can be seen from their final assignment video (2)
structured skill is implemented with five pre meetings each before they go to the
field for each project (3) Socializing / communicating skill is done successfully,
they plunge into the field and communicate well and courteously with the people
they meet in each of the places of assignment (4) responsible accountability is
done with the success of the students’ visits to several assignment places where
the student is able to take responsibility not to do any damage in those places
and they are also responsible for bringing the good name of the institution in
public (5) the cooperation skill is accomplished by group discussion to make the
observation instrument before entering the field, the cooperation is also done
when the students do the observation in the field, besides that cooperation is also
carried out when they make the final report (6) the ability to report executed
with the creation of final project video that has been uploaded on YouTube (7)
skill to be meticulous is executed by the students successfully make the final
report well and true (8) skill to be organized is done successfully with the success
of the students accommodate the tasks in accordance with the procedures of the
arrangement of the assignment.

CONCLUSION

From the above explanation it can be concluded that this is a reflective research
in which the study presented in this presentation is all things that have been
implemented by teachers who are also domiciled as a researcher. From the
existing explanation, it can be concluded that the use of YouTube media social
technology as a means for evaluation in the course of exploratory study is said
to succeed. This is shown from the response of the students when researchers
collect data by methods of observation, interviews, and documentation. The
student’s response is positive for the application of social media technology
YouTube in the learning process of exploratory study course. Another effect that

Methods and Approaches 25

researchers get from the observation is the increase of student creativity in
order to make the final report in the form of video. This is due to their awareness
that the final report in the form of the video will be uploaded to YouTube which
will be accessible to all viewers from all over the world. So with that awareness
they are trying their best to make videos as well as possible.

REFERENCES

Arsyad, Azhar. 2000. Media Pengajaran. Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada

Briggs, Asa . 2006. Sejarah Sosial Media. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia

Emzir. 2010. Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif: Analisis Data. Jakarta:

Rajawali Pers.

Irwanto. 2010. Focused Group Discussion. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia

Supardan. 2009. Ilmu, Teknologi Dan Etika. Jakarta: BPK Gunung Mulia

26 Methods and Approaches

E-LEARNING
Evaluation of E-learning Activity Effectiveness in
Higher Education Through Sentiment Analysis by
Using Naïve Bayes Classifier

Eka Angga Laksana

Ase Suryana
Ai Rosita
Heri Heryono

ABSTRACT

Sentiment analysis as part of text mining research domain has been

being recognized due to the successful implementation in social
media analysis. Sentiment analysis methods had intelligent ability
to classify texts into negative or positive. Classified texts concluded
whole users respond and described opinion polarity about particular
topic. Based on this idea, this research took e-learning’s users opinion
as object to be measured through sentiment analysis. The results
can be used to evaluate the e-learning activity. This research had
been implemented in Widyatama University which had been running
e-learning activity for several years. Qualitative method by given
questioner to users and gather the feedback is commonly used as
evaluation of e-learning system previously. Still, questioner doesn’t
represent the conclusion about the whole opinion. Hence, it needs
the method to identify opinion polarity from e-learning member.
The e-learning opinion data sets were gathered from questioner
filled by e-learning member included both student and lecturer as
participants. The participants gave review about learning outcome
after their participation in e-learning activity. Their opinion was
needed to describe current situation about e-learning activity.
Therefore, the conclusion could be used to make improvement and

28 E-Learning
described few achievements about the e-learning system. The data
sets trained by Naïve Bayes classifier to group each user respond into
negative or positive. The classification results were also evaluated
by a number of particular evaluation metric used in data mining
to show the classifier performance such as accuracy, precision, and
recall.

Keywords: classifier, evaluation, e-learning, sentiment, naïve bayes

INTRODUCTION

The rapid growth of the internet based technology leads to revolution in education
area. The traditional face to face learning changed by web based learning and
relieve distance during learning process (Guri-rosenblit, 2005). Web based
learning which known as e-learning system has numerous approach in different
educational level. Now days a lot of educational institution offering e-learning
as part of learning activity especially in higher education (Garrison & Anderson,
2011; Guri-rosenblit, 2005). E-learning system defined as the improvement
of teaching quality through multimedia and internet technologies. E-learning
not only provide teaching material and educational service but also evaluation
scheme, exchange information and collaborative learning between student and
lecturers (Dominici & Palumbo, 2013; Nichols, 2008). The main purposes behind
Education institutions use the e-learning technology is to improve learning
outcomes. They believe that more participation, self-regulated and interactive
communication are considered as key factor to improve learning outcomes
(Garrison & Anderson, 2011; Persico, Manca, & Pozzi, 2014). Recently, e-learning
platforms also introduced in public administrations and corporations to make
learning quality better than traditional teaching (Stoffregen, Pawlowski, &
Pirkkalainen, 2015; Violante & Vezzetti, 2013).

E-learning effectiveness contain detailed information based on evaluation result

of e-learning system. It can lead to reflection and revision of the learning approach
adopted in educational institutions (K. Lee, 2005; Novo-corti, Varela-candamio,
& Ramil-díaz, 2013). Usually educational institutions do the assessment into
their e-learning system to know the effectiveness which useful to know learning
outcomes that has been achieved and possibly compared current or previous
method and approach. E-learning effectiveness sometimes difficult to measure
empirically without controlling all involved variable which still difficult to do in

E-Learning 29
real environment. This paper purposes to perform the analysis of the e-learning
system effectiveness based on personal feedback retrieved from both student
and teacher. We believe that “what other people think” has become important
piece of information for the people during decision making process(Pang & Lee,
2008). Therefore, the personal impression retrieved from student and teacher
could be a good indicator about e-learning effectiveness and also useful for top
level management to create decision.

Sentiment or opinions are key of our activity, because human behavior influenced
based on it. Human decision sometimes influenced by the other opinion. In
the real world, organization and business always try to improve their product
and service by finding out about customer’s opinion. It is commonly happened
because customer always want to know about another opinion of a product before
purchasing it. This paper conducted based on this idea, whether the e-learning
participant opinion would lead to proper advice for decision making process.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Review of literature on

e-learning evaluation and previous research in sentiment analysis; Discusses
the research method of this study included data preparation and experimental
setup; Discusses the experiment result and analysis; Finally summarize the result
and suggest the possibility for the next research.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Research in e-learning becomes interesting as more and more higher education

in the world wide has been used e-learning system for their course delivery and
tried to comprehend how effective and usable related to interaction between
human and computer (Bringula, 2013; Escobar-rodriguez & Monge-lozano,
2012; Navimipour & Zareie, 2015). Positive user experience could indicates the
acceptance, satisfactions and efficiency of academic institutions (Hubackova,
2014). The system itself is not adequate to sustain new educational approach
like e-learning, therefore higher education must understand and learn whether
users have got positive or negative experience during their study(Laurillard,
Wasson, B., & Hoppe, 2009; Persico et al., 2014). E-learning system meet the
requirements when users satisfy and feel positively (Capece & Campisi, 2013; S.
M. Lee, Kim, & Lee, 2016; Yeh & Lin, 2015).

30 E-Learning
About Moodle

Moodle originally design by Martin Dougmias, was released on 20 August 2002.

Moodle is known as robust open source e-learning platform was developed by
collaboration effort of international community. Until now, Moodle e-learning
platform still continually improved to give teacher, administrator and student
with a stable, secure and increased learning experience. Currently, Widyatama
University adapt “Blended Learning” as e-learning method approach. Blended
Learning is learning approach that uses both face-to-face and e-learning(Graham,
2003). Classroom based teaching enable the student to consolidating their skill
and knowledge. It usually held on first and near exam meeting, while the online
learning has been held at the rest schedule. Online learning by Moodle allows the
student to gain the resource and doing activity to make sure that they can revise
their works, discuss in forum and involve in quiz.

METHODS

The data was collected from e-learning system at Widyatama University. We

create questionnaire form opened 5 January 2017 and closed on 4 February 2017.
The questions were asked to the e-learning participant from both teacher and
student through questionnaire form. The whole of Participants was recently use
moodle e-learning platform as learning activity in Widyatama University. They
are registered e-learning member on running semester which have been enrolled
in moodle class during running semester. The participants must fill their opinion
about e-learning system that they have experienced before.

The e-learning user’s response corpus has 272 positive and 168 negative
sentences. This research has used 4/5 of them as training set, and the rest as
test set. This constructs dataset containing 351 training instances and 89 test
instances. The naïve Bayes classifier training method has created a token list
in the form of [(feats, label)], where feats is feature dictionary and label the
classification label. Feats contains {word:True} and label will be ‘positive’ or
‘negative’. This study, we assume the corpus as direct opinions. They are easier
to handle, otherwise indirect opinions often needs more time to deal with(Liu,
2012). For evaluation methods, this study uses nltk.classify.util.accuracy, nltk.
precision, nltk.recall and nltk.f_measure library (Steven, Klein, & Loper, 2009).

This research uses NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit), a python based programs
which known as platform to work with human language data (Steven et al.,
2009). Naïve bayes has been used as base classifier algorithm to train corpus.

E-Learning 31
The experiment which has been conducted in this research follows a number of
steps as described below:

Collect the data through questioner, as explained before that questioner form
has been distributed to e-learning participant for both student and teacher in
certain periods of time.

Data preprocessing, retrieve the participant’s feedback. Create separation

manually toward dataset into positive and negative corpus.

Feature extraction, decide the relevant feature for classifier by selecting specific
words.

Training and testing dataset, cutoff for both positive and negative corpus as
much as 80% for training set and 20% for testing.

Classify using naïve Bayes classifier, implements machine learning algorithm to

learn word pattern that represent sentiment.

performance evaluation, perform the evaluation scheme include accuracy,

precision, recall and F-measure metric.

Conclude the sentiment result, extract the most important feature based on
classification result, useful for higher education to create decision for future
improvement on e-learning system.

Naïve Bayes Classifier

“Time”
Positive Negative

Above figure illustrate training corpus which most classified into negative so
the classifier starts closer to the” negative” label. In this example, the input
document contains the word “time” which strong indicator for “positive” label.
After each feature has made its contribution, the naïve bayes checks which it is
indicated to, and defining that label to the input. For example, the word “time”
occur in 80% of the positive document, 20% in negative document. Calculated
likehood score, by multiplied by 0.8 for the positive label and 0.2 for negative
label. The whole effects, will be to decrease the score of the negative more than
positive label.

32 E-Learning
Naïve bayes algoritm creates classification by finding the probability for a label.
First, it uses the Bayes rule define Q (label|features) in term of Q (label) and
Q(features|label) and N(feature|label)

(1)

Naïve Bayes algorithm then makes the ‘naïve’ assumption which whole features are
independent as formulated below:

(2)

Then for each label, the algorithm calculates the numerator and normalized them
by sum to one as represented in the following formula:

(3)

Accuracy has been commonly used to evaluate a classifier. It shows the

percentage of test set which is correctly labeled. In this study uses nltk.classify.
accuracy(Steven et al., 2009) to calculate the accuracy classified sentiment on
a given test set.

Since sometimes the number of relevant document lower that irrelevant

document, the accuracy scores for irrelevant labeled document would be near
to 100%. Therefore, there are four terms to represent different set of measures.
Relevant items correctly identified as relevant defined as “True positives” (TP).
irrelevant items which correctly identified as negative defined as “True negative”
(TN). “False positive” (FP) defined as irrelevant items that are incorrectly
identified as relevant, and finally “false negative” (FN) as relevant items which
is incorrectly identified as irrelevant.

Precision and recall is another performance evaluation which tried to overcome

shortcomings of accuracy. Because sometimes accuracy can be misleading in
“search task” while attempting to find data which relevant to an appropriate
task. Precision indicates the number of relevant items which identified were

E-Learning 33
relevant, with the formula is TP/(TP+FP). Recall shows the number of relevant
items which successfully identified by the formula TP/(TP+FN). F-measure
(F-score) combined by precision and recall, also defined as harmonic mean of
precision and recall by the formula (2 x precision x recall) / (precision + recall).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Accuracy

After the evaluation process, the algorithm shows accuracy on 87.5%. It means
87.5% was correctly labelled on the test set.

Precision, Recall and F-Measure

As shown on table 1, 93% recall means every user’s responses that has identified
positive correctly. Very few false negatives in the positives class. Correct positive
classification identified with 87% positive precision and the rest 13% identified as
false positive for positive label. Negative precision as 87.9% indicates very few
false positive for the negative class. Relatively high recall causes about 23% false
negative for negative label. F-Measure shows weighted harmonic means between
precision and recall.

Informative Features
Table 1. Precision and recall score

pos precision: 0.872852233677

pos recall: 0.933823529412

pos F-measure: 0.902309058615

neg precision: 0.879194630872

neg recall: 0.779761904762

neg F-measure: 0.826498422713

34 E-Learning
Table 1 shows the most informative feature which affect the sentiment degree.
The table only shows ten informative features sorted by their ratio in feature
label. The table also shows that the training set which contain the word “kuis”
reaches 13.5 labeled as negative more often than positively labeled. Another
feature is the word “forum” also labeled as negative more than positive as much
as 10.7 times higher.

Table 2. Most informative feature

word Feature label

contains(kuis) = True negative : positive = 13.5 : 1.0

contains(forum) = True negative : positive = 10.7 : 1.0

contains(quiz) = True negative : positive = 10.2 : 1.0

contains(kurang) = True negative : positive = 10.1 : 1.0

contains(sulit) = True negative : positive = 9.2 : 1.0

contains(tetapi) = True negative : positive = 9.2 : 1.0

contains(ketika) = True negative : positive = 8.1 : 1.0

contains(dosen) = True negative : positive = 7.9 : 1.0

contains(apalagi) = True negative : positive = 7.0 : 1.0

contains(menggunakan) = True negative : positive = 7.0 : 1.0

Table also shows the result that needed by top level management to create
decision making. The words that appear in most informative feature can be
analyzed to find the major drawback on current e-learning system. In addition,
selecting relevant feature and deciding how to handle with it for learning process
leads into learning model ability to create a good model. In this study, we use
a fairly simple and obvious set of features which is carefully constructed during
data preparation. Typically, feature extraction involves trial-and-error process
guided by intuition about what information is correct related to the problem.

E-Learning 35
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

In this paper, we have performed classification on e-learning participant’s

opinions. The opinion datasets have been labeled into positive and negative
which divided into training and testing set. Naïve Bayes algorithm has been
used as learning method and shows the accuracy by 87.5%. Another evaluation
also performed with precision, recall and F-measure to represent relevant and
irrelevant document and they show a good result. It means the model has been
successfully used to classify opinion and extract the most important features to
be used by top level management to create decision making. The critical point
that represent drawback and effectiveness has been shown on Table 2. More
analyzed by using simple statistic can be used by utilizing each word contained
in the most informative feature as the main keyword to create improvement and
learning outcome achieved by student. Another improvement could be made
to achieve better result since this study focus on direct opinion. As suggestion
for the research, the different type of opinion method can be used to improve
machine learning ability.

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design-related factors on web portal usability : A hierarchical regression
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Capece, G., & Campisi, D. (2013). User satisfaction affecting the acceptance
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acceptance of Moodle technology by business administration students.

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compedu.2011.11.012

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Guri-rosenblit, S. (2005). Eight Paradoxes in the Implementation Process of

E-learning in Higher Education, 5–29. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.
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Behavior E-learning and face to face mixed methodology : Evaluating
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course using the Moodle platform. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(2),
410–415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.06.006

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38 E-Learning
Starting an Online Class Exchange: Gains, Fails, and
Future

Mikio Fuse

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the results of the two web meeting sessions
my Film Study seminar students had this spring with the Play
Performance classes of Dr. Ouda Teda Ena and Mr. Krisna Septa of
Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. Dr. Ouda and I met at the
ASEACCU [Association of Southeast and East Asian Catholic Colleges
and Universities] conference in the previous year. It was the first
experience for both parties to organize an online class exchange
event.

The primary reasons I sought my partner in ASEACCU affiliate schools

were the assumptions that students sharing the common Asian
cultural backgrounds but speaking different first languages would
be positively motivated to communicate in the common second
language (English), and that the minimum time difference between
the schools located along the Northeast and Southeast Asian axis
would give more chances to organize real-time web meeting events.
Both expected vantage points, however, proved not very easy to gain
in practice.

In this paper, I would identify a couple of basic problems we faced

in our first online class exchange experience: the difference of
class periods, the asynchronous learning curves due to unparallel
semester periods, and the apparent imbalance of overall second-
language competence. For all these problems, I would suggest how
they should be addressed to make such future online class exchange

E-Learning 39
events more successful, sustainable, and mutually profitable.

Keywords: arts, online class exchange, synchronous computer-

mediated communication, telecollaboration, video conferencing,

INTRODUCTION

In spring 2017 my 3rd-year Film Study seminar students had two web meetings
on Google Hangouts with the Play Performance class students of Dr. Ouda Teda
Ena and Mr. Krisna Septa of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. When I first
met Dr. Ouda at the ASECCU conference in summer 2016, he told me of his Play
Performance classes, which sounded very fascinating, particularly because his
practice involved not just L2 education but education of (and through) arts. I
suggested that his classes would be a good partner for my Film Study seminar
students’ virtual international class exchange experience, and Dr. Ouda kindly
agreed to do something together. Besides our shared interest in arts, the minimal
time difference (Tokyo is 2 hours ahead of Yogyakarta) and the availability of the
common second language (English) were expected to positively motivate and
promote our interaction.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In the history of criticism on the educational use of international SCMC

[Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication], the 2010s seem to be marking
the latest watershed. While the studies on the subject in earlier decades were
mostly concerned with text-based telecollaboration between native speakers
and non-native learners of English (and other target languages) for the purpose
of enhanced language learning, O’Dowd (2016), reporting on an international
conference held in Dublin in 2016, notes some significant new trends and
directions, including “the emergence of video conferencing as an important tool
for online intercultural interaction” (291), “the shift of focus from language
learning to culture-and-language learning” (293), and the growth of “lingua
franca exchange” approach (296) in which non-native partners (as against non-
native speakers paired with native speakers) use English as a currency in today’s
globalizing world. It is encouraging to find our project locatable in these latest
critical contexts.

Another study that encourages our project, especially after encountering a

number of unexpected difficulties in the first exchange experience, is O’Dowd

40 E-Learning
and Ritter (2006) who say, “it is by now well established that telecollaborative
exchange frequently end in ‘failed communication’ and do not automatically
bring about successful negotiation of meaning between the learners” (623).
They suggest 10 different fail factors at 4 different levels. They list them, not
because they are to be avoided or eradicated, but because they are precisely the
“cultural rich-points that we want our students to explore” (Belz, 2003, ctd. in
O’Dowd and Ritter, 2006, 639).

It may be argued that students should not be unguardedly exposed to such fail
zones, however culturally rich, but teachers who organize virtual intercultural
exchange events should be prepared to recognize such fail factors and plan
proactively in such ways that only teachers can do. The teachers’ professional
responsibility includes the recognition of “institutional fault lines” in whose
exploration the teachers involved should become “intercultural learners” (Belz
& Müller-Hartmann, 2003).

METHODS

In this report I will describe how we prepared and realized the two web meeting
events, what were the gains and fails of the experience from my point of view.
In examining the causes of apparent fails, I will refer to the above-mentioned
O’Dowd & Ritter (2006) as a frame of reference. Because the project is still in
the fledging stage, how we can improve and develop our virtual class exchange
project is the most important consideration. As the first move of the intercultural
learning teachers’ renewed dialogue, I will conclude this report by offering some
suggestions for the future. It is to be followed up by Dr. Ouda later this year in a
paper to be read in Yogyakarta.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In preparation for the first web meeting event, Dr. Ouda and I started to contact
each other in late January. We informed each other about the contents and
schedules of our individual courses, and what our students might be interested
to do on the online class exchange.

Through our email correspondence I learned that Dr. Ouda was going to pick up
six one-act comedies written in or translated to English, such as Percival Wilde’s
The Sequel and Anton Chekhov’s The Proposal, to be produced by six student
groups of his and Mr. Krisna’s classes. Their course was to conclude with the

E-Learning 41
public performance of the students’ plays. In my turn, I informed Dr. Ouda that
I was going to pick up a number of short films on Viddsee.com that were made
by mainly Asian independent filmmakers. We were to study the films, compare
them, and produce students’ own films inspired by the works they studied. With
the interaction with Indonesian students in view, I had chosen a number of works
by Indonesian and Japanese filmmakers.

For the course calendar, I learned that Dr. Ouda’s Friday class and Mr. Kristna’s
Wednesday class were scheduled to start in mid-February and end in late-May or
early June. This revealed our first institutional fault line, for my seminar was
scheduled to start in early April and end in late July. As Figure 1 shows, there is
only a little more than two months’ overlap. What is more, our school has the
“Golden Week” holidays from late April to early May, so it is only after the
holidays that my seminar students are expected to get used to the coursework,
to say nothing of getting ready for the online class exchange. The first online
meeting has to be set definitely after the Golden Week holidays.

Eventually, the date for the first web meeting was set on Friday, May 12, 2017.
There was, however, another institutional fault line to be negotiated. It was
lucky that both Dr. Ouda’s class and my class fell on Fridays, but our class periods
did not overlap. While my seminar started at 13:30 and ended at 15:00 Japan
Time, Dr. Ouda’s class started at 14:00 and ended at 16:30 Jakarta Time, that is
from 16:00 to 18:30 Japan Time (Figure 2):

Figure 2. Unparallel class periods

As it proved that Dr. Ouda’s class had no other option, I asked my seminar students
about their availability of the 5th period that did overlap with Dr. Ouda’s class.
None had the 5th period class to attend, but not a few of them had previous

42 E-Learning
engagement, including part-time jobs. However, all but one managed to change
their schedules and joined the web meeting.

Because this was going to be the very first time for both of us to do this kind of
international online class exchange, Dr. Ouda and I agreed to make no rush and
organize the event in a relaxed way. Before anything, students would like to
simply get to know each other and introduce what they are working on. As the
web meeting day approached, Dr. Ouda and I made a couple of prearrangements
to help our students get to know each other. First is to exchange the snapshots
of our classes. Second is to assign student MCs on both sides. In the last minute
chat with Dr. Ouda, I learned that his student MCs had a number of questions
ready, so we decided that we leave the Indonesian students to lead the exchange
event. Third is to ask Dr. Ouda if some of his students could make selfie videos to
tell what they had been doing so far. Eight of his students, all belonging to the
same group working on the play The Sequel, created individual self-introduction
videos. Unfortunately I received the videos so shortly before the first web-
meeting that my students had no time to watch them in advance.

The first moment of meeting each other online was hilarious, and that is the
beauty of web-cam based, as against text-based SCMC. By simply waving hands
and calling “hello” to each other, both groups of students sent positive signs
of their willingness to be on the same page. As the event proceeded, however,
I soon came to realize that there was a third fault line in this international
exchange. My Japanese students’ skills and style of communication in English
evidently fell out of tune with their Indonesian partners. While the Indonesian
students consistently spoke and responded actively, full of verbal and nonverbal
expressions, my students sat quietly and almost always fell quieter before
speaking and responding, when they managed to respond at all. In fact they
frequently “froze” and left many questions unanswered. To be sure, when they
were asked what they had been doing in class, they had not much to tell because
my class had met only three times by then, but even when they were asked such
questions as “what is it like to study at a women-only school?,” “what do you
do beside your school work?,” “what is your hobby? What do you think of Korean
movies?,” my students lost all these conversation cues and failed to respond.
When the one hour meeting ended, many of my students said they were sorry,
and I felt sorry for them and for Dr. Ouda and his students. When Dr. Ouda wrote
to me soon after to tell that his students wanted to meet us again, I felt heartily
relieved and encouraged.

So we arranged to meet online again two weeks later on June 2. In view of the

E-Learning 43
second meeting, Dr. Ouda and I made another arrangement. Because this was
our second meeting, we thought we might go deeper than the first meeting and
talk about our subjects of study. Dr. Ouda was kind enough to get his students
involved in the Viddsee videos by choosing three videos, asking his students
which they liked best and why, as well as asking about the difference between
play performance art and film art. I added the three videos in my seminar’s
study assignments and had a class discussion on the difference between the
two arts. Unfortunately, only one of my seminar students said she could attend
this time, but I had a list of comments and questions of all the other students
about Dr. Ouda’s Viddsee-related assignments, as well as about the 8 Indonesian
students’ selfie videos we had received earlier and had watched by then. The list
of all my seminar students’ comments and questions were written down on the
whiteboard of the web conference room, to be consulted as appropriate by the
single student who represented my seminar on the meeting day.

The above arrangement, however, was thwarted by another unexpected fault

line, the technical failure that happened on June 2. When we met a week later,
Dr. Ouda and Mr. Krisna’s classes had already ended, so they recruited seven
volunteer students (with the promise of a treat of pizza after the meeting). It
proved that the students Dr. Ouda gave the Viddsee-related assignments were
not among them, nor were the students of The Sequel group who created the
selfie videos. So we eventually spent most of the hour listening to the Indonesian
students talk about their final public performance, and asking questions about
it. Although the Japanese student (and a friend of hers she invited to join)
listened most of the time, they were good listeners, voluntarily asked some good
questions, and we did have a rapport we missed on the first meeting. Unlike the
first meeting Dr. Ouda and I positively intervened this time, and that also added
to the rapport. While apologizing for the absence of those students who did
the Viddsee assignments, Dr. Ouda kindly answered my student’s question about
traditional Javanese banana cake, nagasari, which was one of the film titles
my seminar students had watched and discussed. For the Indonesian students,
they spoke and responded as actively as the last time, and I also noted a few
more points to prove they are good communicators. When asked about their
costume in their public play performance, one of the students voluntarily took
out his smartphone, opened the photo gallery, and turning the monitor towards
the webcam as he selected this picture and that, answered the question very
effectively. It may be a matter of course for him to use multiple media in this
way, but to us he looked very smart. Their teamwork also impressed us. When
any of them happened to be at a loss to come up with the right word to say,

44 E-Learning
the others always gave a friendly support, so there was apparently no fear of
“freezing.”

Although neither of the two web meetings proceeded as I had foreseen, the
experience taught me and my students a number of good things we would
never have learned otherwise. First of all, we were very much impressed by the
Indonesian students’ high communication skills. It includes a good command of
English, of course, and the credit goes to the efficient English Language Education
Study Program of Dr. Ouda and his colleagues that endows the students the ease
and confidence to speak English. What’s even more remarkable is their active and
lively communication style in which they are not only good speakers individually
but know how to help each other and enjoy creating the conversational rapport
together. Last but not least, we were very much impressed by the confidence
with which they can talk about what they have been doing, in- and off-class.
It also proves that the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata
Dharma Unversity is successful not simply as an L2 education program per se
but in empowering students to speak and act as active agents in society with
a solid awareness of their mission. I particularly remember the selfie video of
a student who said, “if some day I will be a teacher and my students have an
opportunity to show a drama, I absolutely can help them to prepare it because I
have experiences of a drama.”

Figure 3. “Inventory of Reasons for Failed Communication in Telecollaborative Projects”

(O’Dowd & Ritter, 2006)

E-Learning 45
Having mentioned the major gains we had with the synchronous international
class exchange with Indonesian students, I would like to identify a number of fault
lines that led to apparent fails in the first two web meeting events and consider
how to plan for the future proactively. The first and most difficult obstacle was
definitely “the misalignment of academic calendars” of the two schools that
constitutes the very basic “institutional fault line” (Belz & Müller-Hartmann,
2003). In O’Dowd & Ritter’s table of the “Reasons for Failed Communication”
(Figure 3), the obstacle is to be located in the “socioinstitutional” difference of
the two schools’ “(9) General organization of course of study.” For the difference
of class periods (see Figure 2 above), I will probably be able to move my seminar
to the 5th period to make it overlap with Dr. Ouda’s class, but that would not
solve the more basic problem of the “unparallel semester periods”

(see Figure 1 above). Because they cannot be changed arbitrarily by individual

teachers, the limitation will remain to condition both the number of times we can
meet (3 times at most) and the amount of things my students, as late starters,
can show and tell about their own class activities. One suggested scenario for
better future meetings would be for Dr. Ouda and I to develop a shared “(4)
task design (thematic content, sequencing)” that keeps our students engaged in
a more focused and equally sharable tasks. For example, Dr. Ouda may choose
a couple of short scenes from his students’ plays for my seminar students to
practice for a couple of weeks before the meeting, and on the meeting day,
the Indonesian student directors and players who have been working on those
plays may want to comment, demonstrate and coach my students. In return, I
(and Dr. Ouda) may choose a couple of Viddsee videos for both Indonesian and
Japanese students to study and discuss beforehand, and on the web meeting we
may exchange our opinions about the stories, cultural backgrounds (Indonesian,
Japanese, or any other country’s), acting, camerawork, etc.

Added to the imbalance on the socioinstitutional level, the difference in the “(1)
Learner’s current level of ICC [Inter Cultural Communication]” proved to be an
equally marked fault line, as the moments of my students’ “freezing” typically
demonstrates. To be sure, on the “individual level” some of my students have
very low competency in English, including one who, after attending the first web
meeting, said she couldn’t understand the questions Indonesian students were
asking. However, it is also true that most of my students, including those who
have relatively high skills in English, did understand the questions but simply
didn’t know how to respond in English on the spot. If they did not understand
the questions, they could at least have been taught what to say in such a case,
but if they did understand the questions, how can they be encouraged to express

46 E-Learning
themselves and remain on the same page with their conversation partners? As
O’Dowd & Ritter argue, failure comes from “a combination of interconnected
factors” (625), so the solution may not come easily. However, I would rather stay
optimistic, because it is thanks to the international exchange that I, as a teacher,
became aware of a number of weaknesses in my education style and method on
“individual,” “class” and “socioinstitutional” levels and came to realize the urge
to improve them. For my students, I simply trust them, believing if they are given
tasks more focused than this time and given opportunities to try and practice in
advance saying what they want to say, and if they are eventually exposed to and
involved in the positively communication-friendly “(6) Local group dynamics” of
Indonesian students on the web meeting, they will have a much better chance
of proving themselves.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

While Dr. Ouda and I kept corresponding to each other before the web meetings,
the results were not (and in some points not so good) as we had expected. It
reveals the sober reality that keeping a good “(8) teacher-teacher relationship”
does not necessarily promise a good result. Apparently, as “teacher-learners,”
we should keep watching out for all possible fault lines and keep discussing
them. The suggestions I made here may or may not be endorsed by Dr. Ouda,
but this review from my side of the fault lines would have opened up things
that cannot be adequately communicated through email. I hope this starts our
renewed dialogue for an even more exciting future.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank Dr. Ouda Teda Ena and Mr. Krisna Septa of Sanata Dharma
University, Indonesia, for their sustained good-will in realizing our international
online collaboration. I would also thank Dr. Cecilia T. Murniati and Dr. Ridwan
Sanjaya of Soegijapranata Catholic University, Indonesia, for their earlier
communications about possible online exchange projects with us, and for giving
me this opportunity to speak at the ICLT 2017 conference.

