Lecture Notes in Computer Science- P89 doc

4.3 Visual Process Chart VPC VPC as a chart tool can display the learning process of group member or between the group members.. According to the collaborative learning, factors of affe

asynchronous communication Besides, virtual learning community refers to the con-cept of visual process chart (VPC), so that it can visualize the learning process

4.3 Visual Process Chart (VPC)

VPC as a chart tool can display the learning process of group member or between the group members According to the collaborative learning, factors of affecting learner’s learning involve group’s division, participation of group members, task distribution and teachers’ help in time, progress test and so on The paper illustrates one of the factors named the participation of group members to design VPC The measure of learning participation contains learner’s sending message, replying message, looking message, neglecting other factors Each group members contribute to their group’s online communication in certain message In VPC, red circle presents group member while grey circle presents a group [10] The same group agglomerates together with dashed Circle As shows in figure 4, it is assigned into 3 groups in a class

Fig 4 Screenshot of the VPC

For example, observing the encircled part we can see there are four red circles which stand for group members and one grey circle which presents a group They are around the group tightly In VPC, the distance between circle and group circle, named line segment (LS), points out the length of sending message We called information content (IC) for short If a circle is near the group, then its IC is more, compared to far away Circle’s diameter implies the quantity of a learner’s average message, we called

it information degree (ID) for short If a circle is smaller, it means the message quan-tity is less, compared to those bigger ones According to this, we can know the group circle in the same way If the grey circle is bigger, in other word, the diameter of which is longer, the ID is bigger, compared to the smaller one If LS between group and class is longer, the information content is less Therefore, students can recognize

themselves clearly through VPC The total information equals to the sum of IC and

ID Finally, the class circle could be drawn Following is the algorithm of VPC

We use the kind of C pseudo code and Natural Language to describe the algorithm

of VPC chart as follows:

int totalMessage; // total information degree

int totalInformation; // total information content

int group_Count; // the amount of groups

int stu_info; //student information content

int stu_in; // student information in-degree

int stu_out; // student information out-degree

int group_info; // group information content

int group_in; // group information in-degree

Int group_out; // group information out-degree

define p; // parameters

if totalMessge>0

{

if totalInformation>0

Class_X=0;

Class_Y=0;

Take (Class_x, Class_Y) as circle center, Class R

as radius to draw the class circle;

if group_Count>0// Here starts to process the group { i=0;

while i<group_Count {

group_l=(group_info)*p;

Confirm the length of line segment according to group IC;

group_r=(group_in+group+out)*p;

Comfirm the circle center based on the group ID; Take group_r as radius to draw circle;

Link the group circle center and class circle cen-ter;

j=0;

while j<stu_count {

stu_l=(stu_info)*p;

Confirm the length of line segment according to learner’s IC;

stu_r=(stu_in+stu_out)*p;

Comfirm the circle center based on the learner’s ID;

Take stu_r as radius to draw circle;

Link the student circle center and group circle center;

}

i++;

}

}

Fig 5 Pseudo code of VPC chart algorithm

As figure 3 shows, there is a coordinate graph in down left position It demon-strates the performance of group’s collaborative status when a task is finished, named collaborative performance The result of collaborative performance is measured by some factors of each group member, like the total information quantity, learner’s online time and progress test Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation is involved to calcu-late each group member’s dynamic performance The brief step is as follows [11]: evaluation purpose and evaluation index should be determined firstly Analyzing the group member real- time learning process, the purpose is to attain feedback in time and reach better learning way Total information quantity, learner’s online time and progress test are chosen as evaluation index Then, evaluation index weight and comment rate are confirmed to establish fuzzy relation matrix After choosing fuzzy operator, we use mathematical model of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to gain the evaluation result Then, the result is utilized to measure the collaborative perform-ance, the concrete method refers to the book of “The Theories and Methods of Com-puter-Supported Cooperative Learning” [6]

(a) Evaluation of concentration magnitude

Arithmetic average, a method of evaluating concentration magnitude, is involved

in the paper Suppose the group scale is n, the group member’s score is respectively x1, x2,…, xn., x is the average score of group members(1)

1 2 1

n

1 n i i

(b).Evaluation of difference magnitude

Standard deviation is calculated: (2)

2

1

1

n i i

n =

(c) Evaluation of the collaborative performance based on the collaborative

per-formance formula (3)

x s C

x s

−

=

Where C presents collaboration degree, as well as E presents collaborative performance

The higher the collaboration degree is evaluated, the better the collaborative perform-ance is proved Thus it illuminates high cohesion For example, look at Fig 6

2

1

1

( ) 3.6056

n

i

i

,

81.3944

0.9186 88.6056

x s C

x s

−

Fig 6 Score of group B

By calculating (4), group B is proved better in collaborative performance That is

to say, the group members cooperate and communicate with each other well and achieve the task perfectly

Following is the algorithm of the histogram in VPC to present the collaborative performance shown in Fig 4, using the kind of C pseudo code and Natural Language drawing(x,y); // draw the Coordinate Graphs

Int i=1;

Int S; // Group performance

Int p,q; //parameters

While(i<=group_count)

{

S= (group IC)*P+(group ID)*q;

Draw columnar section in the interval of

(x>5*I, x<5*(i+1), y>0, y<s);

}

Fig 7 Pseudo code for implementing the collaborative performance histogram in VPC 4.4 Realization of Virtual Learning Community

The development of virtual learning community involves many tools Firework is used to design the foreground graphic interface Dreamweaver and visual studio 2005

is combined to edit webpage and develop programs C# is a programming language developing by Microsoft to fit net Modules designed with C# may easily transform

to web service, may arbitrary transfer in random language and operating system So the system uses C# to instantiate algorithms Background database uses SQL server2000, while server adopts the production of IIS 6.0

5 Conclusions and Perspectives

Collaborative virtual learning community is a tendency of the future development Constructing effective and suitable virtual learning community must integrate certain

theory Under the collaborative learning theory of constructivism and the standard architecture proposed by Chinese E-learning Technology Standardization Committee, this paper designs a “software engineering” collaborative virtual learning community

to maximize each learner’s learning performance Moreover, it is feasible to introduce

a concept of learning process visualization in collaborative learning because of China’s traditional learning pattern Information content and information degree is distilled as learner’s characteristics to design the visualization of learning process, which provides nicer feedback information Nevertheless, we must emphasize that not only constructing learning environment is complex and comprehensive, but also visu-alizing learning process needs to be paid more attention Some factors can affect the learning effect, such as learning style, group member’s organization, the quality of information communication and so on, which is not contained in the paper This part needs to be studied farther in the coming future, and collaborative virtual learning community also will be improved

Acknowledgment

This paper was supported by the Zhejiang provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No Y106039), the Key Research Foundation of Zhejiang Education Department of China (Grant No 20060491), and the Innovation Foundation of Zheji-ang Normal University Graduate School

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