The diversity of mobile communication scenarios brings up the needs for applications to access not only internet services but also local applications where the communication between the devices (called collaborative communication) happen without the usage of internet infrastructure. This scenario represents a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, which allows the sharing and the exchanging of hardware, software and content. The goal of this work is to propose a mobile P2P collaborative communication approach to allow the sharing and the exchanging of learning objects comparing their metadata to the student learning profile. A prototype was developed and we performed the architecture evaluation with 20 students of an undergraduate course. An evaluation using different message protocols was conducted to verify the proposal and suggest the best communication technology. The communication technology has an impact on the time spent during the exchange of objects which may interfere in the student motivation.

1. Campus SorocabaCampus Sorocaba
LERIS-Laboratory of Studies in Networks, Innovation and Software
www.leris.sor. ufscar.br
Federal University of São Carlos - Sorocaba, Brazil
Pedro F Zanetti, Luciana A M Zaina, and Fábio L Verdi
An Approach for Supporting P2PAn Approach for Supporting P2P
Collaborative Communication Based onCollaborative Communication Based on
Learning ProfileLearning Profile
Available in:
• Draft: http://www.dcomp.sor.ufscar.br/lzaina/papers/IJLT2013draft.pdf
• Final Version: http://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticle.php?artid=52826

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IntroductionIntroduction
 Technological topics:
 Miniaturization of computational devices:
 advances in communication technologies;
 wide range of applications in several fields.
 Scenarios where communication is more localized:
 without the need of the Internet infrastructure.
 Collaborative peer-to-peer (P2P) interaction:
 exchange files.
 e-Learning topics:
 Learning style:
 may be reported by different dimensions achieving diverse
aspects of students preferences.

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Paper ObjectivePaper Objective
 An approach for supporting P2P collaborative
communication based on learning profile.
 share and exchange learning objects;
 it is considered the learning profile and topics of interest of the
students involved in the process;
 a relationship between the learning profiles and the learning
objects is drawn upon the linkage of student’s learning
preferences and fields of the fields.
 Two application was developed:
 Mobile: Android platform using Bluetooth technology to
evaluate the proposal.
 Cloud: to retrieve learning objects, their respective metadata
and the student’s learner profile from an Amazon cloud to the
device.

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Related ConceptsRelated Concepts
 Important issues to support the approach:
 Learning profiles
 Learning objects
 Collaborative communication

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Learning ProfileLearning Profile
 The learning style involves the strategies that a student tends to
apply frequently to a given teaching situation.
 The Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model is describe by
dimensions of Learning and Teaching Styles, creating a
relationship to learning styles and teaching strategies that could
be adopted to support the student learning style.
 The Felder-Silverman model was selected to this work, because
it's close relationship to learning styles and teaching strategies,
resulting in an adherence between these aspects.

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Dimensions of Felder-SilvermanDimensions of Felder-Silverman
Learning Style ModelLearning Style Model
Learning Style Teaching
Strategies
Features
sensory concrete It is related with the perception of
content.intuitive abstract
visual visual It is related with the format of
content presentation.auditory verbal
active active It is related with the student
participation in the activities.reflective passive
sequential sequential It is related with the best order to
present the content: step-by-step
progression or a overview first of
content.
global global

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Learning ObjectLearning Object
 It can be defined as an entity to be applied in a teaching-
learning process.
 e-learning: the aim is to create contents in digital formats.
 Metadata usually is adopted to organize learning objects,
improving their reuse.
 The LOM (Learning Object Metadata) standard of the Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – IEEE is the metadata
specification used in the area of learning objects.
 It has a structure that describes learning objects through
descriptor categories.

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LOM CategoriesLOM Categories
LOM Category LOM Field Characterization
General Identifier, Type, Title,
Language, Description
and Keywords.
General description.
Technical Media Format (video type,
sound), Size, Physical
location, Requirements
(object use: software
version, for example).
Technical features description.
Educational Interactive type (active,
expositive) Educational function
and pedagogical
characteristics object description.
Learning Resource Type
(exercise, simulation,
questionnaire)

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Collaborative CommunicationCollaborative Communication
 Two types:
 Local level:
 considers a collaborative communication when the most
of the features to support collaboration occurs at local
level;
 functions such as routing, name service, finding context
and message forwarding are performed without the use
of a global network infrastructure.
 Global infrastructure:
 uses a global infrastructure (Internet, for
example) adopting the services provided by such
infrastructure.

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The ApproachThe Approach
 Requirements:
 The student learning profile is:
 a part of student model and splits the student learning
profile into three categories, based on Felder and
Silverman dimensions:
 Perception, Participation e Presentation Format
 The learning objects available on the collaborative
communication must be cataloged using LOM standard.

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The ModulesThe Modules
 Context Manager is responsible for providing the
communication and the interaction between both P2P
elements of the application: client and server.
 In the server side it deals with the matching and
retrieval procedures whilst in the client side it
presents the learning objects retrieved from the
server.
 Object Sharing Manager manages the object sharing
between applications and devices, wrap and unwrap
objects; and save and request objects.

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Dynamic ModelDynamic Model
Matching
learning
profile

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Validation’s Approach (1)Validation’s Approach (1)
 A prototype of e-learning P2P was implemented in an
Android platform.
 Bluetooth API was used for implementing the functions of
communication as forwarding messages, service names and
routing.
 First step:
 download the LO, their respective metadata and the student’s
learner model, stored in a local repository;
 Web Collaborative Learning – WCL (cloud application):
 hosted in an Amazon cloud and uses the SQLite database 3.6.20.

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Validation’s Approach (2)Validation’s Approach (2)
 Second step - Tests using two devices:
Galaxy 5 (Android 2.1):
• 10 LO
• Learner Model:
• Keywords: computer
networking, mobile, cloud
and android.
Learning Profile
Perception = sensing
Presentation Format = visual
Participation = active
Motorola Milestone (Android
2.0):
• 7 LO
• Learner Model:
• Keywords: cloud, software
engineering and android.
Learning Profile
Perception = sensing
Presentation Format = visual
Participation = passive

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Validation’s Approach (3)Validation’s Approach (3)
(a)Bluetooth finds
Motorola device
(b) LOs available
(c) Selected LO

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Conclusions and future worksConclusions and future works
 The focus concerns in the student’s learning profile and
its linkage to learning objects for automatic content
exchanging.
 Further works:
 adding new features to the matching process to
consider other elements beyond of learning profile:
physical localization and device resources (memory,
processor, screen size etc);
 investigating the usage of different protocols to
transfer data such as protocol buffers and thrift .

17. Campus SorocabaCampus Sorocaba
Thanks!Thanks!
lzaina@ufscar.brlzaina@ufscar.br
http://www.dcomp.sor.ufscar.br/lzainahttp://www.dcomp.sor.ufscar.br/lzaina
facebook.com/zaina.lucianafacebook.com/zaina.luciana

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MatchingMatching Learning profileLearning profile
LOM – Educational
Field
Educational Field
Values
Teaching-
Learning
correspondence
Preference
Category
Interactivity
Active Concrete-Sensing
PerceptionPerception
Expositive Abstract-Intuitive
Learning Resource
Type
Figure, Video, Film,
and others
Visual-Visual
Presentation-Presentation-
FormatFormatText, Sound, and
others
Verbal-Auditory
Practical Exercise,
Experiment, and
others
Active-Active
StudentStudent
ParticipationParticipation
Questionnaire and
Readings
Passive-Reflective