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Analyzing the efficacy of using digital ink devices in a learning environment

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Abstract

There has been increased interest on the impact of mobile devices such as PDAs and Tablet PCs in introducing new pedagogical approaches and active learning experiences. We propose an intelligent system that efficiently addresses the inherent subjectivity in student perception of note taking and information retrieval. We employ the idea of cross indexing the digital ink notes with matching electronic documents in the repository. Latent Semantic Indexing is used to perform document and page level indexing. Thus for each retrieved document, the user can go over to the relevant pages that match the query. Techniques to handle problems such as polysemy (multiple meanings of a word) in large databases, document folding and no match for query are discussed. We tested our system for its performance, usability and effectiveness in the learning process. The results from the exploratory studies reveal that the proposed system provides a highly enhanced student learning experience, thereby facilitating high test scores.

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Notes

  1. The five courses which we had used for our experiments had three automotive systems courses and two computer science courses.

  2. The score rating is between 1 to 5 in our experiment and we assume a rating higher than the median to be the best value, which is “4” in our case and equals to 80%.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Michigan - Dearborn, 4901, Evergreen Road, Dearborn, MI, 48080, USA

    Akila Varadarajan, Bruce Maxim & William I. Grosky

  2. Oakland University, 2200 N. Squirrel Road, Rochester, MI, USA

    Nilesh Patel

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  1. Akila Varadarajan
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  2. Nilesh Patel
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  3. Bruce Maxim
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  4. William I. Grosky
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Correspondence to Akila Varadarajan.

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Varadarajan, A., Patel, N., Maxim, B. et al. Analyzing the efficacy of using digital ink devices in a learning environment. Multimed Tools Appl 40, 211–239 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-008-0205-4

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