E-Learning 47
REFERENCE

Belz, J. (2003). Linguistic perspectives on the development of intercultural competence in

telecollaboration. Language learning & technology, 7 (2), 68-99. Retrieved from
http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/BELZ/default.html

Belz, Julie A., & Müller-Hartmann, Andreas. (2003). Teachers as intercultural learners:
negotiating German-American telecollaboration along the institutional fault line.
The Modern language journal, 87(1), 71-89.

Farr, Fiona, & Murray, Liam (Eds.). (2016). The Routledge handbook of language learning
and technology. New York, NY: Routledge.

O’Dowd, Robert. (2016). Emerging trends and new directions in telecollaborative

learning. CALICO journal, 33(3), 291-310.

---, & Ritter, Markus. (2006). Understanding and working with “failed
communication” in telecollaborative exchanges. CALICO journal, 23(3),
623-42.

48 E-Learning
Socio-cultural perspectives of a Virtual Learning
Environment through Schoolbook:
The De La Salle University - Dasmarinas, Cavite,
Philippine experience

Luis Carmelo Buenaventura, PhD

How do families keep track of their sons and daughters academic performance
including attendance records accurately in a Virtual Learning Environment?
Furthermore, how do the students know their class standings and grades for the
Prelims, Midterms, and Finals immediately without meeting the teacher on a
face-to-face basis? Since the full scale implementation of the Schoolbook by De
La Salle University - Dasmarinas, Cavite, Philippines last 2010, the college faculty
were initially encouraged by the school administrators to utilize the e-learning
portal on a full-time basis to enhance their teaching insofar as it saved time and
resources; not to mention, paper. At the beginning, the faculty who were not tech
savvy viewed Schoolbook as a remake or extension of Facebook. However, upon
close scrutiny with proper training and orientation by the people of the Center
for Innovative Learning Programs (CILP) of the aforementioned institution, many
other faculty members coming from different departments were enlightened
to realize that Schoolbook, indeed, had a lot to offer in terms of academic
achievements, enhancement, and research. This paper features a brief history
of utilizing and applying Schoolbook in the De La Salle University Dasmarinas,
Cavite setting. Essentially, it includes the advantages and disadvantages of the
portal in teaching, learning, and research among college faculty, students, and
their parents as well. Future prospects of applying the Schoolbook portal in other
aspects of social and cultural communication will also be discussed.

E-Learning 49
OVERVIEW OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR AT DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY
DASMARIÑAS, CAVITE, PHILIPPINES: A Reality Check

The Philippine academic year begins in August and lasts until December for the
first semester while the second semester begins in January and lasts until the
end of May the following year. The summer term begins in June and lasts until
the middle of July. In this regard, the first semester has a total of 17 weeks
academic time or 107 class days while the second semester comprises a total of
16 weeks or 104 class days. The second semester is relatively shorter because
of the Christmas break, which begins in the middle of December and lasts until
the second week of January of the New Year. Additionally, the second semester
is affected by the Lenten Observance of the Holy Week, which has become a
religious tradition of the Filipinos to commemorate the Passion, Death, and
Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The summer term, in turn, covers a total of
4-5 weeks or 30 class days with 2-hour periods per class where students are met
everyday for a total of two hours each subject. Full-time faculties are assigned a
maximum total of 6 units or four class hours daily from Monday to Friday during
the summer term. On a regular semester basis, full-time faculty are usually
given a total teaching load of 18 units or six subjects of 3 units each with a
provision for an overload of 3 units or 1 subject when the need arises. Usually
during the first semester, most class activities are confined to the classroom
mainly because of heavy rains and floods. July to November is commonly known
as the peak rainy season months when heavy rains, floods, and typhoons abound
over the entire archipelago. Early December until May are considered the wet
to dry-season months where alternative outdoor classroom activities may be
organized. The summer term, however, serves as the most conducive period to
hold outdoor activities or off-classroom activities like field trips, insofar as the
students have relatively more free time to undertake which is a great to acquire
more knowledge from the subjects concerned in a practical way.

The Pitfalls of the Lecture Method: A Reexamination of the teacher’s

conscience.

The problem with many classes today on the university/collegiate level is that
teaching for most university lecturers and professors mainly involves standing in
front of a lecture hall while reading off notes, based on textbooks and scholarly
journals, while students have truly no desire to read at all. If students opt to
read the books and required readings insofar as they may have been threatened
with a surprise quiz or graded recitation by the teachers concerned, the college

50 E-Learning
students may obtain little useful knowledge and comprehension out of them
since the language utilized by the authors of such readings is so technical and
too high for them to comprehend. Let’s face it. Most university professors and
lecturers alike consider this method as the easiest to execute and get by with. In
fact, it is so easy a method since it provides us with the opportunity to easily kill
time and conduct a monologue without even caring if our students are listening
to us or not at the end of each period. This is the gray area where the important
and active, highly participative and dynamic role of the university professor
and/or lecturer employing creative and innovative methods and strategies are
supposed to come into play so that the lessons become more comprehensible,
significant, relevant and highly meaningful to all students absorbing them.

Through many years of teaching experiences, practical wisdom about varied and
creative/alternative techniques of “lecturing” have been produced. University
professors and lecturers aiming to be effective lecturers are currently required
to be scholars, writers, producers, comedians, entertainers, and animators
most of the time to catch the attention of the students. Essentially, creativity
and innovation of teaching and learning methods do not stop nor remain static
even after a so-called, “successful and fulfilling semester” insofar as this current
generation, the Generation Text, Generation Me, Generation Digital is concerned,
where their attention span is relatively short and easily distracted in the usual
classroom setting. An admission of fact indicates that very few college professors
combine such talents in optimal ways and that even the best that constantly
hope and wish to do their best in class are not always in top form. After an entire
semester of providing the students with the aforementioned learning tools, the
greatest assumption the professors and lecturers predict is that the students
have truly grasped the subject and hopefully found some significant meaning in
their lives and reorganization of their values as well (McKeachie, 1999:66).

To a large extent, purely lecture-based class sessions throughout an entire

semester are judged as “dry”, “boring” and “monotonous” since retention of
information would be minimal in nature (MacKenzie, Eraut, and Jones, 1976: 38).

This is where alternative teaching and learning strategies through Schoolbook like
group interaction games similar to Kahoot and mini-group discussions enters the
picture as it is believed to play a significant role in the retention of information
and lessons learned from the subjects concerned. Well-planned and carefully
organized teaching strategies offer different challenges including windows of
teaching and learning opportunities for both teacher and student since such are
believed to make a great impact on their lives and values formation. Moreover,

E-Learning 51
these alternative strategies gradually transform both the teacher and students
into highly active mentors, learners, and leaders insofar as relatively new
information and knowledge is generated and acquired far beyond what have
been written in books, journals, including magazine-based feature articles.

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS

This paper put two existing theories in digital education to an initial, exploratory
test, namely, The Sociology of Digital Technology and Education by Selwyn, N
and Facer, K. (2014) for anticipating the culture of resistance to technology for
education and Flow Theory by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (1996) for teaching and
learning of teachers and students.

Digital Technology and Education.

Digital technology in the form of digital devices such as tablets, laptops, and
smartphones has been part of contemporary education in ways that would
have been hard to imagine even a few years ago. The technology currently
supports a diversity of informal learning practices at home, at work and on
the move. Classrooms and other formal learning environments are saturated
with computer hardware and software where a growing amount of educational
work is conducted on a ‘virtual’ basis. Despite the diversity and complexity of
technologies in use, ‘the digital’ is now an expected but largely unremarkable
feature of the educational landscape. Indeed, digital technologies are such an
integral component of everyday education that ‘the digital’ should not just be
limited to those researchers who have a particular interest in technology, media
and ‘ICT’ but should include a broad concern for all education researchers,
regardless of specialization or background. In addition, it could be argued that
there are growing opportunities for sociologists of education to explore ways
of engaging in the active construction of educational practices and institutions
that reflect, challenge and build upon the wider socio-technical changes of
today. So what lies ahead given the ‘present’ state of the sociology of education
and technology? As the decade of the 2010s progresses into the next, there are
encouraging signs of a large gamut of work in the field of Sociology. Analyses
of digital education are beginning to feature more frequently within the pages
of specialist journals such as the British Journal of the Sociology of Education
and Sociology of Education. Conversely, ‘new media’ scholarship (as shown in

52 E-Learning
journals such as Information Communication & Society and New Media & Society)
is increasingly turning its attention towards educational topics and issues. It
is not surprising to encounter doctoral studies being pursued (and doctorates
awarded) in sociological aspects of education and technology, with specialized
programs in subjects such as ‘Education, Technology & Society’ also thriving at
undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In addition, mainstream educational
technology journals are beginning to feature work that draws directly from the
likes of Foucault (Hope 2013), Bourdieu (Johnson 2009), Bernstein (Player-Koro
2013), Goffman (Davies 2012), Actor Network theory (Wright and Parchoma 2011)
and even Marxist perspectives (Hall 2011).

If these trends continue, then we could well be on the verge of seeing the
sociology of education take the decisive ‘digital turn’. Viewed in this context, a
number of key issues and debates relating to ‘the digital’ continues to develop
within the mainstream sociology of education: Digital technology and the
reconfiguration of space, time, and responsibility. Indeed, the negation of
boundaries lies at the heart of the ideological promises of digital education.
Sociologists have therefore moved on from initial concerns over ‘time-space
compression’ and a ‘death of distance’ to explore the implications of these
changes. In particular, the provision of digital education on an expanded and
accelerated ‘any time, any place, any pace’ basis raises a host of questions
relating to educational engagement and educational governance – not least the
redistribution of responsibilities across different sites and actors (Webster 2013).
Indeed, digital technology is clearly associated with a redistribution of work that
has to be done in delivering educational opportunities, as well as a potential
redistribution of responsibility for educational outcomes that result. In all cases,
digital technologies are seen to be enabling educational engagement regardless
of place, space, or setting.

Nonetheless, some researchers expressed concerns that these technologies might

simply exacerbate forms of individual exploitation. For example, the erosion of
previously clear distinctions between formal and informal learning has raised
issues over the exploitation of individuals who feel increasingly compelled to
engage with education regardless of appropriateness or potential detriment to
other areas of life including securing one’s privacy and identity online. Digital
technologies can be seen to support this compulsion in a number of different
ways (Bulfin and Koutsogiannis 2012). For instance, school students may find
the family becoming reframed or redefined as a site of increased engagement
of schoolwork while outside of school – further increasing what Beck-Gernshiem
(1998) describes as the ‘pressure’ placed upon the contemporary family to

E-Learning 53
educate. Similarly, adults and children alike may find digital technologies
further eliding the social relations of learning and consumption, thus reducing
the available time for what Andre Gorz (2001) refers to as a ‘time for living’.

Flow Theory by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (1996)

Flow represents one of eight mental states that can happen during the learning
process. In addition to flow, these mental states include anxiety, apathy, arousal,
boredom, control, relaxation, and worry; they result when a learner experiences
a combination of skill and challenge levels of a task in non-optimal combinations.

Flow is the most optimal of these states for learning, as it is where skill level
and challenge level of a task are at their highest. This creates an opportunity for
learning and intense focus, where learners can even feel that they lose track of
time because they become so immersed in the task, perhaps with a lot of thrill
and excitement combined.

In contrast, a learner can experience relaxation in learning a task when their

skill level is very high and the task challenge is very low. Conversely, a learner
can experience anxiety when their skill level is very low and the task challenge
is very high. Neither state is supportive of optimal learning. Note that flow can
be experienced in any task involving any field of activity, from music to writing
to painting to sports.

Essentially, educational researchers try to understand flow in order to help their

students optimize their learning.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

Data gathering for this paper employed the qualitative research design. Primary
informal interviews through storytelling were conducted with the implementors
and pioneers of Schoolbook who are currently assigned to the Center of Innovative
Learning Programs (CILP). Informal interviews through narratives were also
conducted with teachers from different departments of the total seven colleges
of De La Salle University - Dasmarinas, Cavite who were perceived to actively
use Schoolbook in their classes. College students under the care and supervision
of this researcher over the past two school years (2015 - 2016 and 2016 - 2017)
were informally interviewed through storytelling shortly before the end of each
semester. The questions asked for both parties –teachers and students - were
summarized into two categories: The Advantages or Benefits of Schoolbook and

54 E-Learning
the Disadvantages or Pitfalls of Schoolbook. The respondents were requested
to freely share their thoughts and opinions about their teaching and learning
experiences with Schoolbook during a one-hour period. Insofar as the parents
were originally included in this study, at the time of this writing, only 62 parents
were registered as parental accounts in Schoolbook; no parent was, however,
available for comment and interview because most of them were based abroad
and busy earning for the tuition of their children. Some students whose parents
closely monitor their sons or daughters academic progress via the Grade book of
Schoolbook shared a limited view, which the study used for analyzing the parent’s
point of view. Since the paper has limited space, the best responses from both
teachers and students, which could highlight the majority of respondents, were
lumped into one to two responses per category. In other words, one to two
teachers or students responses could already represent at least ten to twenty
respondents’ comments and opinions as regards advantages and disadvantages
of Schoolbook.

ENTER SCHOOLBOOK: THE E-LEARNING PORTAL OF DE LA SALLE

UNIVERSITY – DASMARINAS, CAVITE

A. Humble Beginnings

Since 2010, Ms. Arlene Roa Awayan, a full-time faculty member of the Marketing
Department of the College of Business Administration and Accountancy (CBAA)
decided to embark on a project which simplifies the effective delivery of teaching
materials to both faculty and students initially of the departments – Marketing
and Management. In due time, Ms. Awayan was able to recruit a colleague by
the name of Ms. Jennifer Padernal of the Business Management Department to
join her with the same project. In this regard, both personalities began to orient
themselves with Schoolbook, which was introduced by a private Information
Technology company devoted to Education known as NEO LMS PHILIPPINES based
in Makati City, Metro Manila. Since the trend at that time was to incorporate e
learning in the university curriculum, some faculty members from other colleges
and departments gradually expressed interest to incorporate the e-learning
structure in delivering their lessons promptly and effectively. In this regard, the
concept was presented to the university administrators for strategic planning
and review.

E-Learning 55
The years 2010 to 2012 saw Schoolbook with mixed reactions from the academic
community. Some were open-minded while others were not. Those who were
labeled anti-technology believed that it was just a waste of time and financial
resources since educational materials may be shared to the students via
Powerpoint presentations and that the grades may be encoded and later on
shared with the students themselves using MS-Excel. Moreover, some faculty even
believed that Schoolbook might have simply been an extension of the existing
popular social media site – Facebook. For the broad-minded individuals, they
were simply going to give everything a try. Such comments and criticisms did
not, however, stop the two personalities, Awayan and Padernal from pursuing
their goals and spearheading a project for the academic community. In fact,
they did not even have an office, which they could truly call a Learning Center
committed to Educational Technology. Both persisted and moved on and by
2013, the academic community gradually began to take a closer look at the
benefits of Schoolbook.

By that time, the Educational Technology Center (ETC) of De La Salle University

- Dasmarinas, Cavite evolved which later on became the Center for Innovative
Learning Programs (CILP). Both personalities – Awayan and Padernal – took the
initiative then to commence and continue training with Schoolbook, which would
eventually be adopted by the academic community to simplify tasks, upload
resources, conduct online activities, and submit grades more efficiently than
ever before. Subsequently, the organization grew and recruited more faculty
members and staff into the CILP. Today, the office conducts Levels 1 to 3 trainings
for all interested faculty members. A recent order from the administrators then
compelled all faculty members to utilize the electronic grade sheet provided by
Schoolbook – the Gradebook – so that both parents and students could instantly
monitor their class standings from the beginning towards the end of the semester
(Ruben, 2017).

B. What is Schoolbook?

Schoolbook is the institution’s E-Learning Portal introduced by NEO LMS

PHILIPPINES, which introduces the Virtual Learning Environment or VLE for the
entire academic community. In this Virtual Learning Environment, Schoolbook
enriches learning experiences by strengthening teacher-student including
student-student exchanges and relationships beyond the classroom. Through
Schoolbook, the University intends to build and nurture an online community
of lifelong learners. The portal apparently offers two types of online learning –

56 E-Learning
Self-paced and Blended.

Self-paced implies that the teachers simply upload all their lessons, usually in
PowerPoint format, for their students’ reference and comprehension. In this
mode, the lecture method is mainly used because the uploaded lessons are merely
repeated in the classroom. For Self-Paced mode, both teachers and students
conduct minimal work online since the students are left to themselves to learn
and study the uploaded lessons on their own. Blended Learning, for its part,
offers two types of course delivery modes: Web-presence and Web-enhanced.
For the first mode, Web-presence, is a course delivery mode where the class
is largely conducted using face-to-face sessions. The E-class enables teachers
and students to utilize the portal as a communication and resource-sharing tool
through the use of announcements, news features, messages, educational links
and submission of assignments. Web-enhanced, on the other hand, is a course
delivery type conducted on a blended mode where both teachers and students
meet fifty-percent online and another fifty-percent in the classroom. The faculty
meets the students inside the classroom once a week and prepares weekly online
learning activities. Most outputs like quizzes and individual/group discussions
are administered online as students are immediately graded for their submitted
works. The teachers intending to conduct blended classes for the entire semester
are initially required to undertake and complete level 3 training provided by the
Center for Innovative Learning Programs (CILP). Only those faculty members
who have been certified will be allowed to conduct web-enhanced courses. The
course calendar must contain the following: Online Learning Activities for each
topic and specific schedule of online and face-to-face sessions. The required
document is attached to the course syllabus where they have to be approved
by their respective chairs and college deans each semester. In turn, the Center
for Innovative Learning Programs (CILP) must be provided with a copy of each
college faculty’s Schoolbook Course Calendar for proper monitoring (Padernal,
2016)

C. Advantages of Schoolbook from the Teacher’s and Student’s

Perspective

Admittedly, some teachers were initially resistant in using the educational portal
but after moments of exposure especially with their colleagues in their respective
departments using Schoolbook, many of them became enlightened and engrossed
in uploading lessons and assessments. Note that their responses support the Flow
Theory of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, one expert in the Psychology of Learning.

E-Learning 57
A Business Management teacher discloses:

“At first, I thought using Schoolbook was hard and complicated, but after being
taught how to use the portal effectively, I realized that it was just so easy and that
my students could understand the lessons well. Many times I become engrossed
and excited in using Schoolbook. In the past, I was compelled to repeat the
lessons in class after lecturing, but now with Schoolbook, it is not necessary to
repeat because “lecture time” is now spent with the students asking questions
for clarification. Now, I am not worried if my students will pass or fail their major
exams. Thanks to Schoolbook, everything has been simplified and made easy for
teacher and students to learn effectively.”

A History Teacher explains:

“Schoolbook at the beginning was tedious and rather taxing for me because I
had to upload all my lessons and assessments. But after going through Module
3 Training, I realized that the lessons including assessments previously uploaded
could be reused in the following semesters. Now I can do a lot of multi-taskings
since I am able to work from home. The Schoolbook operations make it a breeze
for me because I can easily check the submitted works of my students. So I can
spend half of the time in school and half of the time with my family at home
without sacrificing quality time for my students needs. And guess what? I can
even do my laundry! My time in school and the home is maximized as well!”

From the student’s perspective, since he is a Management Accounting major and

has a lot of paperwork to accomplish in his major subjects, he welcomes the
use of Schoolbook especially in completing requirements for his other General
Education courses like Sociology:

“At the beginning, I thought that Schoolbook was an extension of Facebook

where you could meet new people on campus and chat with your classmates….
but when our subject teacher required us to use it for his subject, I realized that
everything became simpler and more efficient. I became so engrossed in working
on the assignments that many times, I lost track of time. Practically most of
our short and long quizzes including assignments like group discussions could be
submitted online and immediately graded. My parents are likewise happy to view
my academic progress immediately since they could see my grades instantly.
With subjects needing improvement, I am encouraged to work harder and comply
with the standard since I would immediately know if I am doing well or not in
that subject using Schoolbook.”

58 E-Learning
D. Disadvantages of using Schoolbook

Supporting the tenets of Selwyn and Facer (2014) as regards changes in work etic
and taskings including family relationships among parents and students utilizing
educational technology, the following accounts have been shared by some faculty
members and students.

For one who is not so technologically knowledgeable, Schoolbook for this teacher
delays his delivery of the lessons including the submission of grades for his
students. A General Education teacher discloses:

“I’m not so Tech Savvy with laptops and desktops! Moreover, I am only using
Powerpoint to deliver my lessons and I believe that is enough. To upload my
lessons in Schoolbook makes it more complicated and slower for me. And to
encode the grades in Gradebook makes it more challenging for me. In fact, I’m
not so good yet in using Powerpoint to make my lessons more interesting, so to
speak. I still continue to utilize the lecture method and write my lessons on the
whiteboard using a whiteboard marker. Nonetheless, I will have to learn how to
use Schoolbook but it will definitely take time.”

Another General Education teacher shares the same view and adds that Schoolbook
may be distracting to both teacher and student while the lessons are delivered
and explained:

“Schoolbook does not guarantee that the lessons will be delivered effectively.
Many times I have observed my students to be lazy and not listening to my
explanation since they are confident that the lessons will be uploaded in the
portal anyway. In this regard, to catch their attention, I resort to the traditional
method of lecturing. Schoolbook for my subject will only be used to encode their
grades for the Prelims, Midterms, and Finals so they will know how they stand in
my class.”

And for a Sophomore Engineering student who has been familiar with Schoolbook,
shares this observation:

“I’m so relaxed using Schoolbook because I can take my time doing my assignments
and answering my online quizzes. Sometimes, so relaxed, I suddenly realized it
is very close to the deadline that I hardly have time to complete. I also realized
that my laziness pays off because of this Schoolbook thinking our teacher could
extend the deadline, but to no avail. Now my parents get mad at me because
they can instantly see from the Gradebook if I am doing well in all subjects or
not. Before I could lie to them and assure them that all is well with me. I am

E-Learning 59
passing in all subjects, so they think. But not anymore because I can easily get
caught lying to my parents about my real academic standing!”

CONCLUSIONS

From the insights shared by the aforementioned respondents, the following

conclusions may be gleaned:

1. Despite a relatively strong cultural resistance towards utilizing Schoolbook,

the educational portal is here to stay and remain in the university for at least 10
years or more largely shifting and changing teaching, learning, and work styles.

2. Even if there are negative reactions towards using Schoolbook at this moment
in time by some faculty and students, this researcher believes that Schoolbook
will continue to flourish since the benefits and positive effects largely outweigh
the negative reactions towards its use in the community.

3. Somehow those individuals who were initially resistant, will learn to see the
usefulness and efficiency of the portal in its implementation. It will just be a
matter of, say, two more years from the time of this writing, where more people
will be using Schoolbook in their everyday lives.

4. There may be a change of teaching, learning, and working styles especially

in the next five years which may prove to be beneficial to De La Salle University
Dasmarinas – Cavite’s ecology. Imagine the multiplier effect wherein faculty
and students will only spend half of their time on campus and half of their time
at home completing academic requirements? Won’t Schoolbook be one of the
concrete measures to save the environment because less fossil fuels have been
burned or consumed for a week?

5. The mission to continue the use of Schoolbook should have a sense of political
will and support not only from people assigned to the Center for Innovative
Learning Programs (CILP) but from the central administrators who should remain
open minded as well. All members of the academic community should realize
that Schoolbook is but one online educational tool that provides current teachers
and students with the vision and structure of a classroom of the future.

60 E-Learning
REFERENCES

Beck-Gernsheim, E. (1998) “On the way to a post-familial family” Theory Culture

and Society, 15, 3- 4, pp.53-70

Bulfin, S. and Koutsogiannis, D. (2012) “New literacies as multiply placed

practices: expanding perspectives on young people’s literacies across home
and school” Language and Education 26, 4, pp. 331-346.

Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály (1996) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

New York: Harper Perennial. Pp. 1-163

Davies, J. (2012) “Facework on Facebook as a new literacy practice” Computers

& Education 59, 19- 29

Gorz, A. (2001) ‘Critique of economic reason”in Munck, R. and Waterman, P.

(eds) Labour worldwide Basingstoke, Macmillan

Hall, R. (2011) “Revealing the transformatory moment of learning technology:

The place of critical social theory” ALT-J: Research in Learning Technology,
19, 3, pp. 273-284

Hope, A. (2013) Foucault, Panopticism and School Surveillance Research. In M.

Murphy (Ed.) Social Theory and Educational Research. London: Routledge.
pp 35-51

Johnson, N. (2009) “Teenage technological experts views of schooling” Australian

Educational Researcher 36, 1, 59-72

McKeachie, W. (1999). Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College
and University Teachers. New York. Houghton Mifflin Company.

MacKenzie, N. et. al. (1976). Teaching and Learning: An Introduction to New

Methods and Resources in Higher Education. Paris. The Unesco Press and
the International Association of Universities.

Player-Koro, C. (2013) “Hype, hope and ICT in teacher education: a Bernsteinian

perspective” Learning, Media and Technology, 38, 1, pp. 26-40

Selwyn, N., & Facer, K. (2014). The sociology of education and digital technology:
Past, Present and Future. Oxford Review of Education, 40(4), 482-496.

E-Learning 61
Webster, A. (2013) “Digital technology and sociological windows” in Prior, N.
and Kate Orton-Johnson, K. (eds) ‘Digital sociology’ Basingstoke, Palgrave
(pp.227-233)

Wright, S. and Parchoma, G. (2011) “Technologies for learning? An actor-network

theory critique of affordances in research on mobile learning” in Research
in Learning Technology 19, 3, pp.247–258

PERSONAL COMMUNICATION:

Jen Padernal – Proponent and pioneer of Schoolbook – Schoolyear 2016-2017

Roland Ruben – Current Director of the Center for Innovative Learning Programs
(CILP) of De La Salle University - Dasmarinas, Cavite. Schoolyear 2016-2017

62 E-Learning
Infrastructure Readiness and Human Resources in
the Implementation of E-learning

Albertus Dwiyoga Widiantoro

ABSTRACT

E-learning is delivered digitally, internet-based network, which

is expected to be done online, realtime, and also remotely. The
Government of Indonesia has opened the opportunity for universities
to implement E-learning with certain criteria aimed at improving the
quality and relevance of higher education and industry innovation.
Terms of Distance Education Program organizer is an A accredited
study program. with accreditation A study program can organize
distance education courses in Indonesia and internationally. This
paper will present whether the accredited A University is ready and
capable in infrastructure to implement E-learning.

Keywords: E-learning, E-learning Infrastructure, Digitally, Internet

Network, Accredited University

E-Learning 63
INTRODUCTION

e-learning is a learning process that uses information technology. Information

Technology in this case is computer (in the form of software and hardware) and
internet. Where the learning process combines classroom learning and online-
based, as well as total-based online learning. the use of e-learning in learning is
a trend of learning model because with online learning, more and more people
who follow it.

The development of information technology such as social media, blogs, videos,

podcasts, vlogs, and wikis is currently growing very fast, used easily, and widely
used for communication to support the learning process.

The Indonesian government is also utilizing internet technology for e-learning

that is used for distance education. Distance education is a process of teaching
and learning that is done remotely using various communication media with the
aim of providing high education services to the community who can not follow
the education face to face or regular and expand access to facilitate the service
of higher education in education and learning.

In building e-learning it takes something that is software, hardware, internet

network, human resources, and policy. These five components should be a
priority if you want e-learning to run well. The selection of good infrastructure is
how the needs of the five components are available with enough, then e-learning
services to be optimal.

In this research will discuss whether the university who get accreditation A in
Central Java can carry out e-learning education well, so it can help the government
in distance education by looking at the readiness of its own infrastructure.

LITERATURE REVIEW

E-learning is a learning process that uses information technology (Chox, 2012).

The use of technology to complement traditional teaching practices so that
e-learning is done without location and time constraints (Richardson, 2003).

E-learning is a process of learning that is delivered digitally, internet-based. In

terms of time, E-learning can be done in realtime and online and also remotely. In
the classroom settings supported by e-learning can be done flexibly because ICT-
based learning can be done individually, independently, based on the community
(Markus, 2008).

64 E-Learning
According to Law no. 12/2012, Distance education is a process of teaching
and learning that is done in a distant way using various communication media
with the aim of providing higher education services to community groups who
can not attend regular or regular education and expand access and facilitate
higher education services in education and Learning (Law, 2012). Strengthened
by education and cultural minister’s regulation that distance education is a
process of teaching and learning that is done remotely through the use of various
communication media (Government Regulation, 2013)

Indonesia has opened up opportunities for universities to conduct distance

education with certain criteria aimed at improving the quality and relevance of
higher education and industry innovation; improve access to higher education;
increase the GER of higher education (Gross Participation Rate: The proportion
of school children at a certain level in the age group corresponding to that level
of education); Equitable distribution of affordable and flexible education of
space and time.

In the Distance Education program, the availability of Information and

Communication technology of the organizers as well as in the Distance Learning
Resource Unit (USBJJ) and its connectivity is very important and irreplaceable. If
the organizing college does not have adequate information and communication
technology tools on campus, then distance education programs can not be
implemented. The provision of information and communication technology
devices for students may be done through cooperation (with contract documents
binding both parties during the course of learning) with partner institutions, such
as local universities, or computer courses, etc (RISTEKDIKTI, 2016).

Terms of the implementation of distance education program is a study program

that get accredited A can organize distance education courses in Indonesia and
internationally. accredited B study programs are only allowed in 3 provinces in
the territory of Indonesia [RISTEKDIKTI, 2016]. Principles of ICT utilization in
learning as follows:

E-Learning 65
Table 1. Principles of ICT utilization in learning

Principle Description Type

0% Full face-to-face, learning with print or Traditional face to face
oral material
1%-29% Using internet technology to facilitate Web-enhanced
face-to-face patterns, perhaps using an Learning is enriched
LMS or website to post teaching materials with internet access
and tasks
30%-70% Combines online and face-to-face ways. Blended/hybrid
There is a proportion of online teaching e-learning
materials delivered. Usually comes with
online discussions, and there is a reduction
of face-to-face frequency
>80% Most or all of the teaching materials are Fully online
delivered online, without a portion of face- elearning
to-face

The development of learning now also appears mobile learning which is a join
of mobile technology and e-Learning. The mobile aspect in learning makes it
different from other learning, especially designing the learning experience by
utilizing the ‘mobility’ service. M-Learning focuses on the mobility of learners,
interacting with portable technology.

