Journal of Computing, ISSN 2151-9617, http://www.journalofcomputing.org
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JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2010, ISSN 2151-9617 HTTPS://SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/JOURNALOFCOMPUTING/ WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG
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Teaching Taxonomy and Content Management Systems (CMS) via Gamebased Learning Approach
Mazeyanti M Ariffin, Nazleeni Samiha Haron
Abstract— Looking at potential of games for educational purpose, authors adopted game-based learning approach to teach Taxonomy and Content Management System (KMS) module in a private university in Malaysia. This paper discuss on the design of a game called ‘Creating a Hypermarket’ which was compared with a multimedia-based learning approach. An experimental study with 129 students was conducted with respect to knowledge retention and learning efficiency. The empirical result shows that the game increase student’s performance improve long-term learning results and lead to higher knowledge retention as compared to traditional learning approach. Index Terms— taxonomy, content management systems (cms), game-based learning approach.
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1 INTRODUCTION
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magine you have a shopping list and were asked to do the shopping in a hypermarket in your hometown. Based on the list, the shopping should not take more than 15 minutes but you end up spent nearly an hour to find all things in your shopping list. You wished that hypermarket has better arrangement of goods and definitely to label the aisle so that you do not have to waste your time in searching those goods. Visualize the same scenario happened to an employee who wants to find information in his organization’s Knowledge Management System (KMS).You can imagine how frustrated they are. Based on studies done by IDC, 15% to 35% of employees’ time is spent on searching for information only [1]. And in 2001, only 21% of the respondents agreed that they found the information at a reasonable time while 40% of corporate users can not find the information on their organization’s system [1]. It means, this will reduce the productivity of the employees and increase time for them to complete the task and in worst case it will lead to inclination of employees from using the KMS. Looking at how critical it is to help users in finding what they need at the right time and at the right place, authors suggest the most important thing to do is to educate the developer of KMS on the importance of good design of taxonomy and CMS. The developer in this study refers to students who are taking Knowledge Management (KM) course as their specialization. In this paper, authors suggested to use a game-based learning approach to teach on the importance of taxonomy in a KMS. A game called ‘Creating a Hypermarket’ is
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introduced to students. The scope of this study is on Taxonomy and Content Management System (CMS) module. Objective of this study is to evaluate the knowledge retention and learning efficiency of students in game-based learning approach as compared to multimedia-based learning method in classroom.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Taxonomy and CMS
Taxonomy is an orderly classification of plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships [2]. Taxonomy is also known as a classification system [3]. Taxonomies are widely being used in many fields such as botany to classify plants. With the advancement of Internet, there has been increased interest in using taxonomies for structuring information for easier management and retrieval. The Dewey Decimal System use taxonomy as a basis of their classification schemes and indexing systems in information management [3]. Taxonomy plays a critical role in developing a KMS. Taxonomy can (1) assist user to navigate and (2) classification of experts in an organization [3].
2.2 Game-based learning approach
Researchers start to realize the potential effects of games for educational purpose years ago. As stated by [4], many experienced writers of textbook and methodology manuals argued that games are bit more than just timefilling activities but have a great educational value. As stated by [5], games help and encourage players to sustain their interest and work. A similar opinion is given by [6] where he indicates that games are highly motivating and entertaining and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings.
Mazeyanti M Ariffin is with the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. Nazleeni Samiha Haron is with the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia.
JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2010, ISSN 2151-9617 HTTPS://SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/JOURNALOFCOMPUTING/ WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG
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2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Instructional media In this study, two media sets were used to teach students on Taxonomy and CMS. The content and scope of each set are explained as the following
• Conventional – students were taught on principles of taxonomy & CMS using Power-point-based presentation. The presentation covered on taxonomy definition, its importance, benefits and the application of taxonomy. The slides were available for the students to view and download from the elearning. • Game – the game was called “Creating a Hypermarket’. It was conducted during tutorial session. The game was adopted from Dave Snowden training kits for KM practitioners. This game was designed to teach students on the definition of taxonomy and CMS, its importance in real environment and where to apply taxonomy. 1.0 1.1 To create taxonomy obtain product items from instructor 1.2 categorize the product items 1.3 decide on the possible sections/labels to represent the product items 1.4 decide the location of each section/label in the hypermarket 1.5 paste the sections/labels on the given hypermarket area 1.6 paste the product items according to the labels/sections 2.0 To do the shopping 2.1 obtain the shopping list from instructor 2.2 search product items on opponent’s hypermarket 2.2.1 if successful 2.2.1.1 identify the path to find the product item 2.2.2 else 2.2.2.1 keep searching for the product items 2.3 repeat step 2.2 until complete the shopping list Figure 1. steps to play “Creating a Hypermarket” game
2.2 Participants profile
The participants were students of a private university in Malaysia with specialization in KM. These students were from Second Year Second Semester Business Information System (BIS) program. Table I provides description of the sample population
TABLE I. SAMPLE POPULATION PROFILE
Semester/Batch July 2008 January 2009
No of dents 36 93
stu-
Media sets Multimedia Multimedia Game-based approach
and learning
2.4 Experimental study
Project on taxonomy and CMS Both batches were given an assignment on taxonomy development. Students were asked to design taxonomy and create a KMS based on the taxonomy for a virtual company. Once their KMS were available online, other groups were required to find a list of knowledge assets given by instructor. The Project was evaluated based on the design of the taxonomy, user navigation and time taken for user to find the requested knowledge assets. Test on taxonomy and CMS Both batches were tested on taxonomy development. It comprises of several questions that asked students to apply the taxonomy principle and designing a taxonomy based on the predefined knowledge assets. Final Exam Questions on the application of Taxonomy and CMS were asked to both batches. The questions were designed to test on the student’s understanding on Taxonomy and CMS. Students need to reflect and use the knowledge that they have learnt in order to answer the question. Reflection session After play the game, a reflection session was conducted to get feedbacks on the activity. Students were
2.3 Game structure
Students were divided into groups of 4 people and were given products items (pictures). Students were free to design their own taxonomy of a hypermarket. Once they finished, the instructor will create a shopping list based on the group’s taxonomy. The other team will ‘do the shopping’ on the opponent’s hypermarket. Fig 1 shows the steps to play “Creating a Hypermarket” game. There are two winners in this game – (1) the fastest group that complete the shopping list (2) the owner of taxonomy of the fastest group work on.
JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2010, ISSN 2151-9617 HTTPS://SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/JOURNALOFCOMPUTING/ WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG
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encouraged to identify the importance of having clear taxonomy, identify the drawbacks of dreadful taxonomy and so on. The following questions will be asked to the winner and loser (1) Explain how you win/loss this game? (2)Explain why you win/loss this game? (3) What can you say about the taxonomy of hypermarket that you worked on?(4) What are the challenges that you faced during the game play?
3 RESULTS & DISCUSSION
Figure 2. Test result for semester July 2008 and Jan 2009 Based on Fig. 2, there is a significant increase of 59% in semester July 2009 test result. It shows that students in this semester were able to absorbed and reapply the taxonomy principles during the test. This clearly shown that student’s learning was improved if lecturer is using game-based approached as compared to conventional learning method.
Final exam result for semester July 2008 and Jan 2009 Based on Fig. 4, the knowledge retention rate for semester Jan 2009 is higher as compared to semester Jul 2008. Students who played the game performed better and able to answer analytical question related to Taxonomy and CMS. It shows that the level of understanding for students in semester Jan 2009 is higher than semester July 2008. Based on Fig. 4 also, there is a decrease of 32% of the failure rate in Taxonomy and CMS question. TABLE II. PARTICIPANTS FEEBACK/RESPONSE
Figure 4.
Feedbacks Winners Losers Easy to navigate Hard to navigate Labels/sections are Can not find the label clearly defined and shown Design of the taxono- Labels are not reflecting my is familiar on the items that it represent. Items are located in inappropriate sections Label is not correct/misleading One of the aims of creating a good taxonomy is to help users in navigating the KMS and find the right information at a reasonable time. From the Table II, it shows that students who play the game were able to reflect and learn on the importance of having a good taxonomy and also can imagine the difficulty faced by users when they can not find the information that they want. From the Table II, it clearly shows that they were able to deduce that labeling is an important aspect that they need to focus on when designing taxonomy of a KMS. It is also important to ‘correctly’ store the knowledge assets under the ‘correct’ section / label to avoid confusing.
Figure 3. Project result for semster July 2008 and Jan 2009 Based on Fig. 3, 85% students in semester July 2009 managed to complete the tasks given in the project questions. There is an increased of 35% as compared to the previous semester. The failure rate is also reduced to 15% as compared to Jan 2008 semester. It shows that students who play the game able to produce better project as compared to students who did not play the game.
JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2010, ISSN 2151-9617 HTTPS://SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/JOURNALOFCOMPUTING/ WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG
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4 CONCLUSION
As a conclusion, combining conventional learning method with game-based learning can improve student’s learning process. With the right content and context to simulate the real scenario, game-based learning is able to capture student’s attention and sustain student interest on the subject. Therefore, it helps to increase knowledge retention and helps to improve students learning process.
REFERENCES
[1] [2] S. Feldman, 2002, Quantifying Enterprise Search," IDC Taxonomy. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.Retrieved May 19, 2010, from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/taxonomy A. Hunter, Taxonomies, www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/a.hunter/tradepress/tax.html Uberman, Agniezka. 1998. The Use of Games for Vocabulary Presentation and Revision. English Teaching. Forum: 36(1): 20-29 A Journal for the Teacher of the English Outside the United States.J. Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd ed., vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon, 1892, pp.68–73. A. Wright, D. Betteridge, 2006, Games for language learning, Cambridge University Press P. Kearney and M.Pivec, 2006, Game-Based E-Learning Systems: What can we learn from Commercial Game developers. In E. Pearson & P. Bohman (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2006 (pp. 1869-1875). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.