key: cord-0057957-30pvsci9
authors: Udal, Andres; Jaanus, Martin; Piho, Gunnar
title: Task-Based Mobile Learning ISC-System: Built-In Coronavirus Immunity Confirmed
date: 2021-02-11
journal: Educating Engineers for Future Industrial Revolutions
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-68201-9_59
sha: ac58d049567258829a9890d9bb752855120b5219
doc_id: 57957
cord_uid: 30pvsci9

The interruption of contact group work in universities due to coronavirus quarantine in the spring semester of 2020 posed serious problems for all courses that used traditional approaches to organization laboratories, control tests and examinations. In contrast to this, the mobile task-based learning ISC-system, characterized by flexible individual time schedule planning and application of mobile home lab kits for practical tasks, demonstrated almost complete immunity to emergency isolation requirements. ISC is a task-based e-learning system developed in Tallinn University of Technology since late 90s (abbreviation ISC comes from code of Chair of Circuits and Systems). In this system a learning process without teachers’ continuous interference is implemented and the students can practice as much as needed to get the grade they desire. As an additional beneficial feature, system allows teacher to monitor the detailed activities of students related to solving the hundreds of theoretical and practical tasks associated with actual study course. In paper we formulate the key features of the newest 3(rd) generation version of ISC-system, provide an assessment of immunity of ISC-system key features to quarantine conditions and present a study of student behavior changes due to the quarantine conditions on the basis of more than 216,000 task solving records from years 2019 and 2020.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis and following the actions taken by many countries, on March 12 th 2020 the Estonian Government established the quarantine rules that recommended to cancel all public events including classroom work in schools. Universities were forced to switch to distance learning that lasted actually until the end of the spring semester in June. Those special circumstances revealed that surprisingly many teachers, using still traditional learning technologies, faced noticeable difficulties with organization of practical laboratories, control works and exams in classrooms with fixed time schedule. From viewpoint of modern IT-supported teaching technologies, these time-and space-limited student progress control methods can be considered as unnecessary bureaucratic waste of time that takes away teacher's time from creative supervision or task design work. In contrast to abovementioned difficulties faced by courses relying on traditional approaches, the mobile task-based learning ISC-system [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] with mobile home laboratories and flexible individual time planning demonstrated almost undisturbed functioning in emergency isolation conditions.

In the present paper we touch the following themes:

1) A detailed classification of innovative key features of task-based mobile ISCsystem in order to give the reader a basis for comparison with other learning systems and to prepare a logical structure for user satisfaction surveys for the system improvements in future; 2) Assessment of quarantine readiness of ISC-system using the constructed list of key features; 3) Study the student behavior changes due to coronavirus quarantine on the basis of more than 216000 task solving records from years 2019 and 2020.

Actually the development of interactive e-learning technologies in Department of Computer Control at Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) by the working group of Prof. Vello Kukk was started already in 1998 [1] . At that one of the main ideas was replacement of traditional lectures and exams based learning with solving of large number of tasks online.

In the 2003 the online evaluation of answers and systematic storing of test performance records in database was started that may be considered the launching time of the 1 st generation of ISC-system [1, 6] . Abbreviation ISC comes short code of former Chair of Circuits and Systems in Department of Computer Control. In 2005 the first version of Home Laboratory Kits (HLK) and in 2007 the 2 nd version of HLKs were introduced (see Fig. 1 ). With introduction of HLKs the ISC-system acquired an important mobility feature that ensured that the same practical test tasks could be performed by students at home, in training lessons and also in control works in university classroom [1] . HLK contains components for basic electronics including signal generator and oscilloscope or optional microprocessor programming board [9] .

Starting from 2010 the competences based evaluation (in contrast to subjects based evaluation) and the opportunity for self-decided grade acceptance (i.e. free individual course ending choice) were offered for students [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] . This may be associated with development of 2 nd generation of ISC system that ended in 2017 [2] . Competencebased assessment forces students to penetrate more into the content of tasks and makes more difficult mechanical memorizing of the correct answers. The introduced volumequality map for self-decided grade acceptance is illustrated by Fig. 2 below.