Information Technology is a computer (in the form of software and hardware)

and internet. Where the learning process can combine learning in the classroom
and online-based, as well as online-based total. E-learning is a trend of current
learning models and the great attention of learning using this model.

The development of information technology in learning is very fast and easy

to use. Technologies such as social media, blogs, videos, podcasts, vlogs, and
wikis are widely used for communication to support the learning process. This
technology can also be integrated with existing e-learning system to form an
integrated system.

E-learning can be built at their own expense, rented, can also use cloud
technology. By developing their own procurement of hardware, software,
experts, network, space then the financing should be borne alone. While the
rental system is enough to rent with a certain capacity to the vendor. If the
University uses an e-learning system using technology coud the cost of building,
maintaining, borne by the vendor. With this model IT staff to keep the server
maintained 24 hours by vendors. Cloud technology for e-learning can reduce the

66 E-Learning
budget needs of hardware, electricity and server space. The linkage between
physical infrastructure affects lecturer performance. The availability of complete
equipment makes scientists proud of the university and performs well[11].

The e-learning system must keep abreast of technological developments and the
demands of society, to develop e-learning using the concept of cloud computing
can be easily implemented. But cost and risk management affect how e-learning
management solutions are based on cloud computing[12].

Limited availability source of funding of Private University to support technology

transfer activities is a major obstacle to the commercialization of university
technology effectively. In Indonesia has the same problem that funding at private
universities is still very dependent on the growth of students.

The e-learning infrastructure consists of hardware, software, and human

resources. Hardware consists of server type, database, user, bandwidth, memory
(RAM), and operating system. Software in this case is a tool used for e-leraning of
Learning Management System software. Resources are experts who can prepare,
install and run hardware, software[14].

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this study using several stages as follows:

1. Looking for A accredited college: In this search we use data of National

Accreditation Board of Higher Education

2. Choosing a college located in Central Java: Look for all websites owned by
accredited A college to explore information about e-learning that is owned
and implemented.

3. Explore information on infrastructure owned by universities: This process looks

for information on what infrastructure is owned and utilized for e-learning
services. Infrastructure being excavated is network, server, internet service.

4. Analysis: After searching for all e-learning services the process then analyzes
whether the service is appropriate for e-lending required by the government.

5. Conclusions: Conclude e-learning services owned by the needs and demands

of e-learning implementation.

E-Learning 67
RESULTS AND DISCUSION

The process of choosing a college with accreditation A by doing a search on

the website authorized to issue a predicate of accreditation of the Institute
of National Accreditation Board of Higher Education (BAN PT) with the address
https://banpt.or.id, as shown in the picture below.

By using the website of BANPT, 3 private universities in Central Java have

accreditation of rank A institution which is the best or highest rank in Indonesia.

Research by way of searching based on college owned websites, whether there

is a website that manages about e-learning. By doing an analysis of the existing
in the three universities found that the implementation of e-learning is strongly
supported by leaders of universities in line with the government. Utilization of
e-learning technology is mature enough has started more than 4 years. But not
all study programs use e-learning optimally, only limited to uploading lecture
material and syllabus. Optimizing the utilization of e-learning for distance
education is only one college that has implemented distance education.

Support
start Distance
University Staf IT leaders Unit development Users
years learning
university
X1 Less supported University Library >4 anny No
department
X2 enaugh supported Centre Technical >8 Anny No
implementation department
unit
X3 enaugh supported Centre Technical >5 Anny Yes
implementation department
unit

68 E-Learning
infrastructure development is done by gradually is the procurement of servers,
internal network, and bandwidth because it requires high cost. With the increase
of study programs that use e-learning then the process needs and server speed
increases. The addition of bandwidth is influenced by several factors: the number
of users increases, the larger the multimedia size the larger, the laptop and
mobile devices the higher the speed, also the need to access data abroad. The
need for data IX (international exchange) is higher due to the many materials
available. The addition of the network is done due to the increase of computer
laboratory, the installation of network in the classroom, increasing the wifi point
open room.

The internet service for e-learning of the three high-performers has used a
1: 1 dedicated leaseline comparison where local Indonesian data access and
international data get a 1: 1 comparison. Implementation of e-learning is greatly
assisted by the cooperation between ISPs using the Open IXP model, using this
model of communication between ISPs is very fast and not paid because of the
ISP that is included in the IDC (Indonesia Data Center), so that e-learning access
speed can be increased.

the development of infrastructure done at the time of addition of data, the

amount of data is getting bigger, and the higher speed is done by adding device
or replacing with bigger capacity. Cloud technology offered by many ISPs is
not attractive because prices are still considered expensive, concern for data
security, ISP providers can do anything to the data without the owner’s intact.

Bandwidth management is done by dividing some parts of Server, Wifi, and cable
network. However, these three universities have different architectures that
divide each building and some divide bandwidth centrally. Wifi networks are
mostly used for student and guest services, while wired networks are used for
academic and teaching staff. The number of students accessing greatly affects
the speed of access to the server. The process of calculating bandwidth is as
follows:

BandWidth per student = (total bandwidth - Bandwidth for server-network cable)

/ number of students;

By comparing with the number of students then the need for internet access is
still less than 1Kbps / student. This data shows that if all students use e-learning
technology then that can be accessed is lecture material. The internet network
has not been able to access multimedia such as movies, video calls, video
conferencing. So that is done by doing a conference in class by scheduling.

E-Learning 69
Opensource technology is still the main choice, where the operating system and
learning management system (LMS). Selection of operating system based on
opensouce because it is considered safe, stable, easy to manage, update system
quickly. Linux operating system used one type with the aim of not difficulty in
transfer of knowledge to IT staff.

Perguruan Jenis Jaringan

BW Server Cloud Memory Hardisk Os LMS
Tinggi server internal
X1 1.3 own server - Xeon 32 SaS FO backbone Linux Moodle
gbps rack
X2 1 Colocation - Xeon 16 SaS FO backbone Linux Moodle
gbps rack Cable
X3 850 own server - Xeon 16 SaS FO linux Moodle
Kbps rack Backbone

Conclusion

Universities that have accreditation A have all lead to the implementation of

e-learning though not fully concerned about Fully online elearning and still
implemented partially only some courses are still based on “Web-enhanced” or
learning enriched with internet access and Blended / hybrid e -learning.

Fully online elearning offered by the government is still constrained on

infrastructure whose development is implemented in stages due to high costs,
human resources in the field of IT and lecturers still have to train in the utilization
of e-learning is evident from the number of courses offered in e-learning a bit.

Infrastructure development needs to be accelerated to anticipate the number of

participants and study programs using e-learning technology, in order to avoid
any disillusionment of participants in their use.

New technology-based infrastructure “cloud” has not been a solution in the

development of e-learning, because it is still considered high cost.

70 E-Learning
REFERENCES

[1] Cox MJ. K , “Formal to informal learning with IT: research challenges and
issues for e-learning “

[2] Jennifer C. R., Karen Swan. “Examining Social Presence In Online Courses In
Relation To Students Perceived Learning And Satisfaction”

[3] Bela Markus “Thiinkiing aboutt e-Learrning”.

[4] UU no. 12/2012 “tentang pendidikan tinggi, pendidikan jarak jauh pasal 31”

[5] Permendikbud No. 109/2013

[6] Panduan Pelaksanaan Pendidikan Jarak Jauh 2016

[
7] Kebijakan Pendidikan Jarah Jauh dan e-learning di Indonesia

[8] kebijaksanaan Pendidikan Jarak Jauh dan E-learning di Indonesia Kementrian

Riset, Teknologi dan Pendidikan Tinggi 2016

[9] Yousef M. , Hamideh Z., “Mobile Learning for Education: Benefits and
Challenges”

[10] Shu-Sheng L., Hsiu-Mei H., Gwo-Dong C. “Surveying instructor and learner
attitudes toward e-learning”.

[11] Rozilah K., Musa A. A., Bala I. “Asessment Of Service User’s Experience On
The Facilities Provision At Uthm Students’ Residential Colleges”.

[12] Paul P., Felician A., Marius V., “Measuring the Efficiency of Cloud Computing
for E-learning Systems”

[13] Federico M., Maurizio S., Laura T., “The university as a venture capitalist?
Gap funding instruments for technology transfer”

[14] Abdul R. H, “Infrastructure Requirements for E-learning Implementation and

Delivery” http://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-design/infrastructure-
for-elearning

E-Learning 71
Online Learners’ Motivation in Online Learning: The
Effect of Online - Participation, Social Presence, and
Collaboration

Andree E. Widjaja
Jengchung Victor Chen

ABSTRACT

Online learner’s motivation has been considered as one of the most

important factors that drives online learning. Drawing from the Self
Determination Theory (SDT), this present study incorporated the
concept of Intrinsic motivation (Flow Theory) and Extrinsic Motivation
(Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction Model, or
popularly known as ARCS) to empirically investigate the effect of
online learner’s motivation towards online learning effectiveness,
measured by online learner’s grade and their perceived skill
development. Meanwhile, derived from the Social Constructivists
Theory, the factors such as online participation, social presence,
and collaboration were also considered as the factors which could
enhance online learners’ motivation. Seventy five (75) International
Management Business Administration (M.B.A.) students who enrolled
in several online learning courses were participating in this study.

The findings of this study strongly indicated that higher online

learner’s Flow and ARCS could significantly increase online learner’s
perceived skill development, but not their grade. It was also found
that only online participation that could significantly enhance online
learners’ Flow. Other factors did not show the significant results.
Online learner’s extrinsic motivation did not show significant
increase in any factors. This study provides some valuable insights

72 E-Learning
on how to improve online learning course design which focuses on
online learner’s motivation, particularly by considering the factor
of online participation as the strongest factor that drives online
learner’s intrinsic motivation. The discussion and limitations of this
study are discussed.

Keywords: ARCS model, Collaboration, Flow theory, Intrinsic and

Extrinsic Motivation, Online Participation, Social Presence

INTRODUCTION

Unlike traditional face-to-face classroom, online learning is using Information

Communication Technology (ICT) as the only medium to deliver teaching
materials, interact, collaborate, and engage with other learners. The online
learning alters the face-to-face interaction, reduce social interaction, hence
causing the learners to feel isolated (Bolliger, Supnakorn, & Boggs, 2010; Shaw
& Polovina, 1999). Such condition would make the learning process more
challenging, especially concerning the loss of learners’ motivation (Bolliger et
al., 2010; Inoue, 2007).

Learners’ motivation ranges from intrinsic motivation in which learner is

motivated due to the challenges or the fun whenever they are doing the task, to
extrinsic motivation in which the learners take action due to external stimuli,
rewards, or avoiding pressure or punishment (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Xie & Ke,
2011). In addition, the learners prefer more engaging learning environment
which learners and teachers would have direct interaction with other learners,
spontaneity, immediate feedback, and relationship (Clayton, Blumberg, & Auld,
2010). The online learning factors such as online participation, social presence,
and collaboration could imitate the traditional engaging learning environment
to some extent. Among the three aforementioned factors, online participation
has been argued as the strongest factor that contributes the most to learning
effectiveness in online environment (Hrastinski, 2009).

This study has objective to empirically investigate the learners’ motivation

towards online learning effectiveness, measured by grades and perceived
skill development (PSD). In addition, the effect of online participation, social
presence, and collaboration towards learners’ motivation were also included,

E-Learning 73
as to whether these factors could actually enhance learners’ motivation.
Therefore, the following research questions would be answered: 1). How learners’
motivation affects the learning effectiveness, measured by grades and perceived
skill development? 2). What are the effects of online participation, social
presence, and collaboration towards learners’ motivation, both extrinsically and
intrinsically?

This study contributes to the learners’ motivation theory, particularly in online

learning context. The higher the learners’ motivation is, the more effective
learning that the learners would have. This study empirically validates the
importance of learners’ motivation in online learning context. Besides, the study
contributes in proving the factors which is important to online learning such
as online participation, social presence, and collaboration. Few studies were
found to empirically validate the importance of these three factors, particularly
the role of online participation towards learners’ motivation. These factors
are crucial for designing proper instructional design that promotes learners’
motivation when they indulge in online learning environment.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

Learners’ Motivation in Online Learning

Researchers emphasize the role of extrinsic motivation to explain user behavior.

However, Agarwal (2000) argued that intrinsic motivation also plays a very
important role. Motivation construct has been analyzed in multiple ways, mainly
the distinction is drawn between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors
(Gomez, Wu, & Passerini, 2010). The distinction between them is based on Self
Determination Theory (SDT) (Fagan, Neill, & Wooldridge, 2008).

Intrinsic Motivation – Flow Theory

Intrinsic motivation is a specific kind of motivation. When a learner is intrinsically

motivated, they engage in the tasks for the pleasure that come from that task which
may have an effect on their motivation (Song, 1998). Flow theory framework can be
used to measure the intrinsic motivation of online learners. Csikszentmihalyi (1990)
adopted this intrinsic motivation in a term which is popularly called ‘Flow’. Flow
theory suggests people are willing to perform activities, not because by external
rewards, but because of internal motivations within themselves.

74 E-Learning
Extrinsic Motivation – ARCS

Keller (1988) argued the people will be motivated to undertake action if it gives
them personal satisfaction and if they have chance to be successful. Keller
(1983) believed that the motivation refers to the choices that people make as to
what experiences or goal they will approach or avoid, and the degree of effort
they will exert in that respect. Derived from the assumption that motivation is
playing greater role in the learning process, Keller proposed the ARCS model
of motivational design, consisting of four elements (Attention, Relevance,
Confidence, Satisfaction) for motivating learners (Keller, 1983; Keller & Suzuki,
1988).

Motivation and Learning Effectiveness

Motivation is a driving factor influencing performance (Sankaran & Bui, 2001)

and successful learning (Clayton et al., 2010). Many researchers agreed there
is positive correlation between motivation and the learning effectiveness.
This argument was strongly supported by Sach (2001) who supported that
there is a positive relationship between achievement motivation and learners’
performance. Several studies in motivation consistently suggested the higher
the motivation level, the better learners would perform in various instructional
settings (Sankaran & Bui, 2001).

Learners who have high motivation would show high grade performance
(Sachs, 2001). Previous studies found motivational orientation of learners have
significant impact on their performance (Rau, Gao, & Wu, 2008). Meanwhile,
Gomez (2010) study showed the perceived motivation has significant relationship
with the learners’ perceived learning. Thus, when the learners’ motivation is
high, it would increase the learning effectiveness. Based on the aforementioned
arguments, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H1a: High intrinsic motivation increases students’ grade.

H1b: High intrinsic motivation increases students’ perceived skill development.
H2a: High extrinsic motivation increases students’ grade.
H2b: High extrinsic motivation increases students’ perceived skill development.

Online Participation and Motivation

Online participation as theory was initially proposed by Hrastinski (2009) in

which he argued that online participation underlies online learning as a the

E-Learning 75
most powerful variable than any other variables. Hrastinski (2009) articulated
his theory by arguing participation and learning is inseparable and jointly
constituting so that online participation would become the main key to drive
online learning. In this study, online participation is based on social constructivist
theory. By definition, “online participation is a process of learning by taking part
and maintaining relations with others. It is a complex process comprising doing,
communicating, thinking, feeling and belonging, which occurs both online and
offline” (Hrastinski, 2009).

Previous studies have shown that intrinsic motivation would significantly impact
learners’ participation rate in online discussion (Hew & Cheung, 2008; Xie & Ke,
2011). Therefore, it is also logical to reason that when the learners participate,
they tend to have higher motivation. On the contrary, lower learners’ participation
tends to be caused by the lower level of motivation. The online participation
would promote the environment in which increasing learners’ motivation. The
strong attributes existed in online participation as the strongest learning variable
is necessary to cultivate rich social learning experience. The intense discussion,
participation with abundant interactions among the learners, the feeling,
engaging experience, and belonging as well as more connected-relationship
as one community, all of them would have great effect in cultivating learners’
motivation, both intrinsically and extrinsically. Thus, following hypotheses are
proposed:

H3a: Online participation increases learners’ intrinsic motivation

H3b: Online participation increases learners’ extrinsic motivation

Social Presence and Motivation

Short, Williams, and Christie (1976) were the first to introduce the concept of
social presence in the field of social psychology and communication. In their
study, they defined social presence as the “degree of salience” of the other
person in the interaction and the consequent salience of the interpersonal
relationship” (Short et al., 1976). Social presence in electronic and paper based
media is considered low, while face to face communications is high (Dennis,
Kinney, & Hung, 1999).

Social presence could affect learners’ motivation since it can enhance degree of
realness in the online environment. Recall that online learning as social process,
the existence of a real person virtually is very crucial, especially to trigger good
interaction and collaboration. The learners with high social presence would

76 E-Learning
not feel isolated and cold since they perceived as real by others in the online
environment (Rogers & Lea, 2005). In doing so, high social presence promotes
higher learners’ motivation to learn by providing the higher degree of realness
that supports their learning interaction and process, thus we expect that:

H4a: Social presence increases learners’ intrinsic motivation

H4b: Social presence increases learners’ extrinsic motivation

Collaboration and Motivation

By doing collaboration, learners can contribute to deeper learning, shared

understanding, critical thinking and long-term retention of the learned material
(Tsai, 2009). All of this would trigger the learners to have higher motivation
to learn. Research has shown collaborative learning could enhance learners’
motivation (Chou & Chen, 2008). Learners who perceived high levels of
collaborative learning tended to be more satisfied compared with those who
perceive low level (So & Brush, 2008). In high collaboration environment, learners
feel more engaged, intimate, and satisfied as they collaborate with each other
to produce shared artifacts, thereby increasing the learners’ motivation. Thus,
we expect that:

H5a: Collaboration increases learners’ intrinsic motivation.

H5b: Collaboration increases learners’ extrinsic motivation.

METHODS

Online Learning Experiment

The experiment was conducted in International Master of Business Administration

(IMBA) program in one Public University in southern Taiwan. Courses related with
ICT were chosen. The courses were Business Ethics and Information Security
(BEIS), Electronic-Commerce (E-Commerce), and Management Information
Systems (MIS). The online learning content was about studying Information
Ethics, Privacy and Trust.

The three classes were taught by the same professor acted as control in delivering
the materials. BEIS and E-Commerce were selected as experimental classes, while
MIS served as control class. Learners were not informed about their involvement

E-Learning 77
in this experiment. Each learner was asked to access online learning management
system, Moodle system provided by the University in which various materials
and assignments were delivered. In the beginning, learners in each class were
given brief training on how to access the Moodle system. Afterwards, they were
divided into team which consisted of two to three learners in each team.

The learners were required to access materials and worked on four case study
assignments, each of which required to be finished in two weeks period.
Learners were required to submit the team papers at the end of assignment. The
experimental design followed 2X2X2 factorial design. In this study, treatment
was defined as operationalization of construct in terms of what functions or
instructional design provided in Moodle as well as activity and instruction given.
In experimental group each class was given treatment (high and low) to see
whether each treatment had any effect on the learners’ motivation. In addition,
social presence and collaboration treatment were designed for both experimental
groups, whereas the control group was not given any treatment. The experimental
groups consisted of 8 treatments where each group was randomly assigned. A
more detailed experimental design is shown in table 1 and table 2.

Table 1. Experimental design table

Experimental Design

Social Presence

Online High Low

Class Participation Collaboration

High Low High Low

BEIS High A1 B1 C1 D1

E-Commerce Low A2 B2 C2 D2

MIS Control

78 E-Learning
Table 2. Experimental manipulation stimulus

Construct Stimulus Description

Social High • #Logins (required to sign in 2/week)
Presence • Full profile (info picture, description,
name)
• Introduction in Forum
• Chat room
• Group name (by themselves)
Low • Limited profile
• No Introduction
• No chat room
Online High • SCORM embedded with animation,
participation music, video, graphic pictures, articles,
etc.
• Forum strictly graded for whole class
(content quality, how many posts/
replies)
• Must use Emotion Icon in forum
• Wiki IMBA update (whole class project) –
must contribute
• Chat function
Low • No SCORM
• Few video, link to external website
• Articles, link to external website
• Forum provided but optional
• No Wikipedia IMBA
High • Moodle Wiki (done online)
Collaboration
Low • No Wiki (email submit)

ARCS Design

To enhance online learning design as well as promote students’ external

motivation, the basic concept of ARCS instructional design was applied. Based
on the model, ARCS is the abbreviation of Attention, Relevance, Confident, and
Satisfaction. This concept was useful to make appropriate design for online
learning. The detail is as followed:

• Attention

Materials were based on the real world cases which were relatively

E-Learning 79
interesting and raised learners’ curiosities. Various materials were ranging
from text, graphics, and videos delivered over the Moodle. Other functions
such as discussion forums and wiki were used to retain learners’ attention.

• Relevance

Materials given were relevant to the course and meet the learners’ needs
for learning.

• Confidence

Instruction as well as grading criteria was clearly defined before each

case. Both course materials and assignment were purposely design in
structured, clear, and to be easily understood so the learners’ confidence
could be enhanced.

• Satisfaction

The overall course design and materials equipped the learners to use
new way to learn through online learning. For example, various course
materials were given as well as intense discussion could provide meaningful
opportunities for learners to use their acquired knowledge or skill. In
addition, some function such as wiki was used. Thus, it was the new
experience for learners to be involved in such engaging online activities.

Measurements

The assessment survey to measure intrinsic motivation was based on virtual-

course flow measure (VFM) (Shin, 2006). The major constructs consisted of:
concentration (10 items), having a clear goal (1), skill (3), challenge (4), and
satisfaction (4). The survey used 7 point Likert-scale and were administered after
the online course had finished. Extrinsic motivation questionnaire was based
on Instructional Material Motivational Survey (IMMS) derived from Attention,
Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction motivational design model (Huang,
Diefes-Dux, & Imbrie, 2006). There were 20 item used which were claimed to
be statistically significant. In this study, the survey used 7 point Likert-scale and
were administered after online course had finished.

Grade was used as main prediction of learning effectiveness. The grade was
measured from the submitted papers. The grading criteria included: group
writing quality such as the correctness of the answers (40%); argumentations

80 E-Learning
and given solutions (40%); systematic writings as well as paper presentation
(20%). The grade was carefully graded by the instructors. The grade’s range
was from 0 (lowest) – 100 (highest). The perceive learning was measured by
Alavi (1994) perceived skill development questionnaire which consisted of eight
items. Perceive learning is defined as changes in learner’s perceptions of skill
and knowledge levels before and after experience in learning. In this study, the
surveys used 7 point Likert-scale and were administered each time after the
learners’ finished the assignment.

RESULTS

Demographic

There were total of 75 learners in 3 classes, BEIS (27), E-Com (30), and MIS (18)
participated in this study. Table 3 shows the complete demographic data.

Table 3. Demographic data

Demographic N %
Male 28 37.3
Gender
Female 47 62.7
American 3 4.0
Bolivian 1 1.3
Canadian 2 2.7
Gambia 1 1.3
Hong Kong 1 1.3
Indonesia 1 1.3
Nationality
Korea 1 1.3
Mongolia 6 8.0
Polish 2 2.7
Russia 1 1.3
Taiwan 46 61.3
Thailand 7 9.3
Vietnam 3 4.0

E-Learning 81
Demographic N %
20-25 Years 19 25.3
26-30 Years 31 41.3
Age group 31-35 Years 21 28.0
36-40 Years 2 2.7
>40 Years 2 2.7
<1 hours 1 1.3

Hours spend 1 – 3 hours 13 17.3

computer 4 – 6 hours 26 34.7
>6 hours 35 46.7
<1 hours 4 5.3

Hours spend 1 – 3 hours 24 32.0

Internet 4 – 6 hours 27 36.0
>6 hours 20 26.7
Employed by Yes 16 21.3
IT company
before No 59 78.7

Have IT Yes 18 24.0

background No 57 76.0
Poor 3 4.0

Computer Mediocre 40 53.3

Skill Good 20 26.7
Very Good 9 12.0
Excellent 3 4.0

English is Yes 8 10.7

first language No 67 89.3

82 E-Learning
Factor Analysis

We followed general factor analysis rule which is factor loading should be higher
than 0.7, while Cronbach’s alpha should be higher than 0.8. Table 4 shows the
factor analysis result.

Table 4. Factor analysis results

Factor Item Total Cronbach’s

Measurement Variables
Loading Correlation Alpha
ARCS Moodle 0.96
Attention
MA5 0.92 0.90
MA2 0.91 0.88
MA4 0.89 0.87
MA3 0.88 0.85
MA8 0.88 0.85
MA10 0.88 0.85
MA9 0.87 0.84
MA6 0.87 0.84
MA1 0.86 0.83
MA7 0.82 0.79
Moodle
Relevance 0.86
MR1 0.93 0.76
MR2 0.93 0.76
Moodle
Confidence 0.93
MC2 0.91 0.85
MC5 0.89 0.83
MC4 0.88 0.81
MC1 0.87 0.79
MC3 0.86 0.78
Moodle
Satisfaction DEL

E-Learning 83
FLOW Enjoyment 0.95
E1 0.95 0.90
E3 0.95 0.90
E2 0.95 0.89
Telepresence 0.81
T2 0.91 0.68
T1 0.91 0.68
Focused 0.82
Attention
FA3 0.85 0.69
FA1 0.84 0.67
FA4 0.82 0.67
FA2 0.69 0.51
Engagement 0.86
EG2 0.88 0.77
EG4 0.87 0.75
EG3 0.85 0.71
EG1 0.75 0.59
Time Distortion 0.85
TD1 0.93 0.75
TD2 0.93 0.75
Challenge
C2 0.94 0.86 0.90
C1 0.93 0.84
C3 0.86 0.71
Perceived Skill 0.96
Development P1 0.92 0.89
(PSD) P2 0.92 0.89
P3 0.92 0.89
P6 0.91 0.88
P4 0.91 0.88
P5 0.88 0.85
P7 0.80 0.75
P8 0.79 0.73

84 E-Learning
Flow and Grade

Table 5 compares the effect of intrinsic motivation (Flow) to learners’ grade.

Cluster analysis was performed to divide the learners’ Flow to two levels, Flow
low and Flow high. Afterwards, the Grade was clustered and compared based on
their Flow level. The result showed there was a slight increase in learners’ grade
between Flow low and Flow high. However, the increase was not significant due
to low ANOVAs result (F=0.88, P value = .35). As a consequence, hypothesis 1a is
not supported.

Table 5. Flow and grade results

Grade in Flow Grade in

Class F Value Significant
Low Flow High

Mean 84.82 86.19

Total All
N 37 38 0.88 .35
Classes
Stdev 6.12 6.47
* p < .05

Flow and PSD

Table 6 compares the effect of intrinsic motivation (Flow) to PSD. Cluster analysis
was performed to divide the learners’ Flow to two levels, Flow low and Flow
high. Afterwards, learners’ PSD were clustered and compared based on their
Flow level. The result showed there was a significant increase in PSD between
Flow low and Flow high. ANOVA result show significant number (F=10.74, P value
= .00). Hence, hypothesis 1b is supported.

Table 6. Flow and PSD results

PSD in PSD in
Class Flow Flow F Value Significant
Low High
Total All Mean 5.03 5.73 10.74* .00
Classes N 42 33
Stdev 0.90 0.94
* p < .05

E-Learning 85
ARCS and Grade

Table 7 compares the effect of external motivation (ARCS) with Grade. Cluster
analysis was performed to divide the learners’ ARCS level to two parts, ARCS
low and ARCS high. Afterwards, learners’ grades were clustered and compared
based on their ARCS level. The result showed there was no significant difference
between grades in ARCS low and ARCS high (F=0.24, P value=.62). Hence, we
reject hypothesis 2a.

Table 7. RCS and grade results

Grade in ARCS Grade in

Class F Value Significant
Low ARCS High

Mean 85.93 85.19

Total All
N 33 42 0.24 .62
Classes
Stdev 6.89 5.86
* p < .05

ARCS and PSD

Table 8 compares the effect of extrinsic motivation (ARCS) to PSD. Cluster analysis
was performed to divide the learners’ ARCS to two levels, ARCS low and ARCS
high. Afterwards, learners’ PSD were clustered and compared based on their
ARCS level. The result showed there was a significant increase in PSD between
ARCS low and ARCS high. ANOVA test showed significant result (F=7.78, P value =
.00). Based on this result, we strongly support hypothesis 2b.

Table 8. ARCS and PSD results

PSD in
PSD in ARCS
Class ARCS F Value Significant
High
Low

Total All Mean 5.08 5.69 7.78* .00

Classes N 43 32
Stdev 0.96 0.98

* p < .05

86 E-Learning
Online Participation and Learners’ Motivation

The online participation class showed relatively higher extrinsic and intrinsic
motivation than low and control class. ANOVA results confirmed there is significant
difference (F=7.57, P value = .00) for learners’ intrinsic motivation between high
and low online participation class. However, the extrinsic motivation showed
no significant difference (F=0.49, P value = .48). The result suggests supporting
hypothesis 3a and rejecting hypothesis 3b. Table 9 and table 10 show the results.

Table 9. Online participation and motivation descriptive results

Online ARCS Flow

Class
Participation

BEIS (High) Mean 4.93 5.45

N 27 27
Std Dev 1.12 0.84

E-Commerce Mean 4.73 4.84

(Low) N 30 30
Std Dev 1.04 0.83

MIS (Control) Mean 4.44 4.60

N 18 18
Std Dev 0.85 0.74

Table 10. Online participation and motivation ANOVA results

Online Participation Dependent F value Significance

ANOVA Comparison Variables

BEIS (High) ARCS 0.49 .48

Vs
E-Commerce (Low) Flow 7.57* .00

E-Learning 87
Social Presence and Learners’ Motivation

There was no significant difference in learners’ extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

between high and low social presence groups as it is shown by low ANOVA result.
Table 11 and 12 describes the descriptive and ANOVA comparison result. Hence,
we reject both hypothesis 4a and 4b.

Table 11. Social presence and motivation descriptive results

Class Social Presence ARCS Flow

Mean 4.77 5.21

Total ( High) N 29 29
Std Dev 1.11 0.78
Mean 4.88 5.04
Total (Low) N 28 28
Std Dev 1.05 0.98
Mean 4.44 4.60
MIS (Control) N 18 18
Std Dev 0.85 0.74

Table 12. Social presence and motivation ANOVA results

Social Presence
Dependent Variables F value Significance
ANOVA Comparison

Total (High) Vs ARCS 0.14 .70

Total (Low)
Flow 0.54 .46

88 E-Learning
Collaboration and Learners’ Motivation

There is no significant difference in learners’ extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

between high and low collaboration group as it is shown by low ANOVA result.
Table 13 and 14 showed the descriptive and ANOVA comparison result. Based on
this result, both hypothesis 5a and 5b are rejected.

