-In this paper creating platform for language elearning was discussed in both theory and as an example implementation. We present a discussion on used work-flows to show programming background of our project but we also discuss it from the user oriented quality of service. For these we present opinion results that our users gave us after using the applications. Finally we propose the way of development and possible future works.
I. INTRODUCTION
Web services are important software developments. There
are several possibilities to implement each of them. In [
There are many techniques which directly adhere to
practical aspects of web services. In [
One of most interesting applications of web services are
these oriented on e-learning applications. In [
In this article we present our web service developed for elearning of Japanese language. There are not many services that would allow user to learn Japanese language with the help of e-learning, especially given that this language due to its complexity needs individual treatment as opposed to Copyright held by the author(s). most of the popular languages. We present an application of web service to help in learning of the Japanese in proposed annotations based on different alphabets. We have measured opinions from our users on the application developed for elearning to evaluate which approach gives the best results. Our findings are presented in this article and discuss to show our approach.
II. INTRODUCTION TO JAPANESE ALPHABETS
Japanese language usually uses three notations: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one character is one syllable, it is used in children’s books and in textbooks before person’s learn kanji.
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters, one character can mean one word, or be a part of the word. Each kanji have Onyomi and Kunyomi, the former being Chinese pronunciation at the time of its introduction, the latter Japanese pronunciation.
We let user choose if they want to use hiragana or kanji. If the user language knowledge is advanced enough, they can choose kanji since it is more common. Otherwise they can choose hiragana which is easier to learn but not used as common as kanji.
III. EXISTING IMPLEMENTATION AND SERVICE OVERVIEW
Data in the database is split into categories (called courses in the database and API), each category have assigned one of three types, that is vocabulary, kanji and definitions, which determines the data scheme in response body of an API requests. For instance, type ”vocabulary” determines that response will contain entry id, Kanji notation, Kana notation and Polish notation, whereas in ”Kanji” that would be entry id, Kanji notation, Kunyomi and Onyomi.
Both Android application and the website frontend retrieves data from the database using JSON API.
Our service uses one API for both website and Android application to get and save data to the database, Fig. 2 describes available API endpoints. This way we ensure that every application uses the exact same data served in the same format. However we need to copy most of the logic into every application since received data needs to be processed to format used internally in given application and processed back to JSON format for writing data to the database through API.
The Android application or web application sends a request to API using HTTP POST or GET methods depending on the need as shown on Fig 1. The server application that uses Model-View-Controller design pattern routes request to proper controller which retrieves data from the database, parse it and create JSON encapsulated response which is send back to the requesting application.
In the following example, we would like to retrieve data from API about all available categories. Android implementation written in Java, Gson and Retrofit libraries looks like follows: private void getCategoriesFromInternet() f
String API BASE URL = ”http://localhost/api/”; OkHttpClient.Builder httpClient = new
OkHttpClient.Builder(); //retrieve JSON from API Retrofit.Builder builder = new Retrofit.Builder() .baseUrl(API BASE URL) .addConverterFactory(
GsonConverterFactory.create() ); Retrofit retrofit =
builder.client( httpClient.build() ).build(); //bind recieved data to Java class CategoriesClient client = retrofit.create(
CategoriesClient.class); Call<List<Course>> call = client.coursesList(type ); call.enqueue(new Callback<List<Course>>() f @Override public void onResponse(Call<List<Course>> call, Response<List<Course>> response) f //we were able to receive JSON and
deserialize it courses=new ArrayList<Course>(response.
body()); g g @Override public void onFailure(Call<List<Course>> call, Throwable t) f //failed to retrieve data g
g);
Website implementation written in Vue.js that achieves the same goal as Android one looks like follows: <template> <div class=”container cube col md 4” v for=” category in this.categories”> <div class=”cube”>
Category: ffcategory.namegg </div> </div> </template> <script> export default f
components:f g, data () f return f
categories: [] g, g
g) g g </script> methods: f g, beforeCreate()f this.$http.get(”courses”).then( (response) =>f
this.categories = response.body We need to add following code to main Javascript file to inform Vue to use JSON format in communication and set correct ULR address used for communication with API: Vue.http.options.root = ’http://localhost/api/’; Vue.http.options.emulateJSON = true; API is written in PHP using Laravel framework and the corresponding API endpoint code looks like this: / database connection parameters are stored in Laravel application configuration / public function getAllCourses() f $coursesTableContents = DB::table(’courses’) >get(); return response() >json($coursesTableContents); As we can see, most of the logic have to be implemented in each application using API as stated previously.
For instance, android application uses Retrofit2 library to retrieve data from API and GSON to convert it to existing Java classes.
Upon entering the website user sees list of three activities,as seen on Fig 3: quiz, flashcard and dictionary. After selecting activity a list of all categories is retrieved through API and shown to user to select from. After that, user selects direction of translation, for example from Kanji to Polish. List of words in given category is retrieved using API and selected activity is run.
