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IKASYS: using mobile devices for memorization and
training activities
Naiara Maya
1,2
, Ana Urrutia
1,2
, Oihan Odriozola
1
, Josune Gereka
1
, Ana Arruarte
2
,
Jon Ander Elorriaga
2
1
Gipuzkoako Ikastolen Elkartea, 5186 P.K., E-20018
2
University of the Basque Country, 649 P.K., E-20080
{a.arruarte, jon.elorriaga}@ehu.es
Abstract. Mobile learning (m-learning) integrates the current mobile
computing technology with educational aspects to enhance the effectiveness of
the traditional learning process. This paper describes IKASYS, an m-learning
management tool that provides support for the whole cycle of memorization
and training activities in a wide range of domains. The tool has been developed
for being used in school-wide environments. This paper focuses mainly on
IKASYS Trainer, the application for the mobile device.
1 Introduction
M-learning is increasingly recognized as a strategic tool that has the potential to
enable global access to educational materials and improve the quality of education
[1]. The small size and portability of mobile devices (PDAs, mobile phones, etc.)
make learning location-independent; it is possible to study anywhere and anytime. Al-
though in the context of m-learning most researchers assume that mobile devices are
always connected to the Net, this doesn’t happen always. Mobile devices can be dis-
connected, either intentionally or not (connection is too expensive or the adequate in-
frastructure is not provided [2]).
Regarding hardware, some common characteristics of the current mobile de-
vices are: small screen size, small phone-style keyboard or touch screen, small mem-
ory size and limited processing power. Effective m-learning software must be devel-
oped trying to overcome technology limits. Even more, it is necessary to follow some
guidelines for the design of m-learning software [3]: first design good contents, fit the
learning to the learner and then to the device, keep learning efficient, make the learn-
ing experience reliable, and accomplish worthy goals. Although the incorporation of
mobile devices into learning processes is still at its beginning some attempts are al-
ready in development [4][5][6][7].
In educational contexts memorization is conceived as a skill that allows an in-
dividual to recall important information verbatim. Although memorization draws
upon one of the most fundamental human faculties, it is one of the least exercised
techniques in contemporary education, due mainly to the progressive establishment of
the constructivist education approach. In order to train this skill several memorization
exercises must be carried out. Those exercises involve working with numbers, letters,
syllables, words, signs, drawings, sentences and texts. Solving these activities de-
mands a great effort of attention and concentration.
Along this paper the project called IKASYS is presented. IKASYS is a mul-
tilingual system that provides support for the whole cycle of memorization and exer-
citation activities in a wide range of domains. First, it allows instructional designer to
author those activities using a web application. Second, IKASYS includes software
for students to perform the activities in a mobile device. Third, it provides teachers
with a web application for both configuring the student training and inspecting the
progress of individual students and groups. The paper starts describing IKASYS Sys-
tem architecture and basis. Then, the paper focuses on the application that runs in the
mobile device. Finally, some conclusions and future work are drawn.
2 IKASYS System Architecture and Basis
The architecture of IKASYS framework is shown in Figure 1. It is composed of the
next three modules:
IKASYS Designer [8] is a web application that provides the instructional
designers with an environment for the creation of different types of memorization and
exercitation activities. As output this application produces the Didactic Units (DUs).
IKASYS Trainer is an application that allows students to solve the memorization
and exercitation activities of a DU in a mobile device. As output it creates a Student
Data (SD).
IKASYS Inspector is a web application to evaluate the learning process of each
student. The IKASYS Inspector must be initialised with the DUs that are going to be
used. It takes the SDs as input and visualizes graphically the information about the
students´ learning progress as well as student groups’ progress. It also allows teachers
to change certain parameters of the system to personalize the students training. This
way, the next time IKASYS Trainer is executed it will take into account the changes
carried out.
Designer workstation Teachers workstation
SD
IKASYS Trainer
IRAKAS I nsnspector
External memory device
IKASYS InspectorIKASYS Designer
Designer workstation Teacher workstation
SD
DU
DU
DU SD
SD
Designer workstation Teachers workstation
SD
IKASYS Trainer
IRAKAS I nsnspector
External memory device
IKASYS InspectorIKASYS Designer
Designer workstation Teacher workstation
SD
DU
DU
DU SD
SD
Fig. 1. IKASYS architecture and dataflow
Physically there is one IKASYS Designer server and several IKASYS Inspector
servers, one for each school. Data is transferred from one module to another using an
external memory device. So, IKASYS based training does not need internet
connection. The exchanged information is organized in Didactic Units (DUs) and
Student Data (SD). A DU represents a collection of exercises for a domain organized
in a pedagogic way. A SD represents the information about the evolution and results
of the learner and more general information.
The three components of the systems share the same view of the learning domain.
It is hierarchically organized in six levels: Knowledge area, Content block, Module,
Multilevel package, Level and Exercise. Each learning domain is joined to a specific
Area that will be the root of the unit (for example, geography). Each Knowledge area
(e.g. Geography) is made up of Content Blocks (e.g. rivers). The content blocks are
formed with different Modules (e.g. rivers of Europe). Each module contains
Multilevel Packages (e.g. test exercises), those are composed of difficulty based
organised Levels in which, finally, are the Exercises without any order.
IKASYS offers several exercise types to complete DUs. They are classified into
two different groups of exercises: static exercises and generative exercises. In static
exercises the content designer specifies the whole exercise definition parameters
meanwhile in generative exercises only some exercise creation conditions are defined.
In other words, the program that runs in the mobile device is able to generate exer-
cises in real time taking into account the conditions that are defined by IKASYS De-
signer. Among others exercise types IKASYS includes: multiple choices, fill-in-table,
word completion, ordering exercises, crosswords, wordsearch puzzle, sudoku, match-
ing columns and classification exercises.