Table 13. Collaboration and motivation descriptive results

Class Collaboration ARCS Flow

Total ( High) Mean 4.69 5.15

N 28 28
Std Dev 1.18 0.94

Total (Low) Mean 4.95 5.10

N 29 29
Std Dev 0.97 0.83

MIS (Control) Mean 4.44 4.60

N 18 18
Std Dev 0.85 0.74

Table 14. Collaboration and motivation ANOVA results

Collaboration
Dependent
ANOVA F value Significance
Variables
Comparison

ARCS 0.81 .37

Total (High) Vs
Total (Low)
Flow 0.05 .81

E-Learning 89
DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSION, AND SUGGESTIONS

This study empirically investigates the role of both learners’ extrinsic and
intrinsic motivation to the learning effectiveness, measured by the grades and
PSD. Our findings indicate high motivation did not significantly increase the
grade. However, higher motivation did significantly increase the learners’ PSD.
The similar results were also found for both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.
This results would suggest that the higher the learners’ motivation, the higher
their PSD. This result can be explained by the subjective nature of motivation
and learners’ PSD. Meanwhile, grade is considered as objective in nature.

Learners with high motivation would mean that they had a spirit, encouragement,
and more efforts to learn more than the less motivated learners. This motivation
comes from subjective feeling of the learners, either extrinsic or intrinsic.
Consequently, when they feel that they learn something, they would have better
subjective reflection in their PSD. Learners who have high motivation may report
higher and more effective learning outcome in their PSD. Our result is consistent
with Gomez (Gomez et al., 2010) study, that there is a positive relationship
between learners’ perceived motivation to perceived learning. However, our
finding suggests that, it may not always consistent with their grade. There were
several studies argued the higher motivation should also increase learners’
overall performance (Huang et al., 2006; Rau et al., 2008; Sachs, 2001). Ideally,
the higher motivation is supposedly, not only increasing their perceived skill
development, but also increasing their grade. However, such statement may not
always be true.

Rovai and Barnum (2003) argued that grade does not reflect the students’ pure
learning. In this study, there were at least three profound issues in using grade as
learning effectiveness measurement. These issues were, learners heterogeneity,
the grade was measured by the group work, and the possibility of instructor biased
while grading the assignments. Each learner might have diverse experience of
knowledge, abilities, talents, culture, and English abilities (the online course
was conducted using English), all of them could affect students’ motivation to
learn as well as may determine their grade.

One important finding was related to intrinsic motivation (flow). High online
participation group experienced significantly higher flow than other groups.
However, high online participation did not significantly increase learners’
extrinsic motivation (ARCS). Flow as intrinsic motivation has several advantages
over extrinsic such as learners more likely to select challenging task, gain more
knowledge, promote greater creativity, better conceptual learning, and greater

90 E-Learning
pleasure as well as active involvement in activities (Cheng & Yeh, 2009; Stipek,
2002). Learners in high online participation group could make advantage of their
rich and engaging learning experience, thereby significantly increase their flow.
However, such significant increase in learners’ flow could not be found in social
presence and collaboration.

This study is not without limitation. The number of learners participate in this
experiment was considered too small and came from single University. Future
study should address this issue by increasing the number of learners, and if
possible to collaborate with different universities to generalize the results of
this finding. In this study, the grade was measured as a team work. However, we
measured individual motivation who works in the team in relation to their final
team grade. Future study should consider applying the motivation measures at
team level so that the team motivation can be more accurately related with the
team grade.

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Clayton, K., Blumberg, F., & Auld, D. P. (2010). The relationship between
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York: Harper and Row.

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Information Systems, 4(3), 32-37.

Gomez, E. A., Wu, D., & Passerini, K. (2010). Computer-supported team-based

learning: The impact of motivation, enjoyment and team contributions on
learning outcomes. Computers & Education, 55, 378-390.

Hew, K. F., & Cheung, W. S. (2008). Attracting student participation in asynchronous

online discussion: a case study of peer faciliation Computers & Education,
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E-Learning 93
DESIGN AND PROPOSAL OF INTERACTIVE DISTANCE
LEARNING MEDIA IN RURAL AREA
Eko Hadi Gunawan
Ridi Ferdiana
Sri Suning Kusumawardani

ABSTRACT

In Indonesia the condition of education in every region is still

uneven. One of the problems is the limited number of educators and
infrastructure that inadequate, especially in remote areas outside
Java, such as in the islands of Sumatra. Internet that unavailable to
reach the rural areas, inadequate a human resources and computer
resources become obstacles to perform of distance learning process.
In this paper we explain how the distance learning process can be
done with the learning media that has low resources, can run without
depend on the internet and student are able to do what can be done
when they use distance learning actually such as accessing all the
materials, questions, write evaluation for teachers and get updates
both material and questions. Learning media system is divided into
two parts. Client used by students and server used by teacher. From
the server side, teachers can write materials and exams that will
be answered by students. In client side, students can bring learning
media and access all the subject matter and exams that have been
published by the teacher wherever they are. The results of the
test and evaluations from students and the updating of materials
and tasks that published by the teacher can be updated when the
learning media of students connect to the Internet and synchronize
to the server. The result of testing of this learning was consuming
the minimum resources and learning process is more interactive both

94 E-Learning
in terms of students and teachers.

Keywords: distance learning, rural area, learning media

INTRODUCTION

Education in Indonesia has many unresolved issues, one of them is the limited
access to the technology. The education in remote areas doesn’t have adequate
access to technology. Though education in Indonesia has a very important role
for development our country. The Human Development Index or IPM in Indonesia
has generally improved (BPS, 2006). But the highest and lowest IPM gap between
Jakarta and Papua increased from 2006 to 2007 from 13.2 to 13.6. This shows
that the growth of IPM gap between the regional was increased. One of the
indicators used in determining IPM is education. This means that inter-regional
education in Indonesia is still unevenly marked by an increase in the IPM gap.

The development of information technology shows the emergence of various

types of activities based on this technology, such as e-government, e-commerce,
e-education, e-medicine, e-laboratory, and others. All of them based on
information technology Wardiana(2002). According to Dedi (2007), in theory,
innovation in Information technology can be made according to user needs
by adopting information technology theories. This technology can be utilized
to solve the inequality of education in Indonesia, especially in rural areas. A
solution that can be used by governments to handle many students to have equal
education access is to use distance learning technology Keegan (2003).

The use of distance learning technologies is still very dependent on the availability
of internet networks that exist in the region. If there is no internet available in
that region, then the distance learning cannot be implemented. The problem of
internet availability actually can be overcome by using learning media that can
be accessed when available internet network or not available internet without
leaving the essential of distance learning. Therefore, we required a learning
media that can run without the availability of internet network, low resources
and easy to use by people in rural areas

E-Learning 95
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Rural area

According to the Directorate General of Rural Development, the rural areas have
two main characteristics: Comparison of people with large area is quite large. The
area in the countryside is still relatively large if we compared with the number
of people who occupy in that area. So the density and profession of population is
still low and based on the agriculture sector. The facilities, communication and
transportation are mostly very simple, such as stone roads, simple asphalt roads,
unpaved roads, and even paths. Transportation facilities are commonly found
among other rural transport, water transportation, such as a simple boat or raft,
even in some places there are still using the horse and cow. The Department for
Environment, Food & Rural Affairs in Rural Urban Local Authority Classification
or RUCLAD11 classifies that rural areas are areas with populations under 10.000.

Distance Learning

Distance learning is a set of teaching methods which teaching activities are

carried out separately from learning activities. The separators of this activities
can be physical or non-physical distance. The example of distance learning is
e-Learning. Since the development of e-learning in 1999, the process of distance
learning began to be implemented in various world of education. Distance
learning is a breakthrough in education because the learning activities can be
performed by students and teacher which does not required to exist at the same
time and same place.

Several studies about distance learning media in rural areas were conducted
by Syed(2004) located in Bangladesh and Zhou housed in China. In 2002 Syed
et al conducted a survey that the technology used education at the time was
still based on the main media of paper. Syed et al then tried to apply distance
learning by using interactive teaching media that running over computer
network. The architecture of the network is using the client server system. The
results indicate that the distance learning process is highly dependent on the
existing infrastructure in the region. Zhu et al (2008) developed similar research
in China and used IPTV as an interactive learning media. From the two studies
it can be said that the implementation of distance learning can be established
if the distance learning technology is adequate such as using computer network
or IPTV.

96 E-Learning
Z. Letray et al (2007) using distance learning media with a system called the
COEDU. The system runs using an internet network that can be accessed through
a web browser. And in 2016 Joshua et al (2016) conducted research on distance
learning in western Papua. They created a new device called Virtual Class Box 5.0
by using video conferencing as one way of doing distance learning in rural area.
From this point the teaching media of distance learning mostly using internet
technology as a media of communication between schools and between users.
The weakness of this technology for distance learning is availability of internets.
In Indonesia, the internet still encountered for schools that belong to rural areas.
When distance learning based on internets technology establish on the rural
area, the problem that rise is the teaching media can’t work properly because
internet was unavailable or low bandwidths.

A new breakthrough rise from Ijtihadie et al(2010). They create some quiz on
e-learning website that can run without using internet and able to synchronizing
to server when media connected to the internet. Implementation of this research
was the students open the page containing the quiz package over web browser
in apple smart mobile. Then download the package and run that’s package on
condition without internet network. After the student finishes the quiz according
that time scheduled by teacher, the website will store the data that has been
input by the students through the quiz. The data then synced to the server when
the phone is connected to the internet.

In this research, we tried to implement an interactive teaching media that can

synchronize and worked in rural areas that unavailability of internet network,
low computer specifications and easy to use by students.

METHODS

To know the obstacles that exist in the distance learning process in rural areas,
researchers conducted interviews to teachers who are in the region belonging
to the category of rural areas. From these interviews researchers get the main
obstacles in distance learning that is the availability of internet networks, low
computer resources and educator resources and students who are not familiar
to distance learning. From this obstacle we know that we need a learning media
that can work in rural areas that are unavailable of internet network, a low
computer resources and easy to use by students who are familiar or not familiar
with distance learning media.

E-Learning 97
System Specification

Smart Client Learning Material has a use-case diagram as shown in Figure 1. Smart
Client Learning Material or SCLM consists of two types: Smart Client Learning
Material for teachers and Smart Client Learning Material Desktop for students.
The SCLM for teachers are packaged as websites that can be accessed through
the internet network and SCLM for students are packaged as portable desktop
applications that can be accessed by students with portable storage media
without connecting to the Internet such as flash disk. Unavailability of internet in
rural areas can be overcome by using a synchronization system contained in SCLM
desktop applications. Desktop applications only require the Internet network
when students want to update material and questions that have been published
by teachers on the SCLM website.

Figure 1. Interaction between Teachers, Students and Smart Client Learning Materials.

How SCLM applications work is a teacher who acts as author of writing material
and questions on the smartclient.site web page. Then SCLM Web will save the
material and questions into the database and publish it into json format. From
the student side, when SCLM Desktop is run for the first time, SCLM Desktop
requires synchronization to SCLM Website to sync material, questions and student
accounts then store them in the SCLM Desktop database. Once the application
is synchronized, students can read all material that has been published by the
teacher or work on the problem wherever he is without connecting to the internet
network. Synchronization process is only required when students have done all
the question and material updates that have been published by the teacher.

98 E-Learning
Synchronization

The communication of Smart Client Learning Materials between teachers and

students is through synchronization system over the internet. The SCLM website
is created using php and MySQL programming and SCLM Destop system is created
using php and SQLite are packaged into a portable webserver called PHPDesktop
.. Communication between SCLM website and desktop was built using JSON. All
content that has been published by the teacher will be stored in the MySQL
database and published in JSON format. When the synchronization process on
progress, the data will be published by server in JSON format will be requested
and copy by SCLM Desktop then store into the SQLite database. In addition, SCLM
Desktop also sends student data to SCLM server such as score and track record
of student.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Learning media testing conducted in rural areas of Riau province with the
respondents of 7 students and teachers. Some tests are performed such as
synchronization testing, CPU resource testing and usability testing using System
Usability Scale. The scenarios used are teachers create student accounts and
write then publish materials and questions on the SCLM website. Before the SCLM
desktop application was released to students, SCLM Desktop are synchronized
with the SCLM website. Once the SCLM desktop app is synchronized, the teacher
delivers the app to students and one by one student attempts the app by utilizing
all the features that are in the SCLM desktop app. After students try the SCLM
Desktop application, students fill out a System Usability Scale questionnaire and
to find out how much CPU resources are used by SCLM Desktop, as long as desktop
SCLM applications run CPU resources are always monitored and recorded..

Synchronization testing

The benefit from SCLM System is the ability to run without any internet connection.
It can be worked because SCLM has a synchronization system that can update
the database between students and teachers when SCLM is connected to the
internet. When the synchronization process is done by SCLM Desktop, SCLM
Desktop will update its own databases containing user account, materials and
questions as shown in figure 2. Also sends a track record of student such as score
and evaluation into the SCLM Server database. From here the teacher outside
the classroom can monitor track records of students as shown in figure 3.

E-Learning 99
Figure 2. Interface of material list on Smart Client Learning Material students after
synchronization.

Figure 3. Interface of track record Smart Client Learning Materials teachers after SCLM desktop
synchronize and sends the entire student track record to the SCLM web database.

100 E-Learning
CPU Test

For the evaluation of resources used by Smart Client Learning Material desktop,
SCLM desktop was monitoring in performance of core processor and RAM during
student running SCLM Desktop on a windows operating system. Several sample
are taken randomly to represent CPU resources used by Smart Client Learning
Materials. Data is shown in table 1

Table 1. CPU Resource Usage

Processor Processor
Sample RAM SCLM 1 RAM SCLM 2
SCLM 1 SCLM 2
1 9,4% 2,2% 27,6 MB 14,3 MB
2 10% 4,2% 25,6 MB 12.4 MB
3 7,1% 2,5% 13,2 MB 6,8 MB
4 8,5% 3,7% 16 MB 9,1 MB
5 11,8% 4,9% 29,4 MB 17,7 MB
6 10,1% 4,1% 26 MB 15,2 MB
7 9,3% 2,7% 28,3 MB 17,8 MB

Usability System

Interfaces and systems running on Smart Client Learning Materials are also tested
using System Usability Scale (SUS). Based on the results of the survey, the value
of SUS will be good if score above 68, and below the average if score under 68.
The results from Smart Client Learning Material usability testing gives score 71.
This means that usability of Smart Client Learning Materials has above average
performance or good.

From testing CPU resources, Smart Client Learning material has a good
performance for low computer resources. Usability testing of Smart Client
Learning Material also provides very satisfying results because it can easily be
used by ordinary students who live in the rural area. As a learning media, Smart
Client Learning Material can bridge the distance learning in rural areas that
unavailable of internet network. Smart Client Learning Materials require only
6.46% of the existing processor resources with an average consumption of 19 MB
of RAM. The quality of user interaction design of Smart Client Learning Materials
can be viewed from the high SUS score above average on usability test results.

E-Learning 101
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Smart Client Learning materials can be a solution for distance learning especially
those that do not have internet network availability in their area. Consumption of
low computer resources and a simple interface can help the process of distance
learning without any constraints to computer resources, unavailability of the
Internet network and easy to use for people who live in rural area. With the
existence of Smart Client Learning Material, the use of remote technology can
now reach the countryside.

REFERENCE

Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 19 Tahun 2005 Tentang Standar Nasional Pendidikan.

Yuniati, Neni, et al. (2011). Pembuatan Media Pembelajaran Interaktif Ilmu
Pengetahuan Alam Pada Sekolah Dasar Negeri Kroyo 1 Sragen. Jurnal Sentra
Penelitian Engineering dan Edukasi, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2011
Keegan, Desmond. (2003). Foundations of Distance Education: Third Edition.
Canada: Routledge
Wardiana, Wawan. (2002). Perkembangan Teknologi Informasi di Indonesia.
Seminar dan Pameran Teknologi Informasi.
Syed Mahbubu R . Rahman Hakikur. (2004).“Technologies and Issues in Distance
Education - Bangladesh Perspective,” IEEE.
Zhu Xiao Liang, Liu quan. (2008) “Education IPTV for E-learning in Rural Area,”
International Symposium on Information Science and Engieering.
Z. Letray – M, Kovacs – L. Nyeki. (2007). “E-Learning Based Distance Education
At Szechenyi Istvan University.” Innovations in E-learning, Instruction
Technology, Assessment, and Engineering Education.
Joshua Nainggolan, Garrysen Christian, Kevin Adari, Yoanes Bandung, Kusprasapta
Mutijarsa, Luki B. Subekti6. (2016).”Design and Implementation of Virtual
Class Box 5.0 for Distance Learning in Rural Areas,” ICITEE 8th.
Ijtihadie R.M, Chisaki Y, Usagawa T, Cahyo H.B, Affandi A,. (2010) “Offline web
application and quiz synchronization for e-learning activity for mobile
browser,” in TENCON 2010 - 2010 IEEE Region 10 Conference.
The Linux Information Project, (10 August 2017), “Client/Server Definition,”
available online at http://www.linfo.org/client_server.html
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, (10 August 2017), “Rural
Urban Classification,” available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/
collections/rural-urban-classification.

102 E-Learning
Engaging Students in Open Distance Learning
Environments – A Personal Experience

Ku ‘Azam Tuan Lonik, PhD

ABSTRACT

The age of internet shaped not only the way teaching and learning
is conducted in conventional-traditional teaching and learning
environments but also helps in extending the reach of education to
a much wider audience. This is evidence in the form of an increase
in the number of open-distance-learning (ODL) programs offered to
the general publics. In general, the ODL institutions offering ODL
courses can be divided into two broad categories, that is, the part-
time course offerings as an off-shoot of the conventional higher
learning institutions or as an independent e-learning institution. In
either of this category, teaching and learning often take the form
of a blended learning approach. While there are doubts that the
ODL programs are comparable with the conventional learning, an
overwhelming number of studies have shown that when the course
materials and teaching methodology were held constant, there
were no significant differences (NSD) between student outcomes in
a distance delivery course as compared to a face to face course.
Yet, from the perspectives of a teacher, due to the limited face-to-
face interactions with students, the main problem one face is the
challenge of engaging these ODL students. Success in engaging them
will help to reduce the attrition rate among the ODL students. In
conventional teaching and learning environment, teachers are often
seen as knowledge disseminator, agent of change etc. Within this
paradigm, ‘good’ teachers are expected to guide students with what

E-Learning 103
they need to know. This, however, is difficult to achieve in the open-
distance-learning (ODL) environment whose learning space is the
virtual Learning Management System (LMS) and students-teachers are
separated with physical/geographical space. Real-time face-to-face
interactions and contact between students and teachers are either
non-existence or are very limited. This paper seeks to explore, based
on practical experiences of the author, ways and means in engaging
ODL students.

Keywords: open-distance-learning, student engagement, e-learning

INTRODUCTION

Open distance learning (ODL) offers students the flexibility and choice to decide
when, where and how they want to study. The Malaysian Qualifications Agency
(MQA) (2011), defines Open and Distance Learning (ODL) as “the provision of
flexible educational opportunities in terms of access and multiple modes of
knowledge acquisition”. Following Ahmad et al., (2013), it stated that, flexible
means the availability of choices for educational endeavours anywhere, anytime
and anyhow; access means opportunity made available to all, freeing them from
constraints of time and place; multiple modes mean the use of various delivery
systems and learning resources.

In ODL, learning is supposed to be an independent exercises. Students-learners

decides the pace in which they are comfortable in going through the course
materials and set their own study schedule. e-learning has since become the
backbone of ODL programs when integrated with the learning management system
(LMS). In the White Paper on Education Transformation, UNESCO recognised the
positive impact of e-learning on three aspects of learning namely engagement,
motivation and attendance (UNESCO, 2012). Other research has also supported
the findings that e-learning has a positive impact on education (see for example,
Olson, et al, 2011; Yazdi and Zandkarimi, 2013).

MOOC (mass open online course) not only extend the reach of education but
transformed also the ODL model. While ODL allows students flexibility in deciding
when, where and how they want to study, MOOC extend the fundamental thrust of
open learning to include and address the questions of what to study. With MOOC,
students can choose certain elements of the programs or certain components
of the course being offered. In hindsight, both ODL and MOOC benefits from
the advent of the internet and especially the e-learning. Ruiz et al. (2006),

104 E-Learning
defined e-learning as “web-based learning, online learning, distributed learning,
computer-assisted instruction, or Internet-based learning”. Nonetheless, most
studies on the benefit of e-learning are done on conventional students whereby
e-learning is an add-on component of an otherwise conventional face-to-face
learning environment. Within this environment, students are subjected to
traditional lectures and tutorials, and their progress is within constant watch
of the course tutors. This differs significantly with ODL students whose contacts
with course tutors and fellow students are very minimal.

This paper attempt to address the issue of motivating ODL students whose
contacts with course tutors and their fellow students are very minimal. Within
this environment, with the view that the students are separated physically and
spread over wide geographical areas, more often than not, these students can
feel isolated, discontent, loss and helpless. Hence the added role of the course
tutors within this environment is to mitigate these negative elements and to
engage the ODL students to realise their potentials.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Role of Teachers

Kanuka (2011) identified six roles of teachers. Those six roles are, (a) teacher
acts as a prominent disseminator of content and the student is a receptacle
of this information, (b) teacher organise curriculum around problems and
situations which relate to the experiences of the students, (c) teacher change
the behaviour of people (students) in such a way that they can work with each
other to design and build a society that minimizes suffering and maximizes the
chances of survival, (d) teacher support individual growth and self-actualization,
(e) teacher invoke changes in the political, economic, and social order in society
via the intersection of education and political action, and (f) teacher develop
rationality to bring about deepened awareness in meaningful touch with reality.
Undoubtedly, within the ODL environment, teachers cannot perform all of these
functions.

One major problem with ODL courses is the high attrition rates. Citing Carr,
(2000), Angelino, Williams, and Natvig, (2007), reported that the attrition rates at
the undergraduate classes taught through distance education are at the average
10 – 20% higher than face-to-face. This is due mainly to the problems of social
isolations faced by the ODL students. According to Krajnc (1988) social isolation

E-Learning 105
can be measured by contacts with other students, contacts with individual tutors,
group consultations, attendance to short seminars and the possibility to discuss
personal learning problems with relatives and friends. Social isolations when
compounded with family, work and financial commitments that they have to
endure throughout their study – the three important challenges faced by the ODL
students – can impact on students’ participation, motivation and achievements.

e-Learning

Finlayson et al., (2006) argued that e-learning is a different kind of learning

environment and learning experience for students which may directly affect
knowledge acquisition and skill. They argued that e-learning allows students
to easily interact with their teachers and with fellow students, thus allowing
greater collaboration despite the physical barriers that exist. The increased ICT
awareness and ICT literacy also helps reduce the technology-induced generational
gaps between students especially in ODL environments where the age gaps
between students tend to be huge and skewed towards the later age groups.
Finlayson et al. (2006) found out that e-learning make students more receptive
towards learning, especially by improving their attention, concentration and
remembering. In addition, Oye, et al. (2012) also found that e-Learning has a
significant effect on student’s academic performances.

In order to achieve this, course managers should be pro-active so as to engage

students for the sake of ensuring the success of not only the e-learning
activities but also the success of education in general. Junk, Deringer and Junk
(2011) outlined 11 key components that lead to success in the online learning
environment which are (1) engage the student, (2) invite the student to contact
the instructor when needing assistance, (3) provide online course materials
that are well organized and visually pleasing, (4) post the class schedule or
timeline containing clear due dates for assignments and discussion postings, (5)
provide clear learning outcomes or objectives, (6) create presentation slides
and activities that reinforce learning outcomes, (7) develop assignments that
reinforce learning outcomes requiring students use higher level thinking to
analyse and apply what they are learning, including requiring posting reactions
to others’ assignment postings, (8) interact with students in a conversational
narrative making reference to assigned learning materials, (9) choose graphics,
such as photos, video clips, or presentation slides that take a reasonable amount
of time to download, (10) include hyperlinks to websites students must access
and a brief description of site content, verifying that links are active prior to

106 E-Learning
student access, (11) provide frequent and descriptive feedback to students.

Singh, O’Donughue and Woron (2005) suggested that e-learning provides the
opportunity for teachers to test students of real-life business situations. This
test may not be limited to the business situations. Since students-learners are
matured working adults, it is most likely that they will embarks on ODL program
that can advance their career path and therefore will enrol in programs that befit
their job description. This allows the teachers to test students and assigned tasks
or assignments that suit their working experience thus enriching the knowledge
sharing among the learning community.

Using data gathered fom a case study involving 6 FE colleges, comprises 70 staffs
and 500 students and a survey of 508 tutors from 100 differenet FE colleges
that attended National Training Network training events, Finlayson, et al. (2006)
concluded that effective use of ILT (information and learning technology) has an
important impact on student’s immediate outcome in the area of knowledge and
skills acquisition and development of autonomous learners. According to them,
such positive impact depends very much on the effective use of ILT which include
availability of equipment, use of ILT based on sound pedagogy, tutors’ awareness
of the benefit of ILT to support learning and teaching and the time allocated by
tutors developing their ILT practices.

Students Engagement

Effective engagement requires course managers to understand that a) learning

is personal and idiosyncratic which requires course managers to view students
as individuals and they (the course managers) need to find out how students
individually make sense of any lesson or explanation; b) every student behavior
is a way to communicate something the student cannot express in any other
way or doesn’t consciously understand; and c) they (course managers) should
never assume, since too often they can be wrong because low grades on tests do
not necessarily mean that students haven’t studied, instead to realise that the
students may have been confused when the material was covered in class (Dodd,
1995).

School of Distance Education (SDE), Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Established in 1971, the SDE USM is the pioneer provider of higher education
via distance learning in Malaysia. Currently the school offered four degree

E-Learning 107
programs, namely Bachelor Degree in Arts (Geography, History, and Literature),
Bachelor Degree in Social Science (Anthropology and Sociology, Economics and
Political Science), Bachelor Degree in Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics and
Mathematics) and Bachelor Degree in Management (Organisation, Finance and
Marketing). These programs are an exact replication of the traditional full time
programs offers by the various schools in USM.

The SDE adopts a blended learning approach in teaching and learning. Students
are provided with reading materials in the form of modules or books. This can
either be physical modules or books, or e-module or e-books. Tutorials are
conducted through videoconference as well as web-conference on a scheduled
basis. In addition, a three-week residential period is made compulsory each
year. Although the residential period was scheduled for three weeks, the time
allocated for each course for a face-to-face interaction with the course managers
are limited in view of the number of courses registered by students. The video
conference, web-conference and the residential period forms the face-to-face
elements of the teaching and learning activities. While the video conference
and web-conference are the electronic mediated interactions, the residential
weeks forms the actual or physical face-to-face interaction between students
and teachers and between their peers. In an earlier study, Ku Azam (2005) found
that students look forward to this residential period. One of the reason is that
during this three-week duration, students can fully concentrate on their study,
free from any kind study-work-family distractions.

With the development of ICT, e-learning was adopted and used extensively in SDE-
USM beginning 2005. This is integrated within the School’s Learning Management
System (LMS). Within this LMS, certain aspects of teaching and learning activities
are conducted. This includes e-assignment, quizzes, e-notes, e-books, e-module,
questions bank, the video lectures and forum. Traditionally, the forum is the most
active part. This somehow has been replaced by social media platform especially
the facebook. The use of ICT has also been extended to the administrative
functions of SDE which include students’ registration, e-post, and ebrary. The
University Science Malaysia library has a collection of over 120,000 E-Books
accessible to our distance learning students.

108 E-Learning
Engaging Students in ODL environments – a Personal Experience

This section shall outline several approaches to be considered for adoption in

engaging students within the ODL environments.

Friendly and Attractive LMS environment

LMS should be friendly, attractive and above all comprehensive to attract students’
attention. In the case of the SDE, we use Moodle as our LMS platform. This can
be accomplished by giving attentions to details. A comprehensive LMS should
provide a) an overview of the course (subject), b) the course learning outcome,
c) an overview of each of the lessons to be covered in the course, d) the lessons’
learning outcome, and e) lesson plan (academic planner). Course managers
should be proactive to update materials and especially to guide students along
the way. It is advisable that these materials are made available as time progress,
or superficially as the lesson plan progress. Although the materials might have
been there from previous semester, but as in Moodle, this can be turn-on and
turn-off with the hide and show button.

A lesson plan would help students plan their study. This lesson plan can be
organised by either weeks or month, so that students knows whether they are
lagging behind or otherwise.

Organised lessons in sequence.

The lesson plan would require course managers to organise lesson in sequence.
Course managers/tutors should treat on-line lessons similar to face-to-face
lectures. In face-to-face environments, lectures are conducted sequentially.
Similar approach should be adopted in the ODL environments. The present author
find it beneficial to organise lessons sequentially according to topics. This is
helpful in facilitating discussion either in the form of forums or chats. Each topic
should have a synopsis to provide an overview of what to cover.

Organising the course through topics can be accomplished in Moodle by blocks.

Each block refers to different topic. In addition to its own synopsis and a learning
outcomes, each block can have its own activities which include additional
reading materials, quizzes, chats, video recordings, power points slides (subject
to preferences which can be uploaded in each of these blocks).

E-Learning 109
In SDE, tutorials are conducted via videoconference or web-conference. The
videoconference and web-conference are scheduled prior to the start of the
academic year. The recoding of these videoconference and web-conference
sessions are uploaded into the portal. Lessons can also be recorded by the course
manager. These recordings are made wither with dedicated software such as
Camtasia or are done in our in-house studio.

As with the lesson plan, students should be provided with a time table to guide
them when each of the lesson shall begin and when it will end. This will ensure
that students keep tract of their progress and prepare them for the lesson.

Since ODL students are mostly working adults with other work-family commitments,
a degree of flexibility should be given. Thus, forum can be opened throughout
the year and chats, which are normally constrained by time duration, should be
archived.

Group projects

Pratt (2015) suggested that ODL students must be made to feel that they are part
of a community, that is the learning community. Based on observations made
from previous studies, Pratt reported that “distance students who feel part of
a community of learners tend to be more satisfied and learn more effectively”
(p.20). Apart from reducing the problem of isolations, feeling part of learning
community will encourage the ODL students to compete, communicate and
collaborate with each other.

In overcoming the problem of isolation, group project should be encouraged.

