Session Information
ERG SES G15, ICT and Education
Paper Session
Contribution
It is widely known, the importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the population and this can be seen in various reports of the European Union, particularly in groups with higher info exclusion such as the elderly and special needs individuals. The European Commission has adopted in recent years, some initiatives focusing both in the use of ICT and lifelong learning, some of them specific for the elderly and special needs population. We believe that our project is aligned with these initiatives and intents, reaching both the info included and info excluded.
Therefore, we aim to develop a community platform for interactive television (TV) that operates both in multi-channel (TV and Web) and multi-device (digital TV, computer, tablet, smartphone); in a second instance we intend to use this platform as an educational space for lifelong learning through the dissemination of massive open online courses (MOOC) as well as other forms of eLearning to combat the digital divide.
In Portugal we have been using ICT in education for more that four decades. Since the 1960's with the government "Teleschool programme" allowing approximately one million children, in a mainly rural country, to get basic education via TV [1] and later, since 1989 with the Open University that allowed the population to get higher education first via TV and since 2006 via other ICTs, such as internet.
Several video interfaces and products have developed in the last decades, combining different forms of communication and interaction, whether for interactive and mobile devices (e.g. tablets, smartphones), whether for family environments (e.g. Smart TVs, set-top-box devices) or even for public spaces without interaction such as Corporate TV, which brings to the video content developers, new challenges and concerns [2]. We are aware of these challenges and concerns, both on how to develop a tool adaptable to the user, and to value the feedback from users on the applications and on the interfaces, as they are built and designed for them, and they should be the central element of this planning.
Also, the development of a technological application is a process that requires careful planning for which, before starting development, a set of design principles should be taken into account. For this interactive platform, the principles that anchored the study were the 10 usability heuristics of Nielsen [3]. And, as with any design project, in order to evaluate it, we must have an artefact, an interface design or prototype, however, in the specific case of an interactive television, where it aims a real interaction between the user and the machine, any drawing is reductive, and is crucial to have a prototype for testing in a real context [4].
We already developed a prototype for the Web environment, with two interfaces, a back office for system administration (where we upload the videos, create the metadata and enrich the content) and a front office for the common user (with the video player, the forum, the notes, and other features). One of the main features of the platform is the content enrichment, done by associating documents to the video (such as texts, slideshows, images, hyperlinks, audio, videos, or any other files). These "extras" are displayed in a timeline, and appear directly on screen when required (we choose the time for their appearance). For instance, in a learning video, a teacher may talk about a concept and a hyperlink or other document associated to that subject is made available for related information.
This prototype was already subject of usability tests by two groups of evaluators, one composed of teachers and another of students, as we will see next.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
1- Universidade Aberta. (2008). Os primeiros 20 anos da Universidade Aberta 1988-2008. Retrieved October, 20, 2013, from http://www.univ-ab.pt/eventos/20anos/exposicao_qlm.php 2- Branco, P., Barbas, M., Raminhos, R., Seabra, P., & Miranda, N. (2013). TV.COMmunity - sharing video knowledge online. Paper presented at the International Journal of Arts & Science Conference, Malta. 3- Pemberton, L., & Griffiths, R. (2003). Usability Evaluation Techniques for Interactive Television. Paper presented at the 10th International Conference on Human - Computer Interaction, Crete. 4- Nielsen, J. (1995). Ten Usability Heuristics. Retrieved 6 de Março, 2013, from http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ 5- Nielsen, J. (2000). Why you only need to test with 5 Users Retrieved 28, agosto, 2012, from http://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/ 6- Obrist, M., Bernhaupt, R., Beck, E., & Tscheligi, M. (2007). Focusing on Elderly: An iTV Usability Evaluation Study with Eye-Tracking. Paper presented at the EuroITV'07 Conference - 5th European conference on Interactive TV: a shared experience, Amsterdam. 7- Branco, P., & Barbas, M. (2012). Teorias de aprendizagem em T-learning: Uma análise histórica da utilização da televisão em Educação. Paper presented at the II Congresso Internacional TIC e Educação, Lisboa.
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