Quiz shows one word in a given language and four buttons with answers in another language where only one contains correct answer. Upon pressing correct button one point is added to user score and next question is shown. After pressing wrong button one point is removed from user score and correct and selected answers are highlighted in green and red color respectively.
Flashcards shows one word in a given language and hidden translations as well as two buttons: ”I know” and ”I don’t know”. ”I know” button removes word from list and next word is presented to the user. ”I don’t know” button reveals translations of given word and adds the word at the end of the words list.
Dictionary is a table of words with corresponding translations.
As seen on activity flow for Android application (as seen on Fig. 4), the user sees list of three data types and an option menu. In options menu user can select activity they want to launch, direction of translation as well as additional help in form of hiragana notation. After selecting one of the types, a list of categories in given type is retrieved through API and shown to user to select. After that, user selects category, then list of words in given category is retrieved using API and selected activity is run.
Quiz shows one word in a given language and four buttons with answers in another language where only one contains correct answer. Upon pressing correct button one point is added to user score and next question is shown. After pressing wrong button one point is removed from user score and correct and selected answers are highlighted in green and red color respectively.
Flashcards shows one word in a given language and hidden translations as well as two buttons: ”I know” and ”I don’t know”. ”I know” button removes word from list and next word is presented to the user. ”I don’t know” adds the word at the end of the words list. Tapping field with hidden translation reveals it.
IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE TRADITIONAL SCHOOL Learning process in traditional school is divided by difficulty level into semesters or even smaller units. Usually each unit is concluded with exam testing students’ knowledge and degree of their understanding of given topic. Students needs to have passed minimal percentage of correct answers on exam to proceed to the next learning unit. Teacher can also see student’s exam and provide them with custom exercises or explain them what they can change or pay more attention to.
Physical location of the student does not matter. E-learning is a chance to learn for the people who live in places where traditional schools and language courses are unavailable. Users can also learn from the specialist online, even if they live far away apart.
E-learning can be cheaper than traditional courses, not requiring physical copies of books and exercise books, making it affordable substitute for people with low income.
E-learning does not require a fixed schedule making it attainable for people with irregular lifestyle or unusual waking hours.
The best way to learn language however requires native speaker teacher which e-learning cannot provide without sacrificing some of its strength, for example not requiring to be online at fixed schedule.
User also have to be self-disciplined to learn regularly, which may be hard and can result in dropping e-learning.
Internet connection is usually required, given the the of the course it may be one-time download or constant connection for courses that use data from the web.
VI. IMPLEMENTATION OF TRADITIONAL SCHOOLING IN
E-LEARNING
Material of the e-learning platform can be split into units, as it is in traditional learning but we need to remember that some users would have previous contact with Japanese and we need to provide them some way to skip those units. We would suggest either asking user to take all exams prior to selected by them unit or automatically create new custom exam using knowledge from all previous units. On failure first approach would allow user to access some of the previous unit to the selected one given user’s score. Second approach however would make it harder to differentiate which knowledge user already has and which not.
As a supplement to traditional learning, e-learning can provide a platform to both student and teacher, giving opportunity for teachers to see their students’ marks and giving them advices and additional exams, like in traditional learning. Teachers could create custom units and use them instead of built-in ones, using e-learning platform as a framework rather than complete system with pre-existing knowledge base, taking time but giving more flexibility and tailoring learning curve specifically for their students or even for each student individually.
CONSIDERATIONS
Our implementation divides knowledge into smaller units as in traditional school, however we do not have requirement to pass all previous units to proceed to the next one. Our service does not implement user authentication and authorization so the usage of the service is anonymous but also forces user to keep track of their progress since our service does not have means to do it.
Our service have all aforementioned advantages of elearning, being available online all the time and offline in a limited version since Android application have built-in database allowing it to operate without internet connection, however this database is smaller than the one available through online API to keep small application size. VIII. INTERFACE QUESTIONNAIRE 3 4 11 14 10 6
Fig. 6. Pie chart showing users’ answers.
We asked users of mobile application which one of the 6 application interfaces (as shown on Fig.5) suits them the most and shown the collected data on a pie diagram (Fig 6). Out of 48 answers, votes for the white background and black background were split evenly. On white background smaller spaces between buttons were preferred, whereas on black background wider spaces were chosen more often. Considering only padding size, medium spacing was preferred with 25 votes, small gaps were chosen 14 times and big padding was selected by 9 respondents.
Depending on the student, e-learning may not be as effective as traditional learning but it can supplement it strengthening memorizing or in some conditions can be viable alternative to traditional courses.
The implementation of an e-learning platform can be used by students on very early development stages and with help of automated surveys help in development of new functionalities and in understanding users’ needs and expectations as the survey results may be unexpected to the development team.
The results of our findings show these services are very useful in e-learning, especially when it comes to foreign languages. In the future we plan to develop our service for the latest technologies like virtual reality or other interactive approaches.
The use of API allows us to add new applications and replace the server application, Android application or web applications with different ones as long as common communication schema established in API is preserved thus allowing for easy migration of the individual applications.