Studies by Jacobs (2014) suggested that in implementing e-learning, students
should be encouraged to embark on group projects. Despite being separated by
geographical divide, group projects can be fulfilled with the help of the various
mode of communications available in this age of information super-highways.

Group projects has an advantage over individual projects whereby students are
forced to work together despite being separated by physical and geographical
locations. From our own experiences, this physical or geographical separations
does not hinder or discourage students from interacting between themselves. The
development of ICT and the wider coverage of ICT open up the communications
channels between students.

Course tutor can facilitate this communication by allowing the LMS to be used
as a platform for students to communicate among members of the groups by

110 E-Learning
creating groups within the course page. Apart from that, by allowing LMS to be
used as communication channel, course tutor has the opportunity to intervene
when necessary to guide students in the group projects.

1. Encourage Students to Think

Course tutors should encourage students to think. In LMS, such as Moodle,

this can be accomplished in two ways. First, thorough such features as
forum and chat. Second, through quizzes. This is more of a stick-and-
carrot approach. While the former is a mere encouragement, the later
rewards students by giving marks and can constitute a component of the
continuous assessments. Dodd (1995) argued that failure to participate in
forum or chats, or fails in test is a way students tried to convey a message
to the course tutor. By paying special attention to the participation in
forums and chats, and in answering quizzes, course tutor can take steps
to mitigate the situations thus preventing failures in the course.

2. Open up the Communication Channels

Course tutors should open up the communication channels between them

and the students. In ODL programs, majority of students are adult learners
with work and family commitments. These students when they were young
were most probably does not meet the qualifications to enrol in tertiary
educations. ODL programs provide them the opportunity to pursue a tertiary
education. It should not be a surprise if these students feel inferior despite
the age advantage and work experience they have. Inferiority prevent
them from opening up to the course tutors in public. Instead, there would
very much prefer a private channel of communications. By opening up
various communication channels, course tutors can help these students to
keep up with the demand of the course. Communications should be a wide
as possible, which may include emails, Facebook, messages, WhatsApp,
WeChat, tweeter etc., in addition to conventional phone calls. As for
the personal experience or rather preference of the author, phone calls
are least preferable for the reason that other means of communications
mentioned above can be saved for future references in cases of disputes
or complains.

It is interesting to note that Petrovic et.al., (2013) discovered that

while students use Facebook to exchange information about the course
among themselves and that they find it to be more convenient, yet when
compared to Moodle, Facebook distract them from learning (average

E-Learning 111
score of 3.18 for Facebook and 1.28 for Moodle. This is understandable
because Facebook is a social media whose coverage are diverse and its
main purpose is not for education as compared to Moodle. Nonetheless,
this does not mean that this channel should not be pursued. The author
has experienced that by using Facebook, feedback or rather acknowledge
from students is spontaneous.

CONCLUSIONS

In most of ODL programs, the main study materials are the modules; a well-
structured study materials produced specifically for the ODL students. A well-
structured module, prepared with ODL students in mind, consists of an easily
understood materials accompanied with in-text exercises and the various pit-
stops to allow pause, explain concepts, referenced to other sources such as the
internet, would allow students to digest the course contents.

The strategies discussed in this paper can act as compliments to this well-
structured course modules.

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E-Learning 115
GAMIFICATION AND LEARNING
Increasing Student Online Session Engagement
through Gamification

Roland Lorenzo M. Ruben

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the use of gamification in increasing the

students’ engagement in the online sessions of the class. The
researcher perceived significant changes in the students’ use of
the online sessions because of gamification. Gamification is a new
feature in the Schoolbook, the university’s learning management
system (LMS). The author adopted a flipped classroom model where
50% of the class sessions are done online. At the start of the class, the
students were told that the class is gamified. The game mechanics
were introduced and the use of points, badges and leaderboards with
the purpose of motivating students to focus also on the online part
of the instruction.

The study was conducted for one year covering the first and second
semester. During the first semester, gamification was used in a
French Language class and in a Basic Logic class in Philosophy during
the second semester.

The students answered an evaluation on the use of gamification at

the end of each semester. During the conduct of the gamified online
sessions, the performance of the students—in their online quizzes,
online submissions, discussion forums, and reading of the lesson
materials —had been very satisfactory. By and large, gamification
has increased students’ engagement in the online part of the flipped
classroom model. This has been clearly evident in the responses and

118 Gamification and Learning

reactions of the students to the gamification of the online sessions.

Keywords: e-Learning, Blended mode of Learning, Flipped classroom,

Gamification, motivation

INTRODUCTION

Student engagement is a very important factor in education. That is why teachers

try to find ways to engage their students in their classes because learning
becomes successful when students are engaged. Whitson said that Appelton
(1989) claimed that increases in student engagement are correlated to increases
in positive student learning outcomes such as higher GPA, higher attendance
rates and higher classroom participation (Whitson, 2009). In education, student
engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism,
and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which
extends to the level of motivation they must learn and progress in education
(Abbot, 2014).

Nowadays with the advent of technology, the students are more distracted
than ever. Games has become mobile and it has captured the attention of the
students. It was already difficult to get their attention without the technology,
now it has become even more difficult with it. So, instead of telling the students
to get off the games, why not enter their world and gamify the classroom? This
way, we get their attention and harness their interest in gaming by diverting
their focus to the lessons which are gamified. As the cliché goes, if you can’t
beat them, join them.

E-learning came to the school a few years ago. It started with an in-house
learning management system developed by the school’s IT center. In 2014, De
La Salle University - Dasmariñas subscribed to NEO LMS as the school’s learning
management system. The virtual learning environment was named Schoolbook.
However, even though, it was an online environment, the kind where the youth
thrives, it was not smooth sailing, at first. Since it is new, online engagement is
difficult. Even if it means having readily available lessons materials, having at
least three attempts in online assessments and some days off from the classroom,
still, the students prefer the traditional style of instruction. They still prefer face-
to-face instruction and being spoon-fed with lectures. And when a teacher uses
online learning, students say that they are not teaching. They often forget the
online deadlines, ignore the uploaded materials and even forget their passwords.

Gamification and Learning 119

Student engagement is an essential part in learning, much more in e-learning.
Unlike in the classroom where somehow you can control the attention of the
students, in e-learning, we somehow lose that control because the students are
on their own. When they open the Schoolbook, they can also open other sites,
like YouTube or Facebook that would distract their attention from the task at
hand. Since the conduct of the class is flipped, the students are expected to read
the lessons and complete assessments before coming to class. Oftentimes they
neglect this part and just come to class without having read the lesson materials.

This paper seeks to show that the use of gamification influences the students’
motivation and engagement. To find out if indeed this is so, the researcher seeks
the answers to the following questions: First, could the achievement system
have had any effect in their motivation and usage behavior? Second, could the
factors that made students motivated by gamification changed their outlook on
the online session?

While there is no magic pill or silver bullet, the researcher believes that
gamification will help engage students in their online classes. Looyestyn,
et al (2017) said that gamification is the recent trend that offers to increase
engagement through the inclusion of game-like features like points and badges,
in non-game contexts.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The study has used the Flow Theory in showing student engagement in gamified
online sessions. Whitson, states that Csikszentmihalyi (1990) said that it is a
theory of optimal experience based on the concept of flow – the state in which
people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the
experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for
the sheer sake of doing it (Whitson, 2009). To be in flow means the complete
immersion of a person within a task (Sailer, 2013). According to Whalen (1999),
the term flow refers to an optimal state of immersed concentration in which
attention is centered, distractions are minimized, and the subject enjoys an
autonomous interaction with the activity (Whitson, 2009).

Certain studies have shown the potential solution to student engagement in

gamification.

The application of game elements in a non-game environment is not exactly a

new idea by gamification designers or researchers. Similar approaches can be

120 Gamification and Learning

observed in loyalty programs (Sailer, 2013). Roberts (2014) said that gaming is
also being utilized to engage employees and ultimately to change their behavior.
Cheong (2014) supports this idea by saying that one objective of gamifying
learning is to stimulate the same motivation and engagement that gamers have
towards games in learners toward education. By increasing learner motivation
and engagement, it can be predicted that learning will improve.

Looyestyn (2017) concluded that gamification promises to increase engagement

with online programs. Barlow (2016) said that the introduction of games into the
classroom environment, with stars, levels, competition and goals, increased the
motivation of students to complete a greater quantity of schoolwork. They have
seen students more excited and more motivated to learn. Rewards, according to
Ryan (1996), refer to the gamification factors that satisfy learners’ shared need
and motivate them to engage in learning activities (Chang, 2016).

While game mechanics and game design are essential to gamification, the
researcher discovered that the kind of rewards that the students received while
performing their tasks is crucial in motivating them and getting them hooked in
their tasks.

METHODS

The research design is basically qualitative. The students answered an end of the
course survey at the end of the semester. The survey instrument has two sections:
the first one was about the demographic details while the second was about
the participants’ attitudes towards gamification and their opinion on how useful
particular game elements, such as rewards, could be in their class standings.
They were also asked what rewards they would like to add in the current set.

Materials

Twelve classes composed of college students answered the survey at the end
of each semester last school year 2016-17. In the first semester, students from
French language classes while in the second semester, students from Logic classes
were part of the study.

Gamification and Learning 121

Subject and procedures

Two hundred sixty-seven students from different colleges and in different

year levels answered the survey out of 377 who are part of a blended class.
They answered anonymously 4 questions that deals with their experience in
gamification.

Characteristics
Count %
Gender
Male 108 28.65%
Female 158 41.91%
Age
15-17 13 3.45%
18-20 224 59.42%
21-23 30 7.96%
24-26 0 0%
27-older 1 0.27%
Year Level
1st 3 0.8%
2nd 128 33.95%
3rd 100 26.53%
4th 33 8.75%
5th 2 0.53%
College
CTHM 105 27.85%
CEAT 58 15.38%
CLAC 53 14.06
CBAA 31 8.22%
CSCS 20 5.31

Table 1. Demographics of surveyed students

During the first day of class, the students were oriented to the conduct of the
course. It was a blended class using the flipped classroom model. All course
materials, lesson content and assessments, were already uploaded in the
Schoolbook. All enrolled students were automatically included in the game.

122 Gamification and Learning

Everyone started with no experience points (XP). They earned points when they
open the lesson materials and earn more when they pass the assessments. The
level points increased exponentially. They also earned bonus points when they
complete a lesson or module. The assessments had a gateway. During the prelim
period it’s 60%, 80% for the midterm period and 100% in the finals. The rule was
that if they don’t get past the gateway they will not receive the points. Unlimited
attempts were given to the students so they just kept on trying till they got
past the gateway or much better when they got a perfect score. Rewards and
badges were given when they reached certain levels. Not all levels had rewards.
There were also surprise rewards that were given in some assessments and
achievements. The different levels were given online game-like names. Level 1
is settler and they work their way up to Deity level. The eleventh level was the
highest level and the reward in this level is a final task exemption lottery ticket.
It means they will have a chance to be exempted from doing the final task.

The first level was very easy to achieve, and also the second and third level. As
they advanced easily they got hook in the game especially when they received
rewards along the way. The idea was to give rewards that would be beneficial
to them. Unlike other games, where players only received badges, in this game
it was created that rewards would help them earn more points and go up in the
levels. Rewards are in the form of Late Pass, Late Submission Pass, Assessment
Exemptions, Excused Absence rewards, One More Try, Final Task Exemptions
lottery tickets, etc. From this set of rewards, what is most beneficial for them is
the late submission pass reward as shown in fig. 2.

Figure 2. Rewards that are most beneficial

Gamification and Learning 123

Figure 3. Additional rewards

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

1. How do you feel about the use of points and earning achievements (badges,
rewards) for different activities?

The leaderboard in the Schoolbook only shows the top ten students. Most students
loved the idea of being on top of the leaderboard. One student said, “It makes
me strive harder than I would normally be because I kind of liked the idea of
being in the leaderboard.” Being in the leaderboard made them confident and
proud of their achievements.

Looyestyn (2017) stated that leaderboards may be a particularly useful form of

gamification to increase engagement. Sailer (2013) mentioned that from a trait
perspective general classes of motives and needs can evoke motivation. He said
that the use of the leaderboard showed two important motives: the achievement
motive and need for power. When a student has a strong achievement motive,
having a leaderboard that shows achievement, success and progress will definitely
motivate him to continue on. A student asserted, “It made me strive harder
because nothing beats the feeling of seeing your name on the leaderboard.”

Some never had a chance to see their names in the Dean’s list or in the honor roll,

124 Gamification and Learning

and seeing their names on the leaderboard gave them a sense of achievement.
This sense of pride pushes them to do more. One student said that in the higher
level, the points had become too high but it did not stop him from doing more.
Looyestyn (2017) said that leaderboards are more tangible and can relate more
to real life.

Barlow (2016) said that the introduction of games into the classroom environment,
with stars, levels, competition and goals, increased the motivation of students
to complete a greater quantity of schoolwork. They have seen students more
excited and more motivated to learn. One of the students in the class, said that
even though there are lots of assessments, it doesn’t really matter, ‘go lang ng
go!’ (just keep it going!). The gamified classroom had a positive effect on the
students, “because we were motivated to pass our assessments and open the
lessons.”

2. Did the achievement and reward system had any effect on your motivation
and usage behavior?

Students who were positive about competition commented favorably on many

items. They liked the ranking system. They enjoyed seeing themselves climbing
past “the competition” as the project progressed. As the ranking was visible
to all, there was an extrinsic competitive motivation, where achievement was
experienced because of relative positioning. One student said, “I was monitoring
my position the whole way along and that’s what was motivating me.” “Yes, it
had. Because without it, maybe I won’t be able to do good in my assessment, it
won’t motivate me to do well and it would only bore me,” another remarked.

As a student is focused on the academic stuff, he becomes aware of that one

task and Whitson (2009) said that this student will not be easily distracted from
that task. The merging of action and awareness, and concentration on the task
at hand are characteristics of Flow. A student said that when a new question
came out, everyone was rushing to their phones and stuff and you were kind of
obsessed by it and you wanted to do really well. Another remarked, “it had a big
effect on myself because I usually don’t study due to work but the system taught
here made me really reach for my goals and made me study hard.” The students
spoke of having changed their study habits because of the success that they
experienced and the rewards they gained. One student quipped, “Yup, earning
points were kinda addicting!” It also helped that the goals were clear from the
start and feedback was immediate.

Gamification and Learning 125

One of the clear motivating factors for those who enjoyed the project was its
novelty. For the students, it represented a welcome break from the traditional
learning activities, they encountered. One student mentioned that he was amazed
because this was the first time he encountered such learning experience. He said
that it was challenging and fun. Another expressed, “I think there was more of
a “want” to do it, as opposed to a “need” … There was definitely an element of
fun to it.”

3. What rewards do you see that is most beneficial for you?

Among the rewards that were won by the students, the Late Submission pass
reward was the most beneficial. Some students tend to procrastinate in answering
assessments or in submitting assignments. When they do, they usually miss the
deadline. With the late submission pass reward, they can answer or submit missed
assessments. One student said, “Yes, it is very helpful in following up a missed
assessment because as a dormer it is hard for me to do assessment without a
Wi-Fi, laptop and having a curfew. It helps us following up missed assessment.”

The second most beneficial is the assessment exemption reward. This is a no

brainer. Who wouldn’t want to be exempted from a task? This reward is like a
‘rest reward’ for them. After accomplishing some tasks, they get a respite from
incoming tasks, at least once.

The third most beneficial is Excused Absence reward. The school has an attendance
policy. The students are allowed only seven absences. If they incur more than
seven absences they are automatically dropped from the course and received
a failing grade. Having an excused absence reward will lessen those number of
absences and helps them stay on the course.

Many students were motivated by the rewards that proved beneficial. The notion
that rewards help them recover from missed assessments or from very low scores
that made them get good grades. It was both novel and motivating. One student
said that “the rewards were life-savers.” Another remarked, “I feel competitive
and eager to unlock badges and rewards and gain points as well as staying within
the top of the leaderboard.” One student said that, “Yes, achievement and
reward system effect my motivation in school. I feel like i deserve it. When you
really try hard on something, and you get a reward, it is an awesome feeling. It
is the energy that push me forward.”

4. What other rewards would you prefer after achieving levels?

When they were asked what additional rewards they would like, 36 out of 117

126 Gamification and Learning

said that the rewards are enough. A student concluded, “I honestly can’t think
of any other rewards. The existing rewards are already very satisfying enough.”

There are also a good number that suggested more rewards. In figure 3, 28 out
117 (23.97%) respondents suggested rewards like, instant passing grade or an
immunity from discipline officers, etc. One said that an easy pass reward would
be great because it assures a passing grade. Another wanted a more practical
one, something that will be shared with the whole class, like some sweet treats.
An immunity reward would be great, declared one student. Something that would
excuse them from a minor/major violation.

This research has shown that the students did not mind the task at hand as long
as they get rewarded in the end.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Gamification is effective in increasing student online sessions engagement. The

students looked forward to the next lessons and assessments because they earn
points when they do so. Earning points means being on the leaderboard and earning
rewards. This research has pointed out a practical contribution to gamification.
Leaderboards are good motivators but if a student finds himself/herself in the
bottom and feels that his/her classmates are way too competitive for him/
her, that situation would demotivate the student. However, rewards systems
would counteract that demotivating factor. One student said, “gaganahan talaga
pag may reward” (it really motivated me to do more when there are rewards).
The reward system played a very important role in the researcher’s gamified
classroom. The students wanted the rewards because it proved beneficial to
them. The researcher had seen changes in his students’ attitude toward learning.

Here are some points that teachers must consider before gamifying their
classrooms. First, gamification needs a good game design. It is not enough if you
have the basic game mechanics, you should think how to use them accordingly.
Second, look for a framework or a theory that would support your game. A good
theory on game design is flow theory. More studies on the application of flow
theory on game designs is highly encouraged. Finally, develop a good reward
system.

Making a comparative study between blended classes who are gamified and non-
gamified to see the difference of motivation and engagement must also be done
in the near future.

Gamification and Learning 127

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researcher would like to thank the Center for Innovative Learning Programs
for their support and his colleagues, Mr. Loreto Camiloza and Mr. Edwin Lineses,
for sharing their expertise and precious time.

REFERENCES

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Higher Education Report. Vol 40 Issue 6, p1-14.

Barlow, T., Fleming, B. (2016). A science classroom that’s more than a game. The
Journal of Australian Science Teachers Association, Vol. 62 Issue 2, p31-37.

Buckley, P., Doyle, E., Doyle, S. (2017). Game On! Students’ Perceptions of
Gamified Learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, Vol 20
Issue 3, p1-10.

Chang, J. W., & Wei, H. Y. (2016). Exploring Engaging Gamification Mechanics in

Massive Online Open Courses. Educational Technology & Society, 19 (2),
177-203.

Cheong, C., Filippou, J., Cheong, F. (2014). Towards the gamification of Learning:
Investigating Student Perceptions of Game Elements. Journal of Information
Systems Education, Vol 25, Issue 3, p233-244.

Çeker, E., Özdamlı, F. (2017). What ‘Gamification” is and what it’s not. European
Journal of Contemporary Education, Vol. 6 Issue 2. P221-228.

Roberts, B. (2014). Gamification: Win, Lose or Draw. HR Magazine. Vol 59 Issue

5, p28-35.

Jen-Wei Chang: Hung-Yu. (2016). Exploring Engaging Gamification Mechanics in

Massive Online Open Courses. Journal of Educational Technology & Society,
Vol. 19 Issue 2, p177-203.

Looyestyn, J., Kernot, J., Boshoff, K., Ryan, J., Edney, S., Maher, C. (2017).
Does gamification increase engagement with online programs? A systematic
review. PLoS ONE, Vol. 12 Issue 3, p1-19.

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Sailer, M., Hense, J., Mandl, H., Klevers, M. (2013). Psychological Perspectives
on Motivation through Gamification. Interaction Design and Architecture(s)
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Shearer, N. (2016). The Role of Behavioral Psychology in Gamification. American

Academy of Advertising Conference Proceedings. P141-142.

Whitson, C., Consoli, J. (2009) Flow Theory and Student Engagement. Journal of
Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education, Vol 2 No.1 p40-49.

Gamification and Learning 129

EVALUATION OF ‘PRODIGY’, AN ONLINE
EDUCATIONAL GAME-BASED PLATFROM ON
MATHEMATICS

Joseph Ma. Steven S. Cabalo

Rolando G. Panopio

ABSTRACT

Students of the 21st century are students of the future. For students
to be engaged and motivated, the “intellectual barrier” between
the teacher and the student is removed, through a student-centered
approach. This can be further aided by the concept of gameducation,
or gamification of education alongside online communities. One of the
novel online educational game-based platforms is known as Prodigy
– a free accessible platform for both teachers and students studying
Grades 1 – 8 mathematics. With its two types of interface, for the
teacher and for the student, this study is limited to the student
interface only, and access to computers with internet connectivity
may be limited in certain areas of the country. An evaluation of the
platform was conducted by both the Grade 7 mathematics teacher
of the University of the Philippines Rural High School (UPRHS) and
UPRHS students of Grade 7 Tindalo. Using a forced-choice scale model
(1 - Strongly Disagree; 2 - Disagree; 3 - Agree; 4 - Strongly Agree)
and open-ended questions, results yielded a positive perception for
the categories “Learning” (mode of 4), “Ease of Use” (mode of 4),
“Ability Levels” (mode of 3), and “Technical Quality” (mode of 4).
The teacher and most students recommend the use of Prodigy in their
mathematics classes as it aids in student learning. Notable pitfalls of
using the said platforms are time constraints or management and the

130 Gamification and Learning

presence of built-in calculators. Further studies are recommended
in the field of gameducation and online educational game-based
platforms.

Keywords: evaluation, gameducation, high school, mathematics,

Prodigy

INTRODUCTION

21st century students are students of the future. They are known to have
difficulties in maintaining focus, attention, and interest; those qualities are
needed to engage and motivate students. Thus, constructivism is one option.
McCray (2007) defined Constructivism, such that it “views learning as a process
in which the learner actively constructs or builds new ideas on concepts based
upon current and past knowledge.” McCray also added that the techniques
exhibited by Constructivism “may improve students’ academic performance and
achievement” where its aim is for the student to excel and attain academic
achievements.

Since students are engaged through the help of the instructor or teacher, the
“intellectual barrier” between the teacher and the student is removed, through
a student-centered approach. Courville (2011) noted that before the boom of
technology (internet, mobile devices) and its integration in education, instructors
and teachers need to be engaged face-to-face with the learning community, such
that it needs “physical proximity”. Courville added that through the help of
technology, the constructivist point of view can be applied, through the context
of “online learning communities” where students and teachers alike can take
part in socialization among them.

Notably, the concept of gameducation can be seen alongside online communities.

Gameducation is simply a combined term for gamification and education. According
to Jackson (n.d.), “gamification can be integrated effectively into education
to motivate students and enhance learning”. Gamification of education can be
integrated using digital or video games, such that Deterding et al. (2011a) as cited
by Jackson (n.d.) elaborated that the elements of video games are important
“to improve user experience and user engagement” which can be applied in
the context of students. Gamification of education is not simply centered on
playing games, but it also needs understanding about certain concepts. Dickey
(2005) as cited by Glover (2013), enumerated three (3) basic components of
a game: goal-focused activity (the winning component), reward mechanisms

Gamification and Learning 131

(leaderboards, prizes, and achievements), and progress tracking. Glover also
pointed out that this concept of games is beneficial for student engagement and
motivation because the gamer’s efforts are cordially being rewarded, thus being
“fundamental in gamification.”

Prodigy is an online gameducation platform provided by SMARTeacher Inc. that

can be accessed at www.prodigygame.com. According to its website (“Prodigy”,
2016), Prodigy is a free accessible platform for both teachers and students
studying Grade 1-8 mathematics, with an upgrade option (this option has a
fee, but upgrading simply unlocks extra content with “no impact on Prodigy’s
educational quality”). The game has various options for student assessment,
including formative, diagnostic, and summative assessments; such assessments
are built-in for students to think that the questions are part of the game. It is
inclined for both elementary and high school students, with its Pokémon-like
theme and graphics to have an appeal for students. In addition, the platform can
be played by the students at home on any internet-connected device, where the
students’ progress can be monitored by the teacher anytime.

The scope of this study is centered on playing Prodigy as an online educational

game-based supplementary material in Grade 7 education, examining and
exploring its qualities (content, usability, and technical) through teacher and
students’ participation. On the other hand, this study is limited to the game
component only; thus, an examination of the teacher component of the game
is not included (e.g. use of dashboard and planner), including functions such
as the “Assignment” and “Standardized Test”. Moreover, the school’s internet
connectivity was not available during the conduct of the study, thus the game
testing was conducted at the homes of the respondents.

The study was conducted during the second week to the fourth week of May 2017
at the University of the Philippines Rural High School (UPRHS), Bay, Laguna.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Gamification of Education

In relation to gamification of education, there are some studies involving its

use. According to Mubaslat (2012), the post-test results in the conducted study
“show that games have a good effect on improving the achievement for the
primary stage and to create an interactive environment.” Higgins, Katsipataki,
& Xiao (2012) also noted in their research that integrating technology, used as a

132 Gamification and Learning

supplementary material in education is effective “rather than as a replacement
for it.” Moreover, the use of technology and gamification is best used during
“short but focused intervention” as stated by Bayraktar (2001) & Moran et al.
(2008) cited by Higgins et al. (2012). This brings light to the use of gameducation
platforms as supplementary materials in teaching, with lots of advantages in
education.

Digital Game-Based Learning on Mathematics

Gamification of education can be applied in the digital interface (computers and

mobile devices). Active learning can be promoted through the use of computer
games, (Oblinger, 2004 as cited by Katmada et. al. 2014), yielding to more
interested students. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) as cited by Katmada et. al. (2014)
suggested that the use of such digital games “immerse[s]” players in a state
of ‘flow’, such that students who use digital games truly enjoy playing it and
have a sense of involvement as they experience learning. ‘Flow’ as described by
Csikszentmihalyi is “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that
nothing else seems to matter.”

Alongside the state of ‘flow’ and increase in student engagement, digital

game-based activities promote a positive effect on student achievement and
performance. Katmada et. al. (2014) cited various works, including Pareto,
Arvemo, Dahl, Haake, & Gulz (2011) and Ke & Grabowski (2007) that reflect
the benefits of computer games in education. Pareto et al. (2011), in his novel
work, “created a teachable-agent arithmetic game that aims in training basic
arithmetics (sic.) skills.” With a sample size of 153 students (3rd and 5th grade),
the evaluation produced positive results, “that the game helped students improve
their math performance and self-efficacy beliefs.”

On the other hand, Ke & Grabowski (2007) were interested on the use of
adventure games. They studied the effects of such with a sample size of 125
participants (5th grade students), all of which were divided into groups of three:
(1) cooperative game playing group; (2) competitive game playing group; and
(3) no game playing group. These groups were examined given a duration of
four (4) weeks. Their findings showed that the “two game playing groups had
better math performance, while the cooperative game playing group had better
attitude towards the subject, compared to the other conditions.” Katmada et.
al. (2014) concluded that games “could actually be successfully incorporated and
used by educators as a supplementary tool for the teaching of formal curricular
material.”

Gamification and Learning 133

METHODS
Research Design

This paper follows an exploratory research design, which aims to develop insights
and understanding on the use of Prodigy as an online supplementary material in
Grade 7 mathematics.

Participants of the Study

Grade 7 high school students (A.Y. 2016-2017) studying at the University of the
Philippines Rural High School (UPRHS) were chosen as participants. There were
3 sections for Grade 7, namely Dao, Ipil, and Tindalo. Each class is composed of
at most 40 students. Through draw lots method, the chosen sample was Tindalo,
with a total of 38 students. Their current Grade 7 Math teacher was also a
participant in the study to have a teacher’s viewpoint on the program.

Data Gathering Instrument

An evaluation form, modified from the Grand Valley State University Software
Evaluation Form, was used for data gathering. It utilized a forced-choice
scale model, implying that the respondents have accessed and tried the
online educational platform, and thus avoiding any neutrality in the responses
(familiarity to the program is present). Moreover, the developed form eliminated
any ambiguous option, thus resulting to additional value for decisions on
respondents’ preferences. The form utilized the scale given below:

1 – respondent expresses a “Strongly Disagree” stand;

2 - respondent expresses a “Disagree” stand;
3 - respondent expresses an “Agree” stand; and
4 - respondent expresses a “Strongly Agree” stand.

The evaluation form was evaluated by two (2) UP NISMED (National Institute for
Science and Mathematics Education Development) personnel (Science Education
Specialist II and Audiovisual Group Chair, Ma. Lourdes Sales–Agad and Science
Education Specialist IV and Senior Lecturer II, Affiliate Faculty of Science Society
Program, College of Science, UP Diliman, Rodolfo S. Treyes, Ph.D.). An attention
check was added at the “Ability Levels” category to preserve data (“To preserve
your answers, please check “2”)

134 Gamification and Learning

Data Analysis

The mode, frequency, and descriptive statistics were used to explain data. The
data from the forced-scale evaluation were summarized using the mode and
frequency, while the open-ended questions were analyzed using descriptive
statistics. These in turn provide an explanation on the perception and effectiveness
of Prodigy as a supplementary material on the chosen respondents.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Given that instructions were distributed to the respondents and that this study
was conducted at the expense of the students’ homes, Figure 1 shows that
more than half of the class size (55%) have registered and evaluated the game
while less than half (45%) of the students have not signed-up in the website.
The participating 55% of the sample size answered the evaluations forms and
their responses were tallied and analyzed based on the modes, frequencies and
descriptive statistics. The students’ responses were first analyzed, followed by
the teacher responses.

Figure 1. Percentage of student participation and non-participation

The frequency of the students’ responses for the evaluation categories enumerated
below are summarized Table 1.

In the “Learning” evaluation category, most respondents chose “Strongly Agree”.

Prodigy uses a variety of curricula in its game. In this study, the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS) curriculum acted as the study’s base curriculum since
the Philippine’s K-12 curriculum was not available in the choices. As the game

Gamification and Learning 135

was used, Prodigy provided hints and correct answers for students who struggle
or obtained a wrong answer in a question for immediate feedback leading to a
quick explanation of a certain math concept. To organize student learning, the
“Planner” was used to organize specific topics and objectives for each session.
This aligned the game to this specific need the teacher wants his or her student
to develop, achieving the objectives by presenting the necessary questions for
student learning. Overall, the mode for this category is “4” (Strongly Agree),
implying a strong positive response in this evaluation category.