In 2017-2018 was started development of 3 rd generation of ISC system [7, 8] by introducing more reliable php-language based programming, a compact one main page design, immediate ubiquitous switching between Estonian and English presentations, better compatibility with mobile phones and tablets, and readiness for remote laboratories. In May 2020, the quality sign of Estonian Information Technology Foundation for Education HITSA was awarded to the ISC-system [10] . The convenient compact design of main working field of 3 rd generation ISC-system is shown in Fig. 3 below. Up to now system has been used by more than 5400 students who have obtained over 5300 grades from over 40 courses in between 2003 and 2020. Some important moments of ISC-system development timeline are summarized in Table 1 .

By now, ISC-system has been used by 5 institutions in 2 universities: The one main working screen design of ISC-system [7, 8] . Colored boxes show the state of competences (or tasks) associated with the course. White indicates yet unresolved competences/tasks, light green marks exceeding of the threshold (77) and dark blue reaching an excellent level of ability (118-127). Line above the colored boxes show the available other courses. Right part of screen serves for ordering of Home Lab Kits, for reservation of labs (i.e. training lessons in classroom) and reservation of test places (i.e. control work hours in classroom to confirm the tasks made at home). The language switch button is on the top right part of screen. Button "Homework" serves for uploading of the optional homework files in pdf-format. Teachers can switch between modes "teacher", "design of new tasks" and "testing as student".

In order to construct a methodology of assessment and development of innovative learning systems, it is reasonable to construct a list of main features that are expected from an advanced learning system. Below in Tables 2 and 3 is proposed one possible formulation of key features of the ISC-system. Table 2 describes the 7 main key features with the comments and Table 3 adds the 9 secondary key features of ISC-system. First reason for this kind of decomposition is to give the reader the opportunity to compare with other similar systems. Another reasoning is preparation of the logical structure for introducing feature-based questions for user satisfaction surveys for the further improvement of the system. 

As explained above, the learning process in ISC-system that uses HLKs for practical tasks has a considerable level of freedom in terms of both timing and location. Following the introduction of coronavirus quarantine conditions in Estonia on 12 th of March 2020, most of the key functions of the ISC system listed in Tables 2 and 3 retained full functionality despite the cancelling of all group work in classrooms. Only the following few actions were partially affected:

1) Scheduled group training lessons in computer classes; 2) Control works in computer classes for several students at the same time to confirm the home work results; 3) Lending and collecting of home laboratory kits. Table 4 are commented only those 2 key features from Table 3 that were influenced by the coronavirus quarantine. The remaining 14 key features could be rated "full immunity". 

The previous section provided the feature-based explanation of the reasons why the ISC system retained its core functioning capabilities under quarantine conditions that suspended all direct people contact based group work activities in university. Here, in order to demonstrate the SAoL (Situation Awareness of Learning) capability of ISCsystem and to investigate the student behavior changes due to the quarantine, the detailed statistics of task solving is analyzed for 2 courses for spring semesters of years 2019 and 2020. Table 5 summarizes the student numbers for the involved courses. Table 6 presents the numbers of theoretical (Q) and practical (L) tasks included in the present statistical analysis. The statistical extract in both years corresponds to the period from semester beginning on February 1 st until May 28 th that is a date corresponding to approximately 1 week after the nominal end of the auditory work in spring semester under normal conditions. The practical tasks were performed either at home or in university with Home Lab Kits. It should be emphasized that summary number of tasks equals 216556 that makes this kind of statistical analysis practically impossible for teachers using traditional non-computerized learning technologies. Table 4 . Feature-based assessment of quarantine immunity capability of ISC-system.

Short denotation of key feature Immunity to quarantine Comment 4. HLK Partial Lending and collecting of home laboratory kits was possible only by individual agreements 5.

FlexCont Partial Control works in university computer classroom were suspended. Teacher was able to replace the missing information by individual contacts and the results achieved at home (black progress line in Fig. 2 ) Table 7 summarizes the workloads in a more concise form, where the average numbers of task solving attempts per student are presented.