3 IKASYS Trainer
IKASYS Trainer is the application for training memorization and exercitation
activities in mobile devices. IKASYS Trainer allows teachers to adapt the exercise
sequencing depending on the learner characteristics and necessity.
Amongst other capabilities, IKASYS Trainer is able to read, present and man-
age the content of the DU that the teacher assigns to the learner. The information,
such as, the DU, the learner’s details and the information about student’s performance
in the training sessions are stored in an external memory device, personal for each
user. So, IKASYS Trainer has to read all the necessary information from the external
memory device. In the same way, once the user decides to finish the session, IKASYS
Trainer updates the SD with the learners´ current level of knowledge, the number of
exercises performed and, for each exercise, the result and time that s/he needed to an-
swer. The system also stores some information for the next session, given that the
next session will resume the training in the same point.
Upon successful authentication, the program will dispatch exercises to the
learner. In Figure 2 the application shows a generative exercise, concretely, a product
between two numbers. The values of the variables are calculated in execution time
taking into account that those values must satisfy exercise specifications. In this way,
the same exercise offers lots of different activities.
Fig. 2. Product exercise in IKASYS Trainer
3.1 Exercise sequencing
To achieve a personalized learning IKASYS Trainer takes into account the ini-
tial difficulty grade that the teacher has assigned to the learner. In addition, exercise
sequencing is controlled using several parameters that the teacher can change. Those
parameters are: the percentage of exercises the student has to do at least at each level
and the percentage of exercise solved correctly per level to allow the student to start
the following level. The parameters can be defined and changed by the teacher by
means of IKASYS Inspector and are stored in the file which stores student data and
exchanged with IKASYS Trainer. Thus, the teacher can define different learning
rhythm for each student. During the session exercises are sequenced with an appropri-
ate level of difficulty taking into account the learner progress and the learner will not
pass the current level if s/he does not fulfil the demanded requirements.
When learners start a new session, IKASYS Trainer creates four groups of
exercises: group of exercises of the current level, group of exercises of the previous
level solved correctly, group of exercises of the previous level solved incorrectly and
group of exercises that have not done in the previous level
The exercise sequencing algorithm chooses a number of exercises from each
group. This percentage is configurable. In addition, in order to avoid repetitive
executions of the same exercises the algorithm includes a random factor.
3.2 Other pedagogical issues
Regarding other pedagogical issues, feedback relies on correct requirements
defined for each type of exercise. Furthermore, it has been probed that visual memory
plays an important role in learning. Due to it, IKASYS Trainer will always show the
correct answer, although the learner answer is incorrect. Finally, in order to keep the
learners engaged and improve the motivation, the training session should be entertain-
ing. The application attempts to achieve this goal visualizing recreational exercises
once in a while, for example Sudokus. This type of exercises is a good way to practice
mathematics because it increases children's interest in the subject.
3.3 Technical issues
The implementation of IKASYS Trainer was written in Java due to its multi-
platform nature. Regarding the operating system, Linux has been chosen because of
processor support, reliability, cost, widespread use and its promising future.
Furthermore, this application has been designed taking into account interna-
tionalization and localization issues. The current application is localized for Basque,
Spanish, Catalan and English.
IKASYS Trainer has been already tested on two different mobile devices;
Sharp Zaurus SL-3100 which is shown in figure 3, and in a device designed exclu-
sively for the IKASYS project, shown in the figure 4. Both devices have similar char-
acteristics. They use Linux as operating system. However, Java virtual machines are
different: meanwhile Zaurus uses Blackdown 1.3.1 the specialized device uses JVM
1.4.2. Taking into account that Java is multi-platform there is not much difficulty in
the migration from one version to another one. Both devices have a screen with
320x240 pixels and a mini-keyboard. In a near future IKASYS Trainer will be tested
with more devices in order to finally choose the most appropriate one for real use in a
classroom context. The main factors for the final decision are: the cost of the device,
the application speed and the ergonomic characteristics of the device, taking into ac-
count that it is going to be used mainly with children.
4 Conclusions
IKASYS is an m-learning system that is able to author memorization and training
activities, to dispatch them in a mobile device, and to evaluate the student progress.
IKASYS is composed of three applications that work together but have an
Fig. 3. Mobile device Fig. 4. Ikasys Trainer
independent logical functionality: IKASYS Designer, IKASYS Trainer and IKASYS
Inspector.
IKASYS Designer provides instructional designer with an environment for au-
thoring memorization and training exercises organized in Didactic Units. IKASYS
Trainer is the application for students to work with memorization and training activi-
ties in mobile devices. IKASYS Trainer adapts the exercise sequencing depending on
the parameters set by the teacher. IKASYS Inspector allows teachers to visualize the
knowledge state of both individual students and group of students and to establish the
appropriate parameters taking into account the learner characteristics and evolution.
Concerning IKASYS Designer a team of specialized instructional designers
from the Gipuzkoako Ikastolen Elkartea (GIE) has already created several real DUs in
two domains: Basque language orthography and mathematics. The first one is com-
posed of more than 1,400 exercises and the second one with around 1000 exercises.
Regarding IKASYS Trainer it has been already tested on two different mobile de-
vices. Finally, with respect to IKASYS Inspector it has been evaluated by teachers at
different educational levels.
IKASYS is SCORM compliant. It provides a follow-up system for supervis-
ing the learning process of each individual student or students groups. In addition
IKASYS is able to adapt the exercises sequencing to the student behaviour and the
capacity to support internalization for which is possible to create content in four dif-
ferent languages sharing the same interface; Basque, Spanish, Catalan and English.
Acknowledgments: This work has been partially supported by the University of the Basque
Country (UE06/19), the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (TIN2006-14968-C02-0),
and the Gipuzkoa Council in collaboration with the European Union
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