Most of the respondents “Strongly Agree” on all criteria for the “Ease of Use”
category. The game provided a series of dialogues that aid the user to identify
what to do next. This design kept the user in track during the game that avoided
confusion regarding a current situation (e.g. in a monster battle). Like any other
web application, Prodigy can be closed anytime. Once the student disconnects
his or her device from the internet or logs-out his or her account, the game saves
the current achievement/s the student had. Moreover, the game provided a
variety of options to customize their characters to avoid racial bias; in-game chat
is strictly filtered to block abusive words (e.g. discrimination, hate speeches).
Overall, the mode for this category is “4” (Strongly Agree), implying a strong
positive response in this evaluation category.

In the” Ability Levels” category, most of the respondents “Agree” on all criteria.
The “teacher” chooses the grade level of his or her students and controls the
topic/s in Prodigy depending on his or her prerogative on topic planning. However,
once the plan has ended, the game will proceed to its diagnostic test (free game)
and will continue to identify students’ deficiencies and align its questions to
address such. Overall, the mode for this category is “3” (Agree), implying a
positive response in this evaluation category.

136 Gamification and Learning

Table 1. Frequency of the students’ responses for the evaluation categories

“Learning” Category Criteria 1 2 3 4

1) The content is accurate. 0 1 9 11
2) The content demonstrates factual
0 1 7 13
knowledge.
3) The math concept is easily understood. 0 1 11 9
4) The content meets learning goals and
0 0 9 12
objectives.
SUBTOTAL 0 3 36 45

“Ease of Use” Category Criteria 1 2 3 4

1) Directions are clear. 0 1 4 15
2) Students can end the program at any 0 1 4 16
time.
3) Students can restart the program where 0 4 5 12
they stopped.
4) The game is easy to learn – user friendly. 0 0 7 13
5) The game is free of racial bias. 0 0 7 14
SUBTOTAL 0 6 27 70

“Ability Levels” Category Criteria 1 2 3 4

1) The user level can be set by the teacher. 1 1 13 6
2) The software covers a variety of skill 0 1 12 8
levels.
SUBTOTAL 1 2 25 14

“Technical Quality” Category Criteria 1 2 3 4

1) Animation and graphics captures students’ 1 1 11 8
interest.
2) Audio is clear. 0 1 4 16
3) Feedback and prompts are appropriate to 0 2 6 13
the user.
4) Student interest is maintained. 0 3 11 7
SUBTOTAL 1 7 32 44

Gamification and Learning 137

In the “Technical Quality” most of the respondents “Strongly Agree” to the
criteria. Aside from the in-game conversations and audio special effects during
game battles, Prodigy has provided the “Text-to-Speech” audio feature, such
that each question can be narrated to the student implying no bias for the
various reading levels of students. Aside from animation and graphics and audio,
the game contains nine (9) maps to explore, implying an adventure-type quest
for the students. This is designed to maintain students’ interest of exploring all
the nine (9) maps and to achieve the main goal – to finally reach the academy.
Overall, the mode for this category is “4” (Strongly Agree), implying a strong
positive response in this evaluation category.

In relation to the students’ responses, this study also shows how a Grade 7
mathematics teacher views this educational online game-based platform as
a supplementary material in Grade 7 mathematics (Table 2). Looking at the
frequency of the teacher’s responses, most of her choices are “3” (Agree) and
“4” (Strongly Agree). Observing both data from the teacher and the students’
responses, both opinions are on

Table 2. Frequency of the teacher’s responses for all evaluation categories

Category Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

Learning 3 3 4 3 n/a
Ease of Use 3 3 3 4 4
Ability Levels 4 ✓ 4 n/a n/a
Technical Quality 4 4 4 4 n/a

the same track regarding Prodigy as a supplementary material in improving

student learning.

Upon summarizing the tallies and modes, the student respondents have a positive
perception in general (Figure 2). This is in relation to the question regarding the
use of Prodigy for improving student learning as an open-ended question. Most
students cite the benefits of Prodigy’s good technical quality and its impact on
the students, such as the game is “more exciting and visual”, where there is the
inclusion of “fun activities” while answering the questions. Another said that
this lead to an increase in motivation for answering math problems. They show
inclined support for video games as it makes learning enjoyable, interesting,
appealing, and exciting (“doesn’t feel bored”).

138 Gamification and Learning

Figure 2. Percentage of the overall perception of student respondents on Prodigy

While the students agree on the benefits of Prodigy in student learning, their
views on its use as a supplementary material in mathematics vary, as shown in
Figure 3. Most students recommend the use of Prodigy in their math class with
the above reasons stated. While one (1) respondent expressed uncertainty, less
than a quarter of the student respondents do not want Prodigy to be used in their
classes as a supplementary material because “it takes a lot of time” while one
argued that the calculator function has been considerably used throughout and
“that would not result into learning.” Another comment from a respondent is the
availability of time in playing the game, such that given time constraints, “It is
better to study your books and notes than playing a game.”

Figure 3. Percentage of the student respondents’ choices on Prodigy as a supplementary material

in mathematics

Considering the teacher’s response to the open-ended questions, she supports

the use of Prodigy as a supplementary material in mathematics as the use of
such “would help the teachers in motivating the students to practice solving
or answering math problems.” Moreover, she believes that the platform is “fun

Gamification and Learning 139

and interesting” to students, such that students will enjoy learning mathematics
through the help of the platform in terms of fun and interest.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Data from the evaluations yielded that the overall perceptions of the students on
“Learning” (mode of “4” – Strongly Agree), “Ease of Use” (mode of “4” – Strongly
Agree), “Ability Levels” (mode of “3” – Agree), and “Technical Quality” (mode of
“4” – Strongly Agree) inclined to be positive. In relation to the students’ responses,
the teacher’s responses have most of her choices as “3” (Agree) and “4” (Strongly
Agree). Observing both data from the teacher and the students’ responses, both
opinions are on the same track regarding Prodigy as a supplementary material
in improving student learning; thus, there is a positive perception towards
the game. Overall, based on the teacher and students’ responses, Prodigy is
recommended as a supplementary material in mathematics, yet less than a
quarter of the students do not due to time elements and the use of the in-game
digital calculator.

Given that the study was conducted at the students’ home, it is recommended
that the conduct of the study be made in the school premises, especially in
the computer laboratory where there is internet connectivity; this avoids non-
participation of students. Allotting multiple meetings may be applied in this set-
up. Aside from this, other grade levels may be chosen as the sample size of this
study. Other online games related to mathematics may be studied using the same
type of questionnaire in this study.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author would like to acknowledge the UPRHS faculty and students, specifically
Grade 7 - Tindalo and their adviser for permitting the author to conduct this
study.

140 Gamification and Learning

REFERENCE

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Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, London (Regno
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Chen, P. D., Gonyea, R., & Kuh, G. (2008). Learning at a Distance: Engaged or
Not? Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 4(3).

Courville, K. (2011). Technology and its use in Education: Present Roles and
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Glover, I. (2013). Play as You Learn: Gamification as a Technique for Motivating

Learners. In J. Herrington, A. Couros & V. Irvine (Eds.), Proceedings of
EdMedia: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology 2013 (pp.
1999-2008). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education
(AACE).

Higgins, S., Katsipataki, M., & Xiao, Z. (2012). The impact of digital technology
on learning: A summary for the education endowment foundation. Durham,
UK: Education Endowment Foundation and Durham University.

Jackson, M. (n.d.). Gamification in Education: A Literature Review.

Katmada, A., Mavridis, A., & Tsiatsos, T. (2014). Implementing a game for
Supporting Learning in Mathematics.” The Electronic Journal of e-Learning,
12(3).

Kuh, G. D. (2009). The national survey of student engagement: Conceptual

and empirical foundations. New Directions for Institutional Research,
2009(141).

McCray, K. (2007). Constructivist Approach: Improving Social Studies Skills

Academic Achievement. Master’s Dissertation; Marygrove College.

Mubaslat, M. M. (2012). The Effect of Using Educational Games on the Students’

Achievement in English Language for the Primary Stage. Online Submission.

Newmann, F. M. (1991). Student engagement in academic work: Expanding

the perspective on secondary school effectiveness. In J. R. Bliss, W. A.
Firestone, & C. E. Richards (Eds.), Rethinking effective schools: Research
and practice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

“Prodigy.” (2016). Retrieved from: https://prodigygame.com

Gamification and Learning 141

Group-based Game Making for Descriptive Writing

Andreas Setiawan

ABSTRACT

In this modern era, one of the most interesting inventions in the field
of entertainment is games. Not only could games relieve our stress
from daily routines, boredom, etc., but they could also be used as
a medium for learning. The purpose of this study is to discover the
Faculty of Language and Arts students’ perceptions on the group-
based game making to learn descriptive writing and the students’
perception of game-making benefits for learning descriptive writing.
The data were taken from 24 freshmen in batch 2016 of the Faculty
of Language and Arts, Soegijapranata Catholic University. For data
collection, the writer used a close-ended, Likert Scale questionnaire
with four arranged options. The analysis method used in this study
is quantitative method which uses a simple descriptive statistics
analysis. The results of the study showed that the students’
perceptions on the group-based game making to learn descriptive
writing and the students’ perception of game-making’s benefit for
learning descriptive writing is positive. Students found that games
were useful and helpful to be applied for descriptive writing practice
as it gave them various supportive multimedia aids such as visual
illustration, audio support, content editor, etc. and group-based
game making activity also enhances their communication, peer
solidarity, and language skills.

142 Gamification and Learning

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, technology has been making a major breakthrough in people’s

lives. It has been improving people’s lives by making things easier and advanced
in the fields of communication, information, transportation, healthcare, and also
entertainment. One of the most interesting breakthroughs in the entertainment
field is the invention of game. According to Salen & Zimmerman (2004), game is
“a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that
results in a quantifiable outcome” (p. 80).

The purposes of the invention of games are to give the users/players an

entertainment that they could actively engage in order to release the stress
from their routines or boredom, for leisure, and also for educational or learning
purpose.

One of the methods of using games for learning purpose is through the activity of
game making, especially in groups (working collaboratively). Group-based game
making (or collaborative game-making) provides a learning model where students
or learners can work together to create something meaningful for them, which
could also facilitate the development of a range of 21st Century Skills (21CS)
such as critical thinking, computer literacy, problem solving, etc. (Bermingham,
et al., 2013). Furthermore, designing and developing games could address the
needs that the learners require better than simply playing the already-existed
games (Brennan & Resnick, 2012; Robertson, 2012).

Existing literature on the role of games used for learning has shown some significant
impacts for the learners. According to Dempsey et al. (1994), games serve many
functions such as tutoring, amusing, helping to explore new skills, promoting
self-esteem, practicing skills, or seeking to change attitudes. In addition, simple
types of games genre such as adventure, arcade, board, simulations, puzzle
and word games could be constructed to achieve specific learning outcomes
such as decision making and problem solving (Dempsey, Lucassen, Haynes, &
Casey, 1996), and help promote computer literacy skills (Natale, 2002). Blake &
Goodman (1999) have also found that using games as a learning medium could
motivate the students’ preparation for class and help them become acquainted
with their classmates that they have not worked with before. Therefore, games
could also be used to facilitate students to learn collaboratively with their peers.

According to Lehtinen et al. (1999), collaborative or group learning refers to an

instructional method where students are encouraged to cooperate on learning
tasks. It means that the fulfillment of tasks and problem solving requires group

Gamification and Learning 143

of learners’ mutual effort, involving communications and interactions between
them. Therefore, collaborative learning supports the idea that learning is a social
activity in which knowledge-seeking inquiry is fulfilled through combined efforts
of the inquirers.

The reason why the writer conducted this research on group-based game making
to learn descriptive writing is due to the fact that the writer wanted to find out
the potential of the use of game to enhance the learning process and skill such
as descriptive writing skill. The writer would also like to know if games could be
designed and used for learning purpose to achieve a specific learning outcome.
Even though there is some research on the utilization of game for learning in
other countries, such literature is still lacking in Indonesia, and that is why the
writer decided to contribute one to it. In this research, the writer formulated a
problem related to the students in the Faculty of Language and Arts: What are
students’ perceptions on group-based game making to learn descriptive writing?

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
GAME

Before we discuss any further, it is important to know what a game is actually for
the purpose of this review. Dempsey et al. (1996) defined game as:

A set of activities involving one or more players. It has goals, constraints,

payoffs, and consequences. A game is rule-guided and artificial in some
respects. Finally, a game involves some aspect of competition, even if that
competition is with oneself. (p. 3)

It might be best if we treat game like our parts of the body, each of which
has different designs, purposes, gameplays—competitive, cooperative, or
individualistic (The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency
[BECTA], 2001, p. 1) and target audiences, giving a broad range of options for
players to experience and enjoy. To put it simple, game has many varieties of
categories. According to Herz (1997), there are some major game categories, as
follows:

1. Action games – a type of games where players’ reaction plays a major role
in completing the games such as shooting games, platform games (where
the players need to move their character from one platform to another
in the game in order to survive, for example), and other reaction-based
games.

144 Gamification and Learning

2. Adventure games – a game where players need to fulfill some tasks or
quests in a virtual, in-game world in order to proceed to the final stage/
finish the game. Examples of them are Assassin’s Creed, God of War, etc.

3. Fighting games – a kind of game where players fight (mostly using martial
arts) computer-controlled enemies or player-controlled ones. The
objective of this game category is to defeat your opponent and become
the winner, just like in a real fighting competition. Examples of this type
are Tekken series, Mortal Kombat series, Ultimate Fighting Championship
(UFC), and other fighting-based ones.

4. Puzzle games – a kind of game where player(s) complete certain types of

puzzle. Some examples of this type of game are Tetris and Candy Crush
Saga

5. Role-playing games – in this game, players assume a role of a character,

mostly in fantasy or science fiction settings and able to interact within it.
The Elder Scrolls series, Final Fantasy series, Borderlands series are some
of the popular examples.

6. Simulations – a category where players play simulated, (mostly) real-life

activities in order to succeed. Some of the examples are The Sims, Theme
Hospital, and Euro Truck Simulator series.

7. Sports games – a type of game where players play a simulated sport

activities. Some game titles that belong to this category are NBA, Pro
Evolution Soccer, and Madden NFL.

8. Strategy games – a game type where players have to do strategical

gameplay such as commanding a group of heroes or armies in a fight and
managing in-game resources. Age of Empires, Civilization, and Kessen
series are good examples.

Like Herz (1997), Griffiths (1997, 1999) also divided games into more or less
similar categories, but he mentioned that only two categories from the list,
which are puzzlers (puzzle) and weird games (games that do not fit another
categories), contain educational capabilities. He also suggested that the
aforementioned categories could be implemented in schools so that it might
“foster learning and overcome some of the negative stereotypes that many
people have about computer games.”

In their research findings, Blake & Goodman (1999) found that using simple

Gamification and Learning 145

types of games such as Wheel of Fortune and Tic-tac-toe for nursing school
students improves their motivation for class, social life (have a chance to
know their non-familiar peers), and scores greatly. The positive results are
also related to the students themselves. Wheel of Fortune and Tic-tac-toe
were chosen because the majority of the students are familiar with both
types of games, as it is also popular. Also, Blake & Goodman (1999) did a very
good job in utilizing the games for learning. They shaped both kinds of games
in a way that the learning content could be optimized and delivered smoothly
to the students to achieve the desired learning outcome (Dempsey, Lucassen,
Haynes, & Casey, 1996). The students’ increased preparation for class has also
improved the teaching process. Teachers are able to cover more contents and
use less time to deliver the materials; thus making the subject delivery more
efficient.

THE USE OF GAMES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING

Although it may seem to be contradictory in a sense, games could also be used to

foster language learning. According to Gee (2003), in this digital and modern era,
language itself is and has always been a mixture of sound, words, images created
in the mind, and gestures used in contexts full of objects, sounds, actions, and
interactions. Game is not only about playing and enjoyment, but there is more
to it. Games also have objectives and story contents inside them which are
mostly represented in texts. The difference is, however, the game developers
offer a more creative approach in delivering them than a book/writing does. The
approach always situates (“shows”) the meanings of the words and demonstrate
how they vary across different actions, images and dialogues. They do not offer
just words for words (“definitions”) like a dictionary does. Game almost always
gives verbal information in the right time—when players need and can use it—or
when the players request it. Game has its own unique ‘language’ for the players.
It is presented by a mixture of texts and modern audiovisual technologies,
resulting in a good description.

Gee (2003) stated that a well-designed game can leverage deeper and deeper
learning, and in this context is language learning. Ang & Zaphiris (2006) also
stated that the contexts that games and simulations provide offer (the player)
great opportunities to use (learn) the target language.

146 Gamification and Learning

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

According to Dillenbourg (1999), collaborative learning is “a situation in which

two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together” (p. 1).
Collaborative learning is a learning method that emphasizes social interactions
among the members of the group to gain or learn knowledge through mutual
sharing from their different thinking perspectives. There are several benefits of
collaborative learning. It helps promote students’ critical thinking skills, engages
students to involve actively in the learning process, improves students’ classroom
performance and results, and also fosters their problem solving techniques
(Roberts, 2005). In collaborative learning, the participants or group members
are more or less on the same level (of knowledge), but there are no individuals
in this world that possess the same knowledge from one to another (Dillenbourg,
1999). Therefore, the best way to utilize collaborative learning is to learn new
things that we haven’t known before through the group’s interaction so that one
may learn from each other’s knowledge and expertise (Gokhale, 1995).

COLLABORATIVE GAME-MAKING

According to Bermingham et al. (2013), collaborative game-making provides

a model in which learners can work together to create something meaningful
for them, facilitating the development of a range of 21st Century Skills (21CS)
such as critical thinking, computer literacy, problem solving, etc. Kafai (2006)
also elaborated that the pedagogic idea of learning by making games could be
presumed that the construction of games provides learners to reformulate their
subject understandings and helps to express their personal ideas and feelings
about the games’ subject and the games constructed, both respectively. Designing
games enhances students’ sense of classroom community, which motivates them
to ask questions and provide their help for others (Baytak & Land, 2010) as well
as sharing their thoughts such as tips and alternative methods of problem solving
in the game-making environment (Robertson & Nicholson, 2007). In addition, the
needs of the learners could better be addressed by designing and developing games
than simply playing the games which have already existed (Brennan & Resnick,
2012; Robertson, 2012). Cheng (2009) has also proven that learning motivation,
problem solving ability, and creativity in an interactive multimedia course of the
students could be facilitated by his Game Making Pedagogy (GMP) model. the
research findings also indicate that students were satisfied with making their
own games due to the strong sense of ownership and benefited from inter-group
and intra-group interactions. Furthermore, in his research, Earp (2015) stated

Gamification and Learning 147

that game-making occupies the position in between game-based and technology-
enhanced learning, and focuses more on active, learner-driven methods in
education. In his research findings, game-making by the learners also fosters their
digital technology familiarity and confidence in the classroom. The activity also
encompasses several important skills like collaboration, creativity, and thinking
skills. Sanjaya, Murniati, & Blair (2016) has also shown the usefulness of game-
making activity to learn collaboratively in their research. Thus, collaborative
game-making activities provide students meaningful opportunities to become
better communicators, problem-solvers, and support the development of various
skills such as reading, writing, speaking. It also encourages them to use and
familiarize themselves with digital & visual communication aids.

DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

Hollingsworth (1988) defined descriptive writing as “...giving dimensions, colors,

surroundings, origins, placement, and other information to help readers get a
mental picture of an object, person, or idea, and how it operates.” In general,
descriptive writing provides illustrations of several subjects such as people,
places, events, situations, thoughts, and feelings. It also presents sensory
information which makes the writing more vivid. Also, descriptive writing
could express an experience that readers can actively participate in by using
imagination. Details in descriptive writing (or descriptive details) greatly support
the development of the overall dominant impression. The dominant impression is
an idea or theme which the writer wants to express from the complexity of the
story’s construction. An activity, snowboarding for example, can be described
as exciting or scary depending on words which are carefully chosen, or from a
subtly crafted mood. Mostly, a thesaurus offers a great help to achieve this. It
has lists of variety of words with similar meanings or connotations. Descriptive
details enable readers to visualize several elements contained in the story. Vivid
adjectives and active verbs will significantly boost the writer’s ability to develop
specific descriptions of the aforementioned sensors.

Descriptive writing provides literary texture to a story. Texture is more into

‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’. The writer shows the reader through different
kind of senses such as sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, as well as through
emotional feelings. Below here are the examples of a sentence which tells and
a sentence which shows:

• The woman on the beach watched the sun set over the ocean. (tells)

148 Gamification and Learning

• The liquid began to evaporate slowly due to its exposure to the heat (tells)

• The old, Victorian-style painting of a seasoned war veteran which rests in

the main hall of the building threw me an eerie, intense stare as I slowly
tiptoed my way through the blood-stained mahogany door. (shows)

• Shades of neon illuminated the edges of clouds, backlit by the sizzling sun
that slipped beneath a cerulean sea. (shows)

From the examples above, sentences that tell tend to be direct because they are
objective. Sentences that tell record verifiable facts as a scientist or journalist
might. On the other hand, sentences that show are subjective; they may be
influenced by the writer’s personal experiences. Sentences that show create
mental images and elicit emotional response for the readers.

In conclusion, descriptive writing enables students to write better and teach

several benefits such as: 1) organizing their thinking or idea, 2) searching for and
communicating details, 3) defining people, places and things, and 4) writing with
clarity and purpose. (Schacter)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
Participants

The participants of this research were the freshman of the Faculty of Language
and Arts. The population of the participants is 65 students. The writer recruited
all of them to the workshop but there were only 24 students who were voluntarily
willing to come. The reason why the writer chose the participants was because
the students just started to learn and practice descriptive writing in English
writing class.

Instrument

In collecting the data needed for the research, the writer used instrument to
achieve the research’s goals. The instrument to collect the data in this study are
questionnaire. Questionnaire is a series of questions which are utilized to collect
data or information needed from the respondents involved (Creswell, 2009). The
writer used the questionnaire from Murniati & Sanjaya’s study (2015) that was

Gamification and Learning 149

modified slightly in order to match it with the purpose of this research and a
game-creator software called RPG Maker MV.

The questionnaire was about the students’ perceptions on group-based game

making to learn descriptive writing. According to Cohen, Manion & Morrison
(2007), there are two kinds of questionnaire:

1. Close-ended questionnaire: prescribe the range of responses from which

the respondent/participants may select.

2. Open-ended questionnaire: could be used if there is an excessive amount

of possible categories which a close-ended questionnaire would contain
an extremely long list of response options.

The questionnaire that the writer used for this research was close-ended
questionnaire and it consisted of seven background questions and 18
statements. Four response options are provided in the questionnaire, ranging
from:
• 4 (Strongly Agree)
• 3 (Agree)
• 2 (Disagree), and
• 1 (Strongly Disagree)

The questionnaire used was already in English because the participants of this
research were the students of the Faculty of Language and Arts so the writer saw
it unnecessary to transcribe it.

The game-creator software, RPG Maker, is a program that enables its users to
create their own RPG (role-playing video games). Most of it has a tile set based
map editor, a simple scripting language for scripting events/dialogue, and a
battle editor included. All RPG Maker releases have initial premade tilesets,
characters, and events that can be utilized in creating new games. Also, for the
PC version, users could add new tilesets and characters, including new graphics,
should they want to. RPG Maker MV is the latest series of RPG Maker programs. It
has been greatly improved from the earlier releases, and it has multi-OS support,
side-view battles and high resolution support. RPG Maker MV is the first engine
in the series to use Javascript with plugin additions. Also, completely created
games can be played on a mobile device.

150 Gamification and Learning

Research Procedure

In this section, the writer would like to elaborate the procedure of this research.

1. Firstly, the writer modified the questionnaires from Murniati & Sanjaya’s
study (2015), entitled The Integration of Games for Collaborative
Learning. The writer edited and deleted some parts of the question in
order to meet the writer’s need for this research’s results. For example,
the writer changed the addition of ‘descriptive writing subject’ emphasis
in some of the questions. One example of it is the question ‘Do you agree
that a game meets your needs for learning a subject?’ is edited into ‘Do
you agree that a game meets your needs for learning descriptive writing
skill?’
2. Secondly, the writer did a pilot study to check the validity of the
questionnaire. The pilot study was done by six students who are not from
2016 batch. Based on the six participants’ responses, the statements
of the questionnaire were clear enough and no confusing statements
were found. Therefore, it can be concluded that all statements of the
questionnaire are valid.
3. Third, the writer asked for permission from the lecturer(s) of the Faculty
of Language and Arts for conducting the workshop.
4. The writer met and informed the students a day prior to the workshop and
explained briefly what this research and workshop were about, also the
preparations needed for the workshop (laptop/ computers).
5. Next, on the workshop day, the writer divided the students into a group of
three and gave the students an hour to brainstorm their story ideas. After
that, the writer guided them in creating and editing the game step-by-
step until they were finished with their work.
6. Then, the writer distributed the questionnaires to the students who
had finished their work. The writer also assisted them in filling the
questionnaires to make sure that there would be no misunderstanding in
filling it.
7. Next, the writer analyzed the data from the questionnaires to find out
about the results. The writer analyzed the data quantitatively by using
SPSS to calculate the data.
8. Lastly, the writer interpreted the questionnaire results to acquire the
final, conclusive data.

Gamification and Learning 151

METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

The questionnaires were given to the students in class after the workshop was
done. The workshop for this research was conducted at Henricus Constant (HC)
B.1.3 classroom of the Faculty of Language and Arts. The participants of this
research were 65 students of 2016 batch of the Faculty of Language and Arts but
only 24 students were present for the workshop. For the workshop, the writer
informed the students to bring laptops before the workshop day for installing
RPG Maker MV, which was the game used for this research. During the workshop,
the writer first explained the students what descriptive writing is about. Then,
he asked the students to brainstorm their question ideas for their game for one
hour. Next, the writer guided the students during the game installation process,
followed by content editing, what should be added, how much questions, what
topic and so on. Last was the finalization of the game. The writer asked the
students to entitle and test their created game and also their peers’, followed
by questionnaire filling.

After the students finished filling in the questionnaires, the writer analyzed their
answers based on Likert scale for the statements quantitatively by using SPSS.
According to Babbie (2007, p. 171), Likert scale is a type of composite measure
developed by Rensis Likert in an attempt to improve the levels of measurement
in social research through the use of standardized response categories in
survey questionnaire. There are four response options provided, ranging from
4 (Strongly Agree), 3 (Agree), 2 (Disagree) and 1 (Strongly Disagree) where 4
(Strongly Agree) is the most favorable answer and 1 (Strongly Disagree) is the
least favorable answer.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

In this chapter, the writer would like to discuss the findings and interpretation of
the data related to the students’ perceptions on group-based game-making to learn
descriptive writing. The writer analyzed the data based on the related theories and
previous researches that have been done. The writer also obtained the data from
the freshman. The students had taken paragraph and expository writing class, had
knowledge about descriptive writing in general. The students who participated in
the workshop were only 24 out of 65 of the total population, with the total gender
combination of 4 male students and 20 female students. In this chapter, the writer
described the findings in two sections; the first half consisted of each of the background
questions, and the second half is the 18 statements that were found in the related
questionnaire. They are as the following:

152 Gamification and Learning

BACKGROUND QUESTIONS

Table 1. Gender

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Percent
Female 20 83.3 83.3 83.3
Male 4 16.7 16.7 100.0
Total 24 100.0 100.0

As the writer have stated above, a total of 24 students were the participants of
the workshop/research conducted. The participating male students were four
persons only, where the female students were the majority of the participants,
taking as much as 83.3% of the total amount (20 students).

Table 2. Playing frequency

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Percent
Very Often 4 16.7 16.7 16.7
Often 7 29.2 29.2 45.8
Sometimes 7 29.2 29.2 75.0
Seldom 6 25.0 25.0 100.0
Total 24 100.0 100.0

The second item of the background question was the frequency of the students’
playtime. Four of the students said they played games very often. Seven of
them played games often too, but not as frequently as the first four students.
The rest were casual gamers as there were 29.2% (seven) students that played
games sometimes, and the last six students, which took 25% of the total, rarely
or seldom played games. The result indicates that the gaming frequency of the
students vary from one another depending on their preference of using their
leisure time.

Gamification and Learning 153

Table 3. Platform used for gaming

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Percent
On my laptop 8 33.3 33.3 33.3
On my smartphone 15 62.5 62.5 95.8
On my console 1 4.2 4.2 100.0
Total 24 100.0 100.0

The next item was about the gaming platform that the students tended to use.
The majority of the population (62.5%) played their game on their smartphone,
while the rest of the students played it on their laptops and gaming consoles,
summing as much as 33.3% (eight persons) for the former and 4.2% (one person)
for the latter. Rather than the usual gaming platforms such as computers/laptops
and consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, etc.), this result shows that most students
preferred a platform that is compact, easy to carry, and able to access at any
time, which is smartphone.

Table 4. Gaming skill

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Percent
Very Good 2 8.3 8.3 8.3
Good 19 79.2 79.2 87.5
Fair 2 8.3 8.3 95.8
Poor 1 4.2 4.2 100.0
Total 24 100.0 100.0

The fourth background question asked about the students’ confidence in rating
their game-playing ability. 19 students were confident that their game-playing
ability was good, whereas two students proudly stated that they had a very good
game-playing ability than the rest. 8.3% of them felt that their game-playing
ability was fair. Interestingly, one student, or 4.2% of the total population,
acknowledged that his/her game-playing ability was poor. Based on the result,
the majority of the student felt that they had a good skill in gaming which could
be indicated that the students were familiar enough with the games that they
played.

154 Gamification and Learning

Table 5. Game type

No Game Type Total

1 Real-time strategy 8
2 Simulation 12
3 Role-playing game 8
4 Puzzle 8
5 Massive multiplayer online 2

The fifth from the background questions was about some type of games that
students liked to play. The writer provided some options and the students were
free to choose for more than one option, should they want to. From the table
above, the most favorable game type that the students liked the most was
simulation games whereas the second most popular ones belonged to real-time
strategy, role-playing game (RPG), and puzzle, favored by eight students each.
The least favored type was massive multiplayer online (MMO) which was chosen
by two students only.

Table 6. Numbers of players

Valid Per- Cumulative

Frequency Percent
cent Percent
Multiplayer 6 25.0 25.0 25.0
Single player 18 75.0 75.0 100.0
Total 24 100.0 100.0

Background question number six was about the students’ preference of players in
playing games. From 24 students, 25% (six) of them liked to play the game with
their friends/family members/colleagues (multi-player) whereas the majority
75% (18) for this category preferred to play it individually (single-player).
The result of this question shows that students liked to play their games by
themselves due to accessibility and availability. Playing a single player game is
quicker rather than multi player because students did not have to wait or even
need another players.

Gamification and Learning 155

Table 7. Creating game

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Percent
Yes 3 12.5 12.5 12.5
No 21 87.5 87.5 100.0
Total 24 100.0 100.0

The last background question was about the students’ experience in creating a
game. In this simple question, students were asked whether or not they have
created a game before. Three of them answered with ‘yes’ whereas the remaining
21 answered with ‘no’. While students’ inexperience in creating a game are high,
this is understandable because the students are from the Faculty of Language
and Arts whose focus is studying English instead of game making.

STATEMENTS
From the table (see table 8 on appendix A and table 9 on appendix B), we can see
that the overall mean score of the students’ perceptions on group-based game
making to learn descriptive writing could be concluded as favorable. Also, there
are two statements that have the highest mean scores of all (3.42), respectively
Statement 4 (This game is helpful for me to practice descriptive writing) and
Statement 14 (Games should be included as a learning medium in schools/
colleges). The mean for Statement 4 indicates that the usage of the game helps
the students describe their writing practice. The writer also observed during the
workshop that each character and setting could be developed differently into a
various form of descriptive details/questions from one group to another in a short
time. The majority of the students felt this game, or the usage of this particular
game during the workshop, are more helpful than the standard writing activity
(without any multimedia aids). The other one of the highest-scored statements,
which is Statement 14 (Games should be included as a learning medium in
schools/colleges), shows that the inclusion of a modern learning medium, which
in this case, game, is very preferred by the students in a school/college setting.

The second high-scored statement (3.38) goes to Statement 13 (It is possible

to use the game to practice other English skills and contents [e.g. reading,
sociolinguistics, culture]). Based on the favorable response, the students felt
that the game holds many possibilities to be applied in other English skill courses
and contents. Meaning, the game’s academic application is not limited to writing
practice purposes only, but also to other English-related courses such as structure,

156 Gamification and Learning

reading, and literature if it is programmed in such way.

The statements that highlight the relevance of group-based game making for this
study are Statement 8 (I am interested in creating group-based games to practice
my descriptive writing skill), Statement 11 (I feel that group-based games are
more appealing if they can be played on various gadgets), Statement 15 (We
distribute the writing tasks equally), and Statement 16 (The team members
shared their ideas in creating the writing activities). The aforementioned
statement each have the following means of 3.00, 3.25, 3.08, and 3.29, resulting
to an average mean of 3.155. This data show that the students have perceived a
good attitude towards group-based game-making activity. Students feel that it is a
good activity for they could enhance their writing skill (in this case, descriptive),
and contribute something to the group such as ideas which are very relevant to
what Robertson & Nicholson (2007) had stated (sharing ideas & tips). They also
take turns in writing the descriptive questions/statements so that everyone is
involved in the process. The students also thought that the group-based games
that they created would be more interesting if it could be executed on various
gadgets/platforms so that everyone could enjoy it without any technological
hindrance or limitations.

The next list of statements highlights the students’ thought of the game’s usage
for practicing descriptive writing. Statement 4 (This game is helpful for me
to practice descriptive writing), 6 (Creating a game to practice descriptive
writing is exciting), and 7 (I feel this game meets my needs to learn descriptive
writing skill) are covering this section. The average mean of the aforementioned
statements for this section is 3.333. The average mean scores for this category
has proven that game’s usage plays a quite major part in boosting the students’
descriptive writing practice through the game aids as it is deemed helpful,
exciting, and fulfilling by the students. As for the game application for another
writing genre stated by Statement 5 (I am interested in creating a game for
different writing genres), the students also showed a positive attitude towards
the activity.

The statements that show the students’ personal thought of the game-making
activity and the game itself are Statement 1 (I feel satisfied with the game I
created), 3 (The template is helpful for me to create the activities), 9 (I am
interested in sharing the game I created), 10 (The game I created is useful for
other learners who want to practice their English skills), 12 (I feel that the game
I created is interesting), and 18 (It is better to create this kind of game on my
own). Favorable responses are given from the students to Statement 1 (3.13),
3 (3.29), 9 (3.00), 10 (3.21), 12 (3.17). We can see that after the activity was

Gamification and Learning 157

done, the students were satisfied with their created game. They also felt that
the game was helpful for them in creating the activities, meaning that the game
has provided a smooth support for the students. Interesting aspects that we could
deduct from their answers are their opinions on the game. They believe that it
is interesting and helpful for other learners to improve their English skills, and
they don’t even mind sharing it with others also, should they need one. As for
Statement 18 (It is better to create this kind of game on my own), the students
felt that the provided game template will be easier to manage individually. This
could be caused by the availability of the laptops per group, which is only one.
Although they took part and took turns in sharing their ideas (Statement 16)
and typing the contents (Statement 15), the wait between turns could cause a
boredom, which is believed why they would like to do it fully on their own.

The remaining statements, Statement 2 (Creating the game is easy for me) and
Statement 17 (Creating the writing activities is more difficult than creating the
game itself), received mean scores of 2.42 and 2.92 respectively. The students
found that making the game is not easy as they thought it would be as there are
many things that should be managed and programmed. The writer also found it a
bit overwhelming at first, but with a bit of practice and familiarity with the game
itself, everything will be easier and fun after a while. The writer believed that
the cause was from the students’ unfamiliarity for they tended to ask the writer
for a help in optimizing their game’s content. As for Statement 17, students
found it quite challenging in making the descriptive writing activity. Before the
workshop began, students were asked by the writer whether they had reached
descriptive writing in their writing class or not, and the students answered that
they had just started on the particular topic but had not practiced much. From
their answers, the writer believed that the cause was the students’ unfamiliarity
with the descriptive writing itself.

In general, the findings of this study related to the students’ perceptions on

group-based game making to learn descriptive writing could be indicated as
favorable. The students felt that the game and the game-making activity are
both interesting and helpful. The idea of working in groups received a positive
response as well. Students were able to contribute to and share something with
the group to maximize their work. The game is also perceived to be helpful for
learning descriptive writing as well, as it contains many interesting functions and
features inside to support the learning process despite having some drawbacks,
such as the students’ familiarity with the game and their knowledge about
descriptive writing.

158 Gamification and Learning

CONCLUSION & SUGGESTION

Based on the analysis on the previous chapter, the writer found out that in general,
the students’ perception on group-based game making to learn descriptive
writing have received a favorable response. Group-based game making has been
considered as a fun activity by the students as it fosters the enhancement of
their peer solidarity and also communication and language skills (see results of
statement 15 and 16 on appendix B). The activity stimulated the students to
share their knowledge and tips with their groupmates on how the game and the
writing should be constructed to be as good as possible. During the workshop,
the students were actively discussing the questions that they should be using
for their game and asked for their peers’ recommendation and ideas. They also
asked their groupmates whether or not their grammar on the questions was
wrong, hoping for a correction from their mates who had a better understanding
and knowledge about it so that the best result could be presented to other
groups at the end of the activity. Another positive aspect from the activity is
that the students who have a better knowledge at English could directly (or even
indirectly) teach his/her friends who haven’t yet understood, which potentially
leveraged the language learning process.

The students have also grown a positive attitude towards the game and the
activity involving the usage of games. The students felt a sense of satisfaction
upon completing the creation their game due to several aspects of the game
itself (see statement 1 on appendix B). Students felt that the game was very
helpful for them in the terms of learning purpose as it provided them a multiple
support (see statement 3 on appendix B). Games give them visual, textual, and
audio aids which could help stimulate the students’ ideas and imagination on
themes, characters, stories, questions, etc. that they would like to create. As
the game’s default language is also English, it could also enhance their English
skill indirectly. The students would also like to share the game template and
their created game with others due to its positive factors and usefulness (see
statement 9 and 10 on appendix B). Interestingly, the students showed a very
positive response to the idea of applying the usage of game for learning in
school/university setting (see statement 14 on appendix B). The main reason
was that students felt that using game as a learning medium was more fun and
interesting due to the aforementioned positive factors than the conventional
learning method.

Third, the game has also been perceived as a helpful medium by the students in
aiding them to practice descriptive writing. The game has provided more than

Gamification and Learning 159

enough support such as visual, textual, and audio aids which have been stated
above for them to work on. In summary, students find it helpful, exciting, and
fulfilling as it meets their needs for practicing descriptive writing which has
been proved by Statement 4 (This game is helpful for me to practice descriptive
writing) for being the most highest-scored statement of all.

There were also some aspects in the study that hamper the students’ progress.
The first one was the students’ knowledge about the game. They are less familiar
with the game that sometimes it could slow their progress down (see statement 2
on appendix B). This was understandable in the writer’s perspective as they were
not from game technology major. The second aspect was the students’ knowledge
of the descriptive writing itself. The students did not learn the subject well
enough that they had trouble at arranging and making the descriptions of the
questions at some occasions. However, the problems above were not major and
with a bit of practice and familiarity on the matters above, the writer believes
that the hindrances could be negated completely.

The result of this study is also similarly related to Murniati & Sanjaya’s study
(2015), where students also encountered some technical encounters related to
the students’ familiarity with the game, but there was nothing major and did not
diminish the study’s findings that students felt the game was interesting and also
useful to learn a subject matter, which is English.

With regard to the conclusions above, the writer would like to incorporate some
suggestions for further study about the implementation of game-making in groups
for learning English writing skill, which is descriptive writing in this case. Firstly,
the study was limited in several ways. There was a low number of participants,
which is 24, and this study only used a simple descriptive statistics so it could
not be generalized to other populations. Also, the writer suggests an extensive
research about the full capabilities and features of RPG Maker MV or other game
templates that could be used for English skill learning purposes, mainly writing
skills. For future research, it would be preferable to find out more about the
participants’ English language & writing skills first so that the game could be
constructed to be more suitable to the research’s purposes. Last but not least,
the writer also hope that this study could be used as a reference by the lecturers
or teachers to improve their language teaching using a game as the learning
medium, so that students could enjoy and learn English in a fun, modern, and
beneficial method.

160 Gamification and Learning

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Gamification and Learning 165

A VR Based Educational Game for Studying
Mathematics

T. Brenda Chandrawati
Erdhi Widyarto Nigroho

ABSTRACT

Virtual reality is a technology that illustrates three dimensional

environment simulated by computer. Virtual reality technology is
widely used in various fields, such as medical field, architecture,
entertainment and others. One example of applying virtual reality
is using the game. In the game, players will be brought to play in a
virtual environment so that players will feel different sensations as
if they seem to be in the real world.

Mathematics lesson is a lesson that most students are not interested

in. Many educational experts have sought to simplify and make
students love this lesson. However, the effort has still a lot of
obstacles. Virtual reality technology has been attempted for
mathematics learning where players will be engaged into the virtual
world of mathematics. Accordingly, the player is expected to be easy
to accept a math lesson.

Keyword: virtual reality, mathematics, learning, game

INTRODUCTION

In the last recent years, technology has been rapidly developed and available
for various fields, one of which is virtual reality technology. Virtual reality is
a technology that demonstrates a three-dimensional environment simulated by

166 Gamification and Learning

a computer and one can interact with that environment. In virtual reality, the
environment is actually imitated and only exists in imagination.

Virtual reality technology is widely used in various fields, such as medical field,
architecture, entertainment and others. One example of using virtual reality is
in the game. When virtual reality technology is used in the game then the user
feels as though they are in the game world.

This situation can benefit from creating a game that can facilitate the user to
understand a particular subject that is considered difficult by most students i.e.
the math game. According to Turmudi, educational experts and mathematics
education experts have spent for many years in attaining a goal that mathematics
can be well mastered by students. Nevertheless, the efforts show that not many
students in each class favor the mathematics [1]. Then, the best solution in
understanding the basic concepts of mathematics is presented by using games
with virtual reality technology.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Virtual Reality Technology

Virtual reality technology enables one to simulate a real object by using a computer
generating a three-dimensional atmosphere that makes the user as if physically
involved. The virtual reality works as follows: a user sees a pseudo-world, which
is actually a dynamic image; then, through a speaker or headphone device,
the user hears a realistic sound; by the headset, glove and walker, each user
movement will be monitored by a system that will give the appropriate reaction
so that the user feels in a real situation, both physically and psychologically.

Virtual Reality Elements [2]

1. Virtual world, the content of a given medium that comes in the form of screen
play or script. In this element, the user will experience the virtual world.
2. Immersion, the existing sensation in an environment. Immersion is divided
into two types: mental immersion and physical immersion.
3. Sensory feedback, information that is displayed to the user’s senses about the
virtual world, sensory feedback can be visual, audio or touch.
4. Interactivity, the virtual world that response to user action in real time.

Gamification and Learning 167

B. Serious Game

Video game is a medium of learning that mixes interesting pictures and sounds.
Interesting pictures and sounds involving hand interaction to play games will give
a player pleasure, and will earn good learning outcomes. Such games are called
the serious game; they are not only used for fun but also used for the purpose of
developing skills and habits.

The definition of a serious game differs from one researcher to another. According
to Vinay, a serious game is defined as a software system that is a combination
of serious dimensions, the goal is not for fun and gaming dimension, which has
the element of game design and modeling concepts, game structure, game
techniques and GUI [3].

Masakazu explains that the serious game was first mentioned in a book written by
Clark C. Apt. In the book, the serious game was an effective game for education
and training. Explanation of the serious game had been written before the
computer game or video game was popular in the market. At the same time,
simulators and simulation systems were used for educational needs, training,
training support and strategic planning. After Game Developer Conference in
2004, serious games became popular and flourished in various areas. Masakazu
also explains that basically entertainment games and serious games are the same
computer games but have different usage [4].

C. Review of VR Game

Table 1.1

Game Education
No Story Segment Arts Interface
Name Opportunity
1 Finding Adventure Kids Japanese gamepad / To educate
in searching Anime touchscreen shape of
Item space
2 Temple Endless Teenagers 3D touchpad To introduce
Run running Animation letters or
but not shape of
detail space
3 Road rage Driving car Kids Draft touchpad To introduce
Animation letters or
shape of
space
4 Dragon Card Game Teenagers Japanese touchpad All types of
Front Battle Anime education

168 Gamification and Learning

5 Cosmos Spaceship Public 3D touch pad To introduce
Warfare Battle Graphic letters or
detail shape of
space
6 Adventure Adventure of Kids Japanese touchpad To educate
Cat RPG Anime introductory
and simple
math
7 Shinoko Adventure of Kids Japanese touchpad To educate
RPG Anime introductory
and simple
math

METHODOLOGY

The selected research objects are elementary school s From the design process
to the game played by a user, it will go through several stages :

1. Determine the game genre to be created, in this research the serious game
is selected as one of the genre of games that have been known.
2. Selection of tools to be used in the game.
Selected tools will be used to create assets, including the selection of sounds
and tools that will be used to develop the game.
3. Gameplay formulation
Gameplay is a pattern or mechanism used to manage the interaction
between players and games created. Gameplay also arranges for players to
experience a fun game.
4. Preparation of assets and design level
The concept of all the characters and grouping of difficulty levels is arranged
at this stage. It aims to get players to experience the optimal play
5. Development
At this stage all characters and assets begin to be enhanced in full
development and all elements are integrated.
6. Alpha / close beta test
This stage is done to determine whether it has been able to provide the
player experience in accordance with expectations as well as to detect
whether there is a technical problem. students with age range 6-7 years
around Semarang city.

Gamification and Learning 169

DISCUSSION

From Table 1.1, the opportunity to educate is the introduction of space and
figure form. A simple game on virtual reality game is good for the introduction of
space shape, such as rectangular shape, triangle circle and so forth. This game
model is “Endless Run” like “Temple Run”, “Sub waver” and others. The player
will walk looking for a square shape. When the shape appears, the player must
shoot the square shape. If the shot misses, it will reduce the player’s life. The
player’s life has 3 (three) chances, then the game will be finished. If the shoot
hits the target, the player will score 10. Here is the game introduction of space
shape based on virtual reality

Figure 1. VR Game Display on Space Shape

Players will be brought into the 3D world so it will make a child like being
in the real world. Next, the child will interact with how to find the shape of
space learned. In accordance with the principle of learning, learning will be
more successful with the interaction between players with the subject taught.
Likewise, the player will get learning over and over again and feel happy and
challenged by searching for the appropriate shape of space to get points and
avoid loss of life.

The weakness of this game is the player cannot choose any form of space, so
his life will not run out and the game is never finished even if the player does
not add the score. For that reason, it is necessary that the rules are given time
constraints. In addition, selecting the exact shape will add points and additional
time, so the game will be more challenging

170 Gamification and Learning

CONCLUSION

Games with VR base bring players into the virtual world so it is possible to include
the learning process, especially math lessons

Learning the introduction of the numbers and letters can be applied easily to the
VR-based Game

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The result of this study is a grant from the ministry of Research and Technology
Research Indonesia for applied product research.

REFERENCES

Mulyono Abdurrahman 2003, “Pendidikan bagi Anak Berkesulitan Belajar “,

Jakarta: Rineka Cipta hal. 252

LaValle, Steven M, “Virtual Reality”, Cambridge University Press, 2017

Vasudevamurt, Vinay Bhargav and Alexander Uskov, “Serious Game Engines :

Analysis and Applications”, Proceeding of 2015 IEEE International Conference
on Electro/Information Technology (EIT), 2015, Pages: 440 - 445

Furuichi, Masakazu, Megumi Aibara and Kazuki Yanagisawa, “Design and

Implementation of Serious Games for Training and Education”, Proceeding
of 2014 UKACC International Conference on Control (CONTROL), 2014,
Pages: 691 - 695

Gamification and Learning 171

LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES
FOR SPECIFIC DOMAINS
iPon: A Personal Finance Mobile Application Software
that Encourages Smart Money Management and
Financial Skills

JC DOCTOR
MR MITSCHEK
KM PALIZA
JT TIONG
GM SABILE

ABSTRACT

iPon is an educative application which aims to teach its three target

users which are the students, employees, and families on how to
properly budget their own allowance in an entertaining way and
also with the use of their smartphones. The application is consist of
six different features such as Expenses, Tips, Budget Guide, Notes,
Calendar, and Summary of Savings. It also allows the user to budget
their allowance from daily, weekly, or monthly.

This application is exclusive only for android operating system.

The developers made sure that the application’s contents are clear
and easy to understand. The user will just have to interact with
the application in order to monitor and track his or expenses and
savings. The application will provide a notification for the user that
can serve as a reminder, and a recommendation so that the user will
always have to prioritize his or her savings.

The software used in creating the iPon is with the help of Android
Studio, Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Flash Professional, and an
online database called Firebase.

174 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

The result of the evaluation that the proponents conducted, resulted
as Moderately Agree with the five categories such as appearance,
structure and navigation, content, usability, and designs.

Keywords: Budget Tracker, Financial Education, Financial Literacy,

Mobile Application, Money Management

INTRODUCTION

Money plays an important role to one’s life, it is also now a part of our daily
needs. Without money you won’t be able to buy your basic necessities, you can’t
survive for too long without having a money. Most people fail to balance between
saving and enjoying their money. Enjoying money can satisfy us in different ways,
it gives us joy, excitement, and happiness, but isn’t it more satisfying if we enjoy
our money while we are saving too? We can fulfill our needs while learning how
to save from our own money as well.

iPon is a Filipino term that means “to save”, where basically is the main function
of the application. Aside from money management, the proponents are also
offering an educative application for the users, where they can also learn the
importance of properly managing their allowance and the benefits that they can
get from it.

Nowadays, mobile phones are a big part of our lives, especially for the youth.
It gives us the convenience and efficiency that we need. We can do all things
through the use of our mobile phones. It will be less time consuming since all
that we need are already in our mobile phones. Different helpful applications are
now available for downloading.

Mobile phones have different types of operating systems such as Windows, iOS,
and Android, but android is the most popular one, since it is more affordable
than other operating system. It is marked as the top mobile operating system in
the Philippines in December 2013 according to Cameron Peebles. It is said in the
published report that Filipinos prefer Android than any other operating system.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 175

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

FOREIGN LITERATURE
The 11 Best UK Apps for Money Management and Personal Finance.
Fearn, 2016

Many of us have a number of different bank accounts, such as one for personal
spending, another for savings, and another still dedicated to paying off bills.
Even if it’s just remembering all of your passwords and login details, you’ll know
that managing all of them effectively can be a struggle, especially when all you
want is an overview of your balances. That’s where Money Dashboard comes into
the mix. Compatible with all UK bank and credit card companies, it allows you to
view the balances of all your bank accounts instantly and aims to help you make
more informed decisions by identifying your spending habits.

Money Dashboard can also provide the user the money management that they
needed which can be used for personal spending with the bonus of being educated
about the importance of money management.

Best budgeting apps: 7 apps to take control of your finances.

OnTrees, 2016

OnTrees is the budgeting app from MoneySuperMarket and it makes keeping track
of your money nice and simple. OnTrees works with major UK banks in order for
you to track exactly what is coming in and going out of your current account,
savings accounts and credit cards, in one place with one login. This app sorts your
transactions into colorful categories so you can see where you are spending and
what you could save on. It also delivers detailed information about your spending
habits with charts and icons. OnTrees is available to download for Android and
iOS.

OnTrees and iPon are both available for Android users. The feature that is the
same with our application is that it can provide different categories on where
your moneys are being spent.

176 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

By doing away in the ‘accounting jargon’, KashFlow has created an
app for the ordinary user.
KashFlow, 2015

Moneytrackin’ is a free online web app that allows you to track all your expenses
and income easily and without effort. The app intends to be a simple yet powerful
online budget management tool that offers you a clear view of your financial
situation. One interesting feature of the app is sharing and collaboration. If you
are working with a family member or your roommate to keep budgets in line, you
can do so with ease and work together on the same account to reach financial
goals.

iPon and Moneytrackin’ will both help the user to manage their money properly.
It will both let the user to keep track of their expenses.

Money Management Skills for Youth.

Money Management International, 2016

It is never too early to start teaching children money management and financial
skills they will need for life. With our advice articles you can teach kids the
importance of basic mathematics, financial goal setting, and responsible money
management. Find the resources and money management tips for kids that you
need to raise your children to be financially successful adults.

At an early age, kids can now benefit by starting to learn how to manage their
own money. It is much easier for them if they can have an application that
can provide them the proper tips and guide on how to properly handle their
allowance and for them to know how value to save money. This features will also
be offered with our application.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 177

LOCAL LITERATURE

Online Tools You Can Use To Monitor Your Budget.

Denise Foz, 2016

The Philippines ranked 68th in the world in terms of financial literacy in a recent
study conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Philippines was
revealed to lack a national strategy for financial education. The study was further
supported by a 2014 research by MasterCard, which indicated that Filipinos score
low on financial literacy. The Philippines ranked 8th among Asia Pacific countries.
Filipinos should start to educate themselves and make use of available financial
tools to help manage their finances wisely.

With that being said, the proponents came up with an idea of developing a tool
that can help Filipinos manage their monthly allowance. Aside from managing,
the application will also provide tips and guides where they can learn from.

The Philippine Online Chronicles.

Rachel Yapchiongco, 2014

TRAIL WALLET is a travel expense tracker ideal for people who love to travel.
Trail Wallet can help you determine if you’re sticking to your budget or spending
too much than previously planned. This app tells you if you still have enough
money to spend on your trip. It tells you how much you spent and available
funds. Just choose your home currency and convert your money to desired foreign
currency. Set a daily budget then add expenses each time to get a bill or receipt.
Organize expenses according to items such as accommodation, food, transport,
miscellaneous, etc. Customize by creating color coded categories. At the end of
your trip, you’ll be able to see how much you have spent. It features Twitter and
Facebook support. You can also email CSV reports directly to the app.

The said application can be used specifically for travelling purposes. The same
as our application, they both set a budget that must be used, and lets the user
add the amount of expenses he spent. Compared to proponents application that
there are proper tips and guide on how to properly handle their allowance and
for them to know how value to save money.

178 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Want to manage your finances better? Here are some apps.

News A, 2014

This app downloads and consolidates all your financial records, including your
checking accounts, savings accounts or credit cards (if your bank is included in
its list of banks). All you have to do is just refresh your account. This way, you
do not have to log on to different online banking sites just to see your balance.
If your bank is not among those that Koku can connect with, you can import
your statements into Koku. The app also provides an analysis of your income and
spending habits. Since it automatically syncs to iCloud, you will be able to access
your account from anywhere using your Apple device.

Like any other application it also provides the use of credit cards and bank
accounts, but the down part is that it is only available for iOS users. The
proponents think is more hassle to use their app since there are lot of users used
an android phones.

Free Apps That Keep Your Budget in Line

MoneyMax.ph., 2015

Who needs a personal accountant if you have Expensify on your phone? This
popular app categorizes, tags and groups expenses into a report, which you can
also save as PDF, for easy report submission. It has SmartScan technology that
automatically reads receipt details for you, bank and credit card import that
automatically pulls your transactions into your account, free flight alerts plus
automatic expense report based on itinerary, and more cool features gets rid of
any manual entry, saving you a lot of time and energy.

iPon also helps the user in tracking their expenses or where their money goes.
This application also helps you to manage your allowance by not wasting a lot of
time and energy.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 179

METHODS

It is all about the overall flow and operation of the application, including the
technical aspects of it. This also includes the basic structure of the application
and the software that are used in developing it.

In creating the design of iPon we considered different factors that can help to
the effectiveness of the application for the user, these factors are the color, the
type of text, the structure, and the positioning of different components like the
texts and buttons. We chose the colors light blue and white because it is more
pleasant for the user’s vision since it is a good color combination. We also used a
bigger font size because we are considering the capability of the user’s eyesight.
The structure of the application is not crowded because we want the user to
become familiarized with the application easily, some applications that has a
crowded structure are also complicated to use. The positions of the components
are easy to find and we also put labels in the buttons that we used so that it
is more understandable for the users. All of these are done with the use of the
software Adobe Photoshop CS5.

For the function of the application, the user has to create an account using a
valid email address. The account will serve as a unique identifier in storing the
data and information that the user will input. Data such as the user’s full name,
daily/weekly/monthly allowance, notes, and the user’s expenses. The full name
of the user will be the application’s user profile. The allowance that the user
will enter will be automatically computed according to the fixed percentages
provided by the application, this is also the main feature of the application,
which is to provide the breakdown of the user’s allowance which can serve as their
guide in their daily, weekly, and monthly expenses. For additional convenience,
the additional feature of the application is that the user can add and delete
notes, this is for listing purposes where instead of writing down your grocery
lists on a piece of paper. Lastly, the user can be able to track his/her expenses
whenever he/she will input the specific amount he/she spend depending on what
category it is. There is a provided feature where the user can view the summary
of expenses he spend. All of the functions are done with the use of Android
Studio and Firebase.

An animation about money budgeting will also be provided by the application for
additional entertainment and for educational purposes. The animation is done
with the use of Adobe Flash Professional CS6.

180 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Research Paradigm

Agile Methodology is an alternative to traditional project management where

emphasis is placed on empowering people to collaborate and make team decisions
in addition to continuous planning, continuous testing and continuous integration.
It is also a group of software development methods in which requirements and
solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional
teams.

Figure 1. Agile Methodology

Requirements

The definition of requirements in agile methodology is to come up with

Requirement Specification document or documents. The aim is to define the
requirements in as clear and as detail manner as possible. Normally in order to
capture, collect and gather the requirements. The success or the failure of the
software project being created will depend on the first phase of waterfall model,
which is the requirements.

The requirements that the proponents did for the system is to analyze the
different software that can be the most applicable in developing the application.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 181

The proponents have decided to use the software Android Studio for the functions
of the application, and for the design the proponents used Photoshop CS6. The
proponents also gathered different information needed from the target users
through a survey with the help from professionals.

Design

In agile methodology, design is about the activity before the programming. It

is about stylizing the software application. It is all about the activity involved
in conceptualizing, framing, and implementing the solutions for the progress
of the application being developed. The main purpose if this stage is to create
a blueprint that will satisfy all documented requirements, then to identify all
inputs, processes and outputs needed

The proponents all agreed to use Photoshop CS6 in conceptualizing for the
concept of the application. The framework for the software process will all be
planned in this phase.

Construction

Construction is all about the coding, verification, and debugging of the software.
This phase is the most detailed and complicated work, since this is where every
functions and processes of the application will all depend. Its purpose is to
implement the requirements from the design phase to the software.

The proponents decided to use the Android Studio as a software for creating the
function for the application, basically for implementing and debugging the codes
for the system to work well as planned.

Testing

In this phase, it is the attempt to execute the program even if it is partially

complete. By testing your software’s process, you can determine the quality
and the function you are about to provide for the future users. Although testing
cannot fully identify the defects of the application being tested.

The proponents’ strategy is to test the software every time a progress is added,
in this way the bugs or the error can be determined ahead of time and can be
fixed. By testing the application, the developers can also identify what else
needs to be added and what should be polished more.

182 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Deployment

The deployment or release phase is about all the activities that makes the
application complete and ready for use. Basically it is the finished project where
it can now be functional according to what is planned.

This is where the proponents will upload the finished project to the site where it
can now be downloaded and ready for the users.

Conceptual Framework

Figure 2. Conceptual Framework

As presented, the framework has three component: input, process and output.
In order to develop the Android Application “iPon”, it is necessary to include the
following inputs: gathered analysis and information, software needed, layout
of design, color combination and programming tools. Given these inputs, the
different processes involves are system design, coding, testing and deployment.
After given processes, the development of iPon money budgeting application will
be the output.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 183

Project Development

The designs used in the application are shown through a screenshots with the
explanations down below.

Screenshots

Figure 3 Sign in and Sign up

The user should have an account first in order to use the application, this is
the only part that is needed to have an internet connection. The account will
serve as a unique identifier so that the information and the data that are being
inputted will store in one database. Therefore, each user can have a different
access in using the application. The redundancy of the functions and data can
be avoided.

184 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Figure 4. Welcome Page

After the registration, the welcome page is displayed. This page allows the user
to view the About Us, About the Application, and the user can be able to watch
a short animation about the importance of budgeting.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 185

Figure 5. About the Application and About Us

About iPon displays the different goals that the application wants to expect from
the user. The first priority of the application is to teach the user to save 20%
from their allowance. The whole application focuses in reminding the user to
spend less and save more, aside from it, this can also serve as a modern budget
reminder through the help of a daily notification that the user can receive every
day in a specific time. About Us displays the name of the proponents, their group
name, and the school they are studying.

