1st International Workshop on Cloud Education Environments (WCLOUD 2012) Dynamic Customization of eTextBooks María Blanca Ibáñez Dept. Ingeniería Telemática Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Madrid, Spain e-mail: mbibanez@it.uc3m.es Carlos Delgado Kloos e-mail: cdk@it.uc3m.es Abstract— There is no reason eBooks should be monolithic promote the construction of knowledge both individually and containers of digital information, handled only with tools collectively. To this end, these communities must use emulating their counterparts in paper. In this article, we mechanisms to guide and assess learners’ progress. Our propose to structure electronic text books (eTextBooks) as approach supports the teaching-learning process in two large numbers of low-granularity units that can be created, ways. First, by allowing collaborative publishing to replaced and deleted independently by learning communities. physically distributed users. Secondly, by offering the We also propose a software service to dynamically deliver possibility to customize eTextBooks as learning content units to eBook devices according to specified environments with learning assets (i.e., text, images, audio, requirements. Our software service is deployed in public video, 3D interactive objects) required by each student at any clouds infrastructure. time. eBook; ePublishing; learning as a service; cloud education The rest of this article is organized as follows: the accessibility background of the paper is presented at sections II and III. Whereas section II outlines the fundamentals of eBooks technology and its impact on education, section III deals with I. INTRODUCTION the use of cloud computing in learning environments The market for electronic books (eBooks) is rapidly supported by eTextBooks. Then, section IV presents a usage growing and the publishing industry is constantly defining scenario of our proposal, and in section V, we describe the new concepts of eBooks. Consequently, eBooks content has architecture of our eTextBook service (eTBS). Finally, we evolved from text and images to richer multimedia assets. present the conclusions in section VI. Nowadays, it is possible to customize eBooks in simple ways such as setting text size or adding annotations (bookmarks, II. EBOOK CURRENT TECHNOLOGY: ITS IMPACT ON highlights, notes, clippings) [1]. However, customization EDUCATION capabilities in eBooks are limited due to their treatment as Publishers are preparing for the digital future of books in monolithic entities. To overcome this constraint, we propose general and textbooks in particular. They are indeed attracted a new approach where eBooks can be handled as structures by the possibility to produce, modify and distribute their that can grow or shrink, and whose information units can be products cheaper by focusing in target customers. A main created, replaced, and deleted independently by users. challenge is to avoid the proliferation of publishing formats Dealing with low-granularity units offers opportunities to generated by platforms of eBooks distribution, namely collaborative publishing, which in turns allows Kindle for Amazon, Nook for Barnes & Noble, iBook for customization guided by information needs. Thereby, each Apple, Kobo and Sony Google. In this sense, the publisher community would produce content suited to their International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) is doing a interest. successful effort to define a publishing standard: ePUB that Our approach would benefit from using a cloud is being adopted by the main. Only Amazon has not computing infrastructure due to the facilities that the Cloud embraced the format yet. Apple belongs to the IDPF Forum offers both to service provides and users. In the Cloud, but its file-format is not fully compatible with ePUB. “service providers enjoy greatly simplified software ePUB3 is the third major release of the open standard installation and maintenance and centralized control over format of the IDPF for digital publications and documents. versioning; end users can access the service “anytime, The specification is based on web-standards shaped to anywhere”, share data and collaborate more easily, and keep specific books needs. Briefly, ePUB3 is XHTML content their data stored safely in the infrastructure.” [2]. with some additional structure and metadata packaged in a The proposed approach can be especially useful for .zip file (see Fig. 1). It emphasizes the dynamic typesetting educational and learning communities whose aim is to of content adapted to the reader consumption taking into 18 1st International Workshop on Cloud Education Environments (WCLOUD 2012) account screen size, screen resolution, preferred font size. The aim of this work is to contribute in the social aspect Besides, it enables structured and accessible content that is of building knowledge by a community of learners using interoperable between devices both for downloaded and eTextBooks as learning environments. online consumption. ePUB, it provides video an audio support; text and audio can be synchronized and allows Java III. CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE USE OF CLOUD Script execution. COMPUTING IN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS SUPPORTED BY ETEXTBOOKS .ePUB3 Internet and mobile devices have democratized the access to data; they have contributed to impose the culture of ubiquitous access to information. Meanwhile, a silent OEBPS META-INF revolution was taken place in the scientific world, technology known as grid computing enabled sharing, mimetype selecting and aggregating of a wide variety of geographic X Content Navigation distributed hardware and software resources to communities MX Documents Documents Style Sheets of scientists [6]. Pioneers of grid computing where following LM L L. Kleinrock’s vision: “As of now, computers networks are content.opf still in their infancy, but as they grow up and become XHTML SVG XHTML CSS sophisticated, we will probably see the spread of computer utilities which, like present electric and telephonic utilities, will service individual homes and offices across the country” Figure 1. Structure of an eBook following ePUB3 [7] an cited in [8]. According to the National Institute of Standards and From an educational perspective, traditional books are more Technology (NIST) [9], the cloud model is composed of five suitable as tools for behavioral practices of education where essential characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad students are passive consumers of information. Books act as network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and close containers of organized information with limited measured services; three service models: Platform as a possibilities of active learning. Among these possibilities is Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and worth mention annotating, an effective and efficient study Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) and, four deployment strategy which promotes learners’ active involvement in models: private, community, public and hybrid cloud. It constructing ideas [3]. includes market-based resource management strategies eBooks ease lecture comprehension with the inclusion of previously used in Grid computing to guarantee dictionaries and the possibility of consulting other sources of performance, availability, latency and quality-of-service information interactively via web. Comprehension is also (QoS) requirements. These requirements are constrained by facilitated by eBooks capabilities to provide multimodal the availability and capability of resources, performance information adapted to learners’ perception preferences [4]. measures and costs. With the advent of eBooks, learners become active actors Cloud computing is a relative new phenomenon and large in the building of knowledge. Highlighting and annotation companies are still anxious about data failures, slow delivery acquire a social dimension when combined with cloud of data over a network, and vulnerability of their confidential computing and web services. For instance, these social information. However, the most relevant eBooks sellers such features are already provided by Kindle and Kobo. These as Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo Inc. offer their eