Adapting a U.S. University Elearning System for an Indian Medi

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Redesigning a Content Delivery System, TUSK, for
the Small Screen Bringing a Web-based LMS to the
Small Screen, a Ubiquitous Appliance in the
Developing World
Tufts University Boston, Ma. U.S.A
Susan Albright, Theodora Hadjimichael,Daniel
Jozwiak, Benjamin Schwartz, Mary Lee
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Agenda

• What is TUSK impact on health sciences
  education?
• Why TUSK Mobile?
• Methodology for redesign
• Design findings
• Next steps

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What is TUSK?

• Tufts University Sciences Knowledgebase

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How does TUSK leverage faculty expertise and
optimize intellectual capital?

Learning object repository Reuse Robust
indexing and search and retrieval Robust
authoring tools
http//www.intellectualcapital.nl/
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Reuse/Share Intellectual Capital
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Online text with Imbedded Multimedia
MP3
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Histology image used across three schools
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Index Search and Retrieval UMLS Controlled
Vocabulary
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Content Management Tools

• Create folders
• Upload any multimedia
• Reuse TUSK content
• Create links across any TUSK content
• Create external links
• Create APIs to external links
• Require metadata for all content

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Importance of TUSK for Health Sciences Education

• Vertical and horizontal integration of content
• Students , residents and faculty have access to
  content across courses, years, and sites at all
  times
• Content reuse
• Content easily linked from one course to many
  tracking ownership
• Personal knowledge management
• Collaboration Tools (my groups, wikis,
  discussions, content sharing)?
• Competencies linked to courses/content-views for
  curriculum planners, faculty, students
  (portfolio) (in progress)?
• Robust Indexing and search tools
• Search and retrieval linked to UMLS from NLM
  UMLS use for automated indexing and suggestions
  made on search
• Innovative standards based applications for
  teaching and learning
• Virtual Patient Creator
• Clinical experience logs linked to medical
  literature
• Tool to build external links to medical
  literature with metadata (EBM and medline)?
• Digital repository of learning objects with
  metadata accessible/searchable for reuse

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Tufts University Mission Global Health
andInternationalism
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The Problems

• Lack of computers in partner schools
• Preceptors asking for support in the office
• Students need to access content on the go
• Can a Mobile TUSK begin to address these issues
  and provide new opportunities for learning?

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• I think it's time that we recognised that for
  the majority of the world's population, and for
  the foreseeable future, the cell phone is the
  computer, and it will be the portal to the
  internet, and the communications tool, and the
  schoolbook, and the vaccination record, and the
  family album, and many other things
• Joel Selanikio is a physician and co-founder of
  DataDyne.org, a non-profit creating open-source
  software for public health and international
  development BBC, Jan 2008

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Cellular phone growth

• 300 million computers vs 3 billion cell phones in
  the world (metcalf)?
• Spending in the developing world on
  telecommunications outstrips other sector
  including health care (Hammond)?
• Nearly 100 of students at our partner schools
  have phones, less than 10 have computers

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Mobile Learning

• Mobile represents and opportunity to reach
  learners especially just in time learning
• Increasing research on mobile learning including
  situated learning (Naismith)
• M-learning is not just about readily accessible
  information -- it opens up the possibility for
  the delivery of audio information, interactive
  learning and assessment, and real-time distance
  collaboration. (coe.sdsu.edu)?

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Plan

• contract with students from human factors major
  at undergrad campus
• Background research on design
• Survey current TUSK Users
• Usability testing
• Final Design Recommendations
• Design implementation
• Research other mobile applications

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Survey TUSK Users Cell Phone Access
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Rank Order of most requested Functions
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ValuesRankedU.S.students
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Design Challenges

• Mobile provides different context for information
  access
• Screen size
• Load Time of complicated pages
• Storage space
• Many phone types

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Initial Design Considerations

• Understand user patterns (from survey)?
• Fewer links per page then web version
• Allow more scrolling in favor of larger text size
• Simplified pages

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Usability Test phase 1

• Students presented with 3 designs and 3 scenarios
• Students asked to narrate choices
• Users timed and errors noted for each task
• Students were asked to state preferences for each
  of the three options with supporting reasons

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3 Versions of Log in Page
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Phase 2 Usability testing

• One interface created incorporating features that
  would address errors/likes/time from phase 1
• Phone emulators used
• Statistically every user improved from the
  averages of the first usability test in time to
  completion and in total errors occurred

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Log in Page

• TUSK logo included with alt text to connect
  mobile TUSK to website and deal with phones with
  images turned off
• Password field masked
• Remember me box checked by default
• All element appear on screen no scrolling

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Main Menu Page

• All entries numbered and assigned corresponding
  access key Alternate plan for phones without
  functionality
• Entries sorted by frequency of use or
  alphabetically
• Announcemnts option to alert to new message
• Search and logout option should be on the list

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Announcements Page

• Announcements sorted by course with options by
  date
• Courses color coded to match website
• Number of ann. Limited by course and age
• Length of announcements limited truncate or
  abridge with access to full length. Length not
  to exceed 80 characters 3 lines on the screen

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Schedule

• Default to todays schedule and next day. Days
  diff by bolded, italicized or underlined text
• Course color coded
• Option to select day in past or future though
  either calendar or entry format

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Content Types

• Content types divided into groups to reduce
  density with a link to switch between types
• Search option to locate additional/related/new
  content
• Content arranged in logical order assigned by
  content creator

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Images
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The Future

• Implement proposed designs
• Complete surveys of African and Indian partners
• Revise/Add to design as needed
• Determine need for additional phone specific
  applications

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Quick Review Mobile Activities

• Variety of Mobile Delivery Formats
• E-mail
• Messaging
• SMS/Text Messaging
• MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)?
• Audio
• Podcasting
• IVR (Interactive Voice Response)?
• Graphics/Mobile Camera
• Video/Animation
• GPS
• Mobile Web
• WAP (Wireless Access Protocol)?
• Applications
• J2ME (Java Micro Edition Platform)?
• Executable

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Thank you! Questions?