186 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Figure 6. Choose budget breakdown

This page is the choosing of the user’s budget breakdown, this can be from daily,
weekly, or monthly. Since not all users are receiving an allowance every day,
every week, or just every month. That is why this application is providing three
different options that the user can choose from.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 187

Figure 7.. Enter your allowance

The user should input their allowance according to their budget breakdown
whether it is daily, weekly, or monthly. The inputted allowance are automatically
computed using a fixed percentages and this serves as their guide for budgeting.

Figure 8. Choose category

The application’s target user are the students, employees, and families. Each
category provides different expenses for different users, so that the application
can satisfy all the needs of each of them.

188 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Figure 9. Student’s guide

For the student’s guide, the user can view a progress bar where he or she can
have a guide of computed amount for each expenses.The user can also view
the transparency of the computation in the information button placed at the
upper right of the page. There is also a brief explanation for the purpose of each
expenses, the percentages are also indicated beside of each category. Aside from
this, there is also an indicated recommendation above wherein there is a text
that shows for who the application can be more appropriate.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 189

Figure 10. Employee’s guide

For the employee’s guide, the user can view a progress bar where he or she can
have a guide of computed amount for each expenses.The user can also view the
transparency of the computation in the information button placed at the upper
right of the page. There is a brief explanation for the purpose of each expenses,
the percentages are also indicated beside of each category. Aside from this,
there is also an indicated recommendation above wherein there is a text that
shows for who the application can be more appropriate.

190 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Figure 11. Family’s guide

For the family’s guide, the user can view a progress bar where he or she can
have a guide of computed amount for each expenses.The user can also view the
transparency of the computation in the information button placed at the upper
right of the page.There is a brief explanation for the purpose of each expenses,
the percentages are also indicated beside of each category. Aside from this,
there is also an indicated recommendation above wherein there is a text that
shows for who the application can be more appropriate.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 191

Figure 12. Home Page

This is where the user can view most of the functions and features of the
application. In the home page, the user can be able to change the settings of the
application and can also log out in this page if he or she wants to. The button
labeled as Bought Something leads the user to the inputting of expenses. Every
time the user has inputted something, the application automatically recorded it.
This can help the user to track and monitor his or her expenses. The application
has also provided six different features for the users.

192 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Figure 13. Inputting of Expenses

The user can be able to input a specific amount of expenses that he or she
wanted to. A real time date is also automatically indicated. Beside is an amount
of guide that is based on the previous progress bar shown above, in this way, the
user can be able to monitor if he or she exceeded the specific amount that the
user should be spending. The user can also view the allowance that he or she has
inputted, and the savings he or she is making, and also his or her total expenses.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 193

Figure 14. Deleting of expenses

There are times that the user just wanted to experiment in inputting his or her
expenses just to test it. That is why the application provided a delete option for
the user so that his or her expenses will restart and will go back to zero. A dialog
box also appears if the user is going to delete something from the expenses.

194 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Figure 15. View of expenses

The view of expenses has an indicated date that depends when the user inputted
his or her expense. The total amount of expenses can also be viewed. The
expenses can be divided according to daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 195

Figure 16. Summary of expenses and Recommendations

The user can be able to view his or her summary of expenses through a pie chart,
the biggest part is where the user has spent the most. The user can also check
the recommendation given by the application, if what should be prioritized and
what should be lessen, which are shown through a dialog box.

196 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Figure 17. Calendar

A calendar is provided for the efficiency of the users, they are able to input an
expenses in advance, since the calendar can allow to select a date even if it
is not the current day. After clicking it, it will direct them to the inputting of
expenses shown above.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 197

Figure 18. Notes

Notes can be the user’s modern grocery list. It works the same as to writing
in papers, because the user can be able to add and delete whatever he or she
listed. A dialog box appears to ask if he or she really wants to delete something
from the notes.

198 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Figure.19. Tips

The application provides fifteen different tips that can give more encouragement
to the user to budget their allowance. Aside from helping or guiding the user in
properly handling their allowance, it can also teach the user to save money and
avoid impulse buying.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 199

Figure 20. Savings

In savings, the user can view his or her savings daily, monthly and weekly depends
on the category that they choose. In this feature, the user can monitor how much
did he or she save per day, per month or per week.

200 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Figure 21. Settings

This application has a setting button, where the user can change their allowance,
his or her budget breakdown, and the category that they chose.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 201

Development Planning

It is a very important part of developing an application. If it is not done correctly,

it might end up in some serious mistakes, the proponents cannot also achieve the
application that they want to develop. The planned requirements will also not be
able to accomplish and will just result to a huge waste of time and money.

Software Suited for Development

The proponents believed that there are other factors that you should consider
in order to achieve an effective and useful application. The following are the
applications that the proponents used to produce the design and the coding of
the system:

• Android Studio
Android Studio is a software that you can use for the coding of the
application which will run in an android devices. It is also the official IDE
Android Application Development. This software has a rich layout editor
that you can use for drag and drop theme editing. It also code templates
that can help you build common application features.

• Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe Photoshop is the predominant photo editing and manipulation
software on the market. Its uses range from full featured editing of large
batches of photos to creating intricate digital paintings and drawings that
mimic those done by hand.

• Adobe Flash Professional CS6

It is an authoring tool that you can use to create games, applications, and
other content that responds to user interaction. Flash projects can include
simple animations, video content, complex user interfaces, applications,
and everything in between. In general, individual projects created with
Flash Professional are called applications (or SWF applications), even
though they might only contain basic animation. You can make media-rich
applications by including pictures, sound, video, and special effects.

• Firebase
It is a mobile and web application platform with tools and infrastructure
designed to help developers build high-quality apps. Firebase is made up
of complementary features that developers can mix-and-match to fit their
needs. Firebase’s initial product was a real-time database, which provides
an API that allows developers to store and sync data across multiple clients.

202 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

Requirements Analysis

The software that are needed should be capable in developing the application,
it should also be suited for the devices that the proponents’ are using, in order
to avoid wasting of time.

Blueprint of the structure should be handed to all of the proponents to avoid

misunderstandings with the plans. The functions and the designs of each view of
the application should meet the requirements.

Proponents should expect to do a sudden change in design and coding during the
testing of the application. They should also expect to have an analysis each test
that they make.

Languages Used

The most suited programming language that the proponents used is the Java. It is
a kind of programming language that has a general purpose, it is also designed to
only have a few implementation dependencies as possible. Since the application
has a broad functions, Java helped the proponents to lessen the complication in
developing.

Evaluation of the Projects

Respondents of the Study

The respondents of the evaluation of the study are the students from high school
to college who are studying at De La Salle University - Dasmariñas, employees
who are single and does not own any property, and lastly a starting and growing
families who has a four member in total. They are the main targets of this
study because the proponents want to help them not to waste their money for
unnecessary things. The proponents let the respondents to evaluate the money
budgeting application system according to the application’s appearance, its
structure and navigation, the application’s content, its usability, and lastly its
design.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 203

The students from senior high school to college and the employees also answered a
survey form that answer the details that are needed in developing the application
such as the amount of their usual daily allowance, the budget breakdown of
their allowance for each category of expenses so that the proponents can have
the proper allotted percentage that they should use in computing for the user’s
guide, lastly is a question about the willingness of the respondents in downloading
the application. The details of the expenses of the families are came from the
advices of the financial analysts.

Research Instruments and Techniques

The proponents distributed a survey forms and evaluation forms as their data
gathering instrument to collect the information that they need in the study.
The result of the conducted survey served as the basis for the application, if it
still needs some improvement or changes. The respondents are asked about the
application’s user friendliness, effectiveness of the application, design of the
application, and if it is worth using and downloading.

Survey and evaluation forms are used to test the validity and reliability of data
gathering at the proposed application. The value of results depends heavily on
the sincerity, truthfulness and objective of the respondents.

Data Gathering Procedure

Data collection is the process of gathering and measuring information on

variables of interest which enables one to answer stated research questions, test
hypotheses, and evaluate outcomes. The goal for all data collection is to capture
quality evidence that translate to reach data analysis and allows the building of
a convincing and credible answer to questions that have been posed.

The proponents collected the data needed from the respondents through the use
of the data gathering instrument which is the survey. The results are tallied after
the survey was conducted.

204 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Statistical Treatment of Data

The proponents tallied the answers of the respondents in the survey conducted,
the details gathered are used in developing the application. This survey answered
how much of their allowance are they putting in savings, meals, transportation,
other expenses, and house obligation for the employees.

The proponents tallied the scores given by the respondents who are the students,
employees, and families who evaluated the evaluation form. This helped the
proponents to define whether the application is effective and efficient enough
for the students, employees, and families who used it. In getting the total
evaluation grade of the respondents for each category, which are the application’s
appearance, its structure and navigation, the application’s content, its usability,
and the design. The proponents computed the sum of each of the ratings
according to what the question is. To get the average, the proponents used the
formula below wherein (A) is the number of respondents who answered for the
evaluation.

Different rates per categories are shown using a table below. The inputted
number are already tallied. There are five tables that show the answers of the
respondents with the evaluation form. The ratings are based by putting numbers
from 1-5 wherein 5 is the highest and 1 is the lowest.

1 - Strongly Disagree 3 – Agree 5 – Strongly Agree

2 – Disagree 4 – Moderately Agree

Evaluation
TABLE 1. According to Appearance

5 4 3 2 1
Layout of the colors, fonts, and images 28 54 16 2
are consistent
Text is clearly understandable 36 47 16 1
Application layout is balanced and clear 27 53 19 1

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 205

According to the evaluation that we conducted, 54 out of 100 respondents
moderately agree that the layout of the colors, fonts and images are consistent
throughout the application. 47 respondents moderately agree that the text is
clearly understandable, and 53 respondents moderately agree that the application
layout is balanced and clear.

TABLE.2 . According to Structure and Navigation

5 4 3 2 1
The content of the application is organized 23 51 25 1
The purpose of page is easily understood 33 49 16 1 1

The content of the application is organized and out of the 100 respondents,
51 of them moderately agree with it, which means that the structure of the
application such as the placing of the buttons, arrangement of the content, and
its sensitivity when navigating. While 49 of the respondents moderately agree
that the purpose of the pages are easily understood, it means that the uses easily
gets how does the application works.

TABLE 3. According to Content

5 4 3 2 1
The information is correct and current 32 48 20
The content is sufficient to meet user’s 37 46 17
needs and expectation

The table shows the average rating per criteria in According to Content. 48 out
of the 100 respondent moderately agree that the information of the content is
correct and current, where it means that the application is consistent in giving
its function as to what is expected. While 46 of them moderately agree that the
content is sufficient to meet user’s needs and expectations, it means that the
data and information gathered according to the surveys and interviews are the
same with what the application did.

206 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

TABLE 4. According to Usability

5 4 3 2 1
All components of the application are 28 58 13 1
functional
The application is accessible for the 36 49 13 2
authorized

According to usability, all components of the application are functional and 58

out of the 100 respondents moderately agreed with it, while 49 moderately agree
with the usability of the application says that the application is accessible for
the authorized users.

TABLE 5. According to Design

5 4 3 2 1
User Friendliness 44 49 6 1
Usable to the intended audience 45 44 9 2
Simple and clear 48 44 8

According to the evaluation that the proponents conducted, 4.36% says that our
app is user friendly, 4.32% of the respondent says that the app is usable to the
intended audience, and the remaining 4.4% according to the evaluation the app
is so simple and clear.

Survey

TABLE 5. Daily Allowance of Senior High School Students

Allowance Number of Respondents

50 - 100 2
100 - 150 5
150 – 200 9
200 – 250 14
250 – 300 10
300 – 350 4
More than 350 6

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 207

The Table 5, shows the daily allowance of the fifty respondents of the senior high
school students. It shows that fourteen respondents has an allowance ranging
from 200-250 pesos. While two of them have responded that they only get an
allowance ranging from 50-100 pesos.

TABLE 6. Daily Allowance of College Students

Allowance Number of Respondents

50 - 100
100 - 150 1
150 – 200 7
200 – 250 20
250 – 300 10
300 – 350 7
More than 350 5

The Table 6, shows the daily allowance of college students. It shows that the
highest number of respondents has an allowance of 200-250 pesos every day. The
lowest number of respondents has an allowance of 100-150 pesos per day.

TABLE 7. Daily Allowance of Employees

Allowance Number of Respondents

50 - 100
100 - 150 4
150 – 200 2
200 – 250 6
250 – 300 2
300 – 350 10
More than 350 26

The Table 7, shows the daily allowance of the 50 respondents of the employees.
It shows that the highest number of respondents has an allowance of more than
350 pesos per day, both the allowance of 150-200 pesos and 250-300 pesos has a
total number of two respondents out of 50.

208 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

TABLE 8. Daily Budget Breakdown of Allowance of Senior High School Students

Categories Allotted Percentage

Savings 20%
Meals 40%
Transportation 25%
Other Expenses 15%

The Table 8, shows the daily budget breakdown of allowance of the 50 respondents
of the senior high school students. It shows that the highest allotted percentage
of respondent’s daily budget breakdown is for meals, 40% of their allowance per
day, and the lowest allotted percentage of respondent’s daily budget breakdown
is for other expenses, 15% of their allowance per day.

TABLE 9. Daily Budget Breakdown of Allowance of College Students

Categories Allotted Percentage

Savings 20%
Meals 40%
Transportation 25%
Other Expenses 15%

The Table 9, shows the daily budget breakdown of allowance of the 50 respondents
of the college students. It shows that the highest allotted percentage of
respondent’s daily budget breakdown is for meals, 40% of their allowance per
day, and the lowest allotted percentage of respondent’s daily budget breakdown
is for other expenses, 15% of their allowance per day.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 209

TABLE 10. Daily Budget Breakdown of Allowance of Employees

Categories Allotted Percentage

Savings 20%
Meals 25%
Transportation 25%
Other Expenses 10%
House Obligation 20%

The Table 10, shows the daily budget breakdown of allowance of the 50
respondents of the employee. It shows that the highest allotted percentage of
respondent’s daily budget breakdown is for meals and transportation, 25% of
their allowance per day, and the lowest allotted percentage of respondent’s
daily budget breakdown is for other expenses, 10% of their allowance per day.

TABLE 11. Willingness to Download the Application

Users Yes No
Senior High School 30 20
College Students 34 16
Employees 40 10
Families 32 18

The Table 11, shows the willingness of the target users to download the
application. It shows that the highest numbers of respondents answered yes in
downloading the application.

210 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Conclusion

The proponents were able to meet the requirements needed in order to develop
the application and to also satisfy the needs of the future users. The proponents
were also able to upload the application in Google Play Store. Based on the
conducted evaluation with the target users, the proponents conclude that they
have reached the satisfaction that the users are looking for, they also succeeded
in creating a budgeting application for students in senior high school and college,
employees, and for the families.

The proponents were able to apply the details that they gathered from surveys
and interviews to the application so that it will be appropriate for using. The
application was successfully made with the use of original images, design, colors,
and sounds. iPon will not only provide an educative way of budgeting, but also
it will provide the user the entertaining way of budgeting with the user of their
mobile phones.

Therefore, the proponents conclude that iPon can be an educational and

entertainment application for the users, but there will still be more test and
finalization that is needed for the stability and reliability of the application.

Suggestion

iPon can a be great recommendation for future researchers and developers that
has a related objectives. However, the proponents and the future researchers
should consider the use of other software that can be more useful and applicable
to use, where it will be easier and not complicated to use. This software should
still be related for android development and might also help them along the way.
These recommendations can help with creating and improving an application
with more functions and features.

Future researchers can develop an application that can perform the limitation of
iPon and can also satisfy different range of users. As for iPon, the proponents are
only targeting users such as students from senior high school to college, single
employees that has not yet invest to anything, and a young and growing family
with a total of four members only.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 211

REFERENCE

What is Photoshop. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://itconnect.uw.edu/learn/workshops/

online-tutorials/graphics-and-design-workshops/adobe-cs/photoshop/.

Mobileapplicationdevelopment.(n.d.).Retrievedfromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Mobile_application_development.

AConceptualFrameworkforMobileLearning.(n.d.).Retrievedfromhttps://ideas.repec.
org/p/amr/wpaper/464.html.

Conceptual.Framework.for.Mobile-Based.Application.(n.d.).Retrievedfrom www.
irmainternational.org/viewtitle/31165/.

AdobeFlashProfessional CS6. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.adobe.com/devnet/

flash/articles/create-first-flash-document.html.

Fearn, N. (2016, January 28). The 11 Best UK Apps for Money Management and
Personal Finance. Retrieved from http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2016/01/28/
the-11-best-money-management-budgeting-and-personal-finance-apps-for-
android-and-ios.

Best budgeting apps: 7 apps to take control of your finances. (2016, January 1).
Retrieved from http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/135942-best-budgeting-
apps-7-apps-to-take-control-of-your-finances.

By doing away in the ‘accounting jargon’, KashFlow has created an app for the ordinary
user. (2015, May 27). Web.AppStorm. Retrieved from http://web.appstorm.
net/roundups/finances-roundups/12-fantastic-finance-tracking-management-
apps/.

Money Management Skills for Youth. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2016,
from https://www.moneymanagement.org/Financial-Education/Money-
Management-For-Kids.aspx.

Foz, D. (2016, January 11). Denise Foz. Retrieved from http://blog.pawnhero.ph/15-

online-tools-you-can-use-to-monitor-your-budget/.

The Philippine Online Chronicles. (2014, June 13). Retrieved September from http://
thepoc.net/index.php/author/rachel-yapchiongco/.

News, A. (2014, January 12). Want to manage your finances better? Here are some
apps. Retrieved from http://news.abs-cbn.com/business/01/13/14/want-
manage-your-finances-better-here-are-some-apps.

5 Free Apps That Keep Your Budget In Line | MoneyMax.ph. (2015, May 08). Retrieved
November 02, 2016, from http://www.moneymax.ph/blog/5-free-apps-that-
keep-your-budget-in-line/.

212 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

‘LAWANG SEWU AKUNTANSI’: ACCOUNTING-BASED
DIGITAL LEARNING IN ENHANCING TEACHER AND
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Sandy Arief
Jariyah

ABSTRACT

Most accounting teachers find challenges in distributing their

knowledge to their students. They face difficulties to make their
students come to an understanding about the given lesson. However,
traditional method of teaching fails to deliver what teachers
taught. It seems to be ‘out-of-date’ yet boring ways to educate
students. Students demand fun and enjoyable learning activity as
their lifestyle led them to this habit. In one hand, there is a very
impressive take-up of technology which drives us to the digital era.
Thus, it may be helpful to engage sophisticated technology and fun
learning in the classroom. It is ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ http://
lawangsewuakuntansi.simplesite.com/, a fresh idea to learn basic
accounting by digital learning. The idea dragged from Lawang Sewu,
a cultural heritage of Semarang. The application of this digital
learning media is expected to develop innovative and imaginative
learning environment, stimulate eager to learn, and enhance
students understanding about accounting. ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’
also helps students to learn theoretically and conceptually about
basic accounting. This knowledge eases them to receive advanced
material. Moreover, teachers can easily evaluate how far the
lesson perceived by their students. However, this concept requires
integrated cooperation of teachers and students. Teachers have

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 213

to play their role as player, facilitator, motivator, and evaluator.
Moreover, students need to put their interest and attention toward
‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’. In conclusion, this Accounting-based digital
learning can be an effective media to deliver accounting lesson in
the classroom.

Key words: accounting, digital learning, learning media.

INTRODUCTION

Most teachers find challenges in maintain student engagement in the classroom.

Romero (2012) argued that learner’s engagement in learning activities results
from the combination of the learner’s willingness to participate in the learning
activities and the efforts the learner engages during the efficient time-on-task.
He also stated that learner’s engagement is dynamic and contextual. Teacher-
centred or commonly known as traditional teaching method fails to optimally
achieve the learning objective, yet student engagement as well. Even, traditional
teaching method has often been labelled as boring for many students (McClarty
et al, 2012). Boring student may lead them to drop out, as Bridgeland et al
(2006) finding that about 50% high schools dropout because the classes were
not interesting, and 70% of them were not motivated or inspired to work hard.
Furthermore, interactive learning is more effective than traditional teaching
(Dorestani, 2005).Thus, it is really crucial to develop innovative learning media
for enhancing teacher and student engagement. In other hand, there is a very
impressive take-up of technology which drive us to the digital era. Sophisticated
technologies immerse into every aspect of life and ultimately has significant
impact and shift on how educational system works. Currently, students are
growing-up in a media-rich world that cannot be defined without computer and
internetconnection. Today’s students come to class with smart phones, laptops
and iPods. They are not tool kit which they may before, but simply a lifestyle.
They spend most of their times by playing computer games and internet.
Consequently, teachers have better aligned their teaching style to the more up-
to-date ways today’s students like to learn, which is playing digital game.

Many researchers have put interest on how promising of using digital games in the
learning activities. Hawlitschek and Joeckel (2017) found that playing educational
game improves students’ knowledge on the historical theme. They argued that
game can be considered as precondition for increasing learning performance.

214 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

A similar result found by Diaz (2015). He found that exercise game improves
students’ performance. Similarly, Khenissi et al (2014) also found that serious
game improves student’s level of knowledge. Moreover, digital games contain
competitive activities which conform to rules, aims, feedback, interaction and
result (Ahmad and Jaafar, 2011). Apply digital games in learning activities may
be challenging. However, those findings calls the stakeholder especially teachers
and game designer to design digital game learning for learning activities. Whitton
(2010) emphasized several features attached to educational game. First, game
should align learning outcomes and the game activities itself. Second, effective
educational games involve some aspect of collaboration with others. Third, pupils
need to understand the purpose of the game. Based on these criteria, authors and
team attempt to create helpful digital game of accounting. It is ‘Lawang Sewu
Akuntansi’, a collaboration of final project of IT-Based Learning Media course in
Department of Economic Education, Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri
Semarang. ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ aims to enhance teacher and students
engagement in the classroom. ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ elaborates learning and
games for accounting students regarding basic accounting lessons. In classroom
settings, students that does not master the basic knowledge –in this case, basic
accounting knowledge- will face more challenges to understand the advanced
material.McClarty et al (2012) described that a student cannot unlock Algebra
until a prerequisite knowledge of previous skill has been mastered. Therefore,
playing ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ may create students’ best understanding of the
given lessons which in turn may help them to succeed the course.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Model of Games and Learning

Garris et al (2002) creates model of learning in instructional games. Instructional

content and game characteristic should be possessed by the educational games.
Those features trigger a cycle, including user judgement, user behaviour, and
system feedback. Games must encourage students to re-play the game by their
self-motivation. In the end, repetition of the games increase understanding and
led the pupils to achieve the determined learning objectives.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 215

Figure 1. Input-Process-Outcome Game Model (Garris et al, 2002)

Related Works

Ahmad and Jaafar (2011) argued that computer games provide basic interactive
cognitive models. It may create enjoyment. Students become able to gain
cognitive and affective elements through problem solving, decision making,
making conclusion and collaborative work with their peers. Moreover, games
suit all students with various grades because it does not need to acquire specific
knowledge to play. Computer games also helps pupils not only to understand the
material but also build up their personality. Game Based Learning (GBL) can create
collaborative learning and promote students engagement (Romero, 2012). In
game setting, there will be intergroup competition, intragroup cooperation, and
discussion of collaborative decision making. GBL foster students’ communication
skill and teamwork. Furthermore, game designed for collaboration process help
to improve learning outcomes in intragroup GBL setting. Diaz (2015) employed
active-learning exercise to help audit students understand about audit opinion.
He stated that millennial students expect more innovative learning activities
such as collaborative learning. Immediate feedback from others, correct
misperceptions, and understand how they are thinking is important. Moreover,
the results showed that exercise game improves students’ performance. They
perceived the exercise as enjoyable and contribute to their learning experience

Tan (2015) found that playing computer games creates excitement to the
students and it is labelled as the most important value satisfied from computer
games playing. In addition, pupils also sought warm relationship with others
and a sense of accomplishment. Computer games provides an opportunity for
learners to build a community with shared and common concern and collaborate
to achieve goals. Moreover, computer games immerse learners into imaginary
world and it fulfils their need of fantasy. Mercer, et al (2017) described the

216 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

advantage of using games as an approach to deliver effective education for
sustainable development. Games allows learning by doing and learning by
failing. Furthermore, there is no negative consequence of falling. Besides, when
a student fails to accomplish the game, he will be motivated to re-play the game
and it may increase his understanding towards the lessons. Games also promote
knowledge, fun, entertainment and improve student engagement as well. Based
on those literatures, this study aims to describe the practical implication of
‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ as learning media to learn accounting. Challenges also
demonstrates and how far the program may success the learning activity.

METHODS

This study employs literature study approach to collect relevant information to

the issue of digital games application in learning activity. The data is analysed
qualitatively, there is secondary data in the form of theory, definition and discussion
from literature, journals and articles. Then, the data is synthesized to theories
and relevant expert opinion to get a conclusion about the implementation of
‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ to create innovative and imaginative learning activity.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’

‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ is final project collaboration of IT-Based Learning Media

course in Department of Accounting Education, Faculty of Economics, Universitas
Negeri Semarang. The idea of ‘Lawang SewuAkuntansi’ dragged from cultural
heritage of Semarang, Central Java Province, Indonesia. Lawang Sewu literally
means thousand doors, thus Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ has thousand doors to learn
accounting. Using Lawang Sewu as the main idea, users of this games is driven to
learn accounting in a very enjoyable ways by using ‘click’ in the computer and
the users will be directed to ‘thousand doors’ just like Lawang Sewu to play the
programs.

‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ is not only consist of game. In the open-access website
of ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’, at http://lawangsewuakuntansi.simplesite.
com/, learners can find accounting song, accounting video, accounting
puzzle and matching pictures, etc. Learning accounting is very fun by using
LawangSewuAkuntansi. More importantly, both teachers and students can
download the games and playing it both online or offline for free.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 217

Figure 2. Home of ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ (Authors, 2017)

In ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ game, students allows to study accounting terms

and accounting cycle. Accounting terms can be learned by clicking the door of
glossary, there are definition of account, types of account, and definition of
specific account. In cycle, pupils can study accounting cycle, the definition of
each cycle, and example of each cycle. They can understand how accounting
works and see the actual example of each step. The interesting part in ‘Lawang
Sewu Akuntansi’ game is that students can easily evaluate their learning progress
by playing exercise. Students will be directed to insert their names and choose
the exercise. There are eight exercises. Each exercise group has 10 questions,
consist of theoretical exercise and practical exercise. Each question has a value
of 10. It is easy to play the exercise because student will only need to click on
the right ‘door’ –in this case, each answer option is figured as a door. In the end,
the score from the exercise is occurred. By this, the learners can see how far
they understand the lessons and they may re-play the exercise by electing the
same exercise or try other existing exercises.

Teacher may have final evaluation by using course evaluation. There are three
groups of evaluation question. For the evaluation, there are 20 questions. Each
question has 10 points. Students need to correctly answer 16 question with
160 point to pass the evaluation. However, there is time limit. Students have
to accomplish to answer all the question for 10 minutes, or half minute for
a question. If they run out of time, the remaining question is determined as

218 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

unanswered. Students allow to evaluate whether they correctly or wrongfully
answer the question because after answering a question, a pop up occurred and
told the learners if the answer is correct or wrong.

Figure 3. Evaluation (Authors, 2017)

Potential and Implication

Most researches argued that financial constraint occurred when educators attempt
to use digital learning in the learning activity (Francis, 2006; Baek, 2008; Wastiau
et al, 2009). There may be inappropriate game with learning context, lack of
hardware requirement, and technical issue (Whitton, 2010). However, ‘Lawang
Sewu Akuntansi’ can overcome the challenges. It is free, teacher only needs
internet connection to access the website and download the game. In one hand,
the content of ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ is aligned to learning outcomes of basic
accounting course. The program does not need complex tools to play, by using
computer, laptop, or smartphone the students and teachers can easily operate
the game.

The potential contribution of ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ to student academic

success is significant. Often pupils experience boredom in the classroom from

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 219

lecturing. Thus, most students do not put their attention up on the lessons in the
classroom. Digital game cope this problem by creating innovative and imaginative
learning environment. McClarty et al (2012) supported this by stating that we
think and understand best when we can imagine a situation and that prepares
us for action. Moreover, gaming experience encourage the players to improve
through repeated practice by replaying parts of a game. Fun and enjoyable
learning of accounting with ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ stimulates students to
learn and learn. Repetition of playing games will not dragged them to boredom,
besides it challenges them and in turn help them succeed the course. According
to this, students gain many things from playing ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’, which
are knowledge, fun, excitement, entertainment and their engagement to the
lesson.

In higher education, ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi can be used in a variety of ways.

It can be delivered as study resources, with or without facilitator to increase
their retention of the lessons. Pupils may play it individually or collectively.
In the classroom setting, teacher may introduce ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ to
help students understand the lessons within the course. Furthermore, playing
‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ is very easy and everyone can play the games. It is
affordable and can be freely access on the website. Thus, practical implication is
promising. Nevertheless, ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ indeed demands the teachers
be able as a player, facilitator, motivator and evaluator. As a player, teachers
have to understand how the program works. Moreover, teachers is required to
deliver instruction and direct the class as a facilitator. Motivating students is a
must to ensure that students meet the learning outcomes. In the final course,
evaluation is important to observe how far the lesson perceived by the students.
Besides, contribution from the students by giving their engagement to the game
lesson will help teachers achieve the determined learning objective.

In the end, those are the main challenge to implement ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’.
It is a learning media, which means that the learning success depends on how
it is delivered and used. This program works best if both teachers and students
collaborate in achieving the learning outcomes. However, it is teachers who
contributes most. They should possess the ability to situate the learning
environment. Teaching with digital gaming and lecturing is totally different.
Digital game learning encourages teachers to be more active, being able to
simulate the game and yet they have to maintain the whole condition of the
class. Distraction may occurs and disturb the learning activities, however it can
be overcome if the teachers perform their best to transfer knowledge within the
game.

220 Learning Technologies for Specific Domains

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ is accounting-based learning media to enhance teachers

and students engagement. It helps students understand the lessons well, progress
their studying and remove boredom in learning activities as well. The program
is affordable and easy to play, which ease the learning activity. However, it will
be challenging for teachers because they need to be more active, being able to
simulate the game and maintain the whole condition of the class. Nevertheless, it
is very promising that the application of ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ is effective to
deliver accounting lessons in the classroom. Accounting teachers may consider to
use ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ for learning activities. It is also recommended that
game designer develops this program for advanced accounting because ‘Lawang
Sewu Akuntansi’ is limited to basic accounting course. This study uses description
approach, and thus empirical evidence on how ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ helps in
improving students’ performance has to be revealed. Therefore, future research
may explore quantitatively about the effect of ‘Lawang Sewu Akuntansi’ in
accounting class.

Learning Technologies for Specific Domains 221

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