Comparison of student activity in two consecutive years 2019 and 2020 is presented in Fig. 4 . One can immediately see that coronavirus quarantine in 2020 changed drastically the student behavior. Since most of traditional courses in university faced serious problems after March 13 th and could not offer for students learning tasks, the students of ATR0110 and ISC9100 courses who used the ISC-system started to perform the theoretical and practical tasks with 4-fold activity. It should be emphasized that solving of the practical experiments with Home Lab Kits continued even with higher activity than solving of theoretical tasks. At the same time when ISC-system demonstrated in April and May nearly perfect functioning capability, many other courses in university discussed postponing of exams and laboratory works to the fall semester. Table 7 . Average numbers of solved theoretical (Q) and practical (L) tasks per one student.

Year and semester* Courses Next, in Fig. 5 is compared the daily activity of students for two consecutive years 2019 and 2020. As one can see, the coronavirus quarantine is shifting the student activity to evening and night hours. Curves reveal also the fact that in year 2019 the students liked to solve the theoretical and especially practical tasks in university classrooms.

Finally, Fig. 6 presents a more detailed comparison of the student daily activities change in year 2020 after establishment of coronavirus quarantine restrictions in university on March 13 th of 2020. The results confirm the previous conclusionsshift of activity to evening and night hours and disappearance of 2-h period classroom usage peaks during quarantine. Fig. 4 . The week-based comparison of student activity through the spring semesters in two years 2019 and 2020. Upper part a) shows solving of theoretical tasks, lower part b) shows solving of practical tasks with Home Lab Kit. As one can see, after the closing of university due to coronavirus quarantine in 2020, the activity of students exhibits abrupt 4-fold rise. This is clear evidence that other traditional courses in university faced serious problems and could not offer for students learning tasks while ISC-system was nearly immune to forced quarantine conditions. As a result, the students could finish the activities in May earlier than in previous "normal year 2019. This, in turn, demonstrates the benefit of time schedule planning freedom feature of ISCsystem. The 2-week period of activity oscillations in year 2019 is caused by the 2-week period in availability of classrooms in this year. 6 . Comparison of daily activity of students before and during coronavirus quarantine period for year 2020. Upper part a) shows solving of theoretical tasks, lower part b) shows solving of practical tasks with Home Lab Kit. As one can see, the quarantine is shifting the student activity to homework evening and night hours and the characteristic 2-h period caused by university classrooms availability disappears.

The interruption of all contact group work in universities due to coronavirus quarantine in the middle of the spring semester of 2020 posed serious problems for teachers and courses who used traditional approaches to organization of laboratory works, control tests and examinations. In contrast to this, the mobile task-based learning ISC-system developed in Tallinn University of Technology with implemented innovative ideas of flexible timeschedule planning, replacement of exams with continuous task solving and realizing of practical works with mobile laboratory kits, faced no noticeable difficulties due to switching to forced distant learning.

In the present paper we:

• Explained the development timeline and construction logic of the mobile task-based ISC-system; • Offered a classification of innovative key features of ISC-system; • Provided an assessment of immunity to quarantine conditions of ISC-system key features; • Performed a study of the student behavior changes due to the quarantine restrictions on the basis of more than 216,000 task-solving records from years 2019 and 2020.

The results of the statistical analysis show up to 4-fold increase in student activity in April 2020, which can be explained by the low ability of other study courses to switch to distance learning. Another interesting result is the desire of students to work late at night even until 4 o'clock.

The Interactive Learning Environment for Mobile Laboratories. Theses of Tallinn University of Technology

Competence Based Learning -Framework, Implementation, Analysis and Management of Learning Process. Theses of Tallinn University of Technology

New concepts of automatic answer evaluation in competence based learning

Course implementation: value-added mode

Student's behavior in free learning environment and formal education system

Student behavior changes in Estonia revealed by e-learning technology

Integrated labs for electrical engineering courses in competence based learning environment -practical experience

USB audio chip based oscilloscope and signal generator for mobile laboratories

Homepage of Estonian Information Technology Foundation for Education HITSA. Quality sign winners for e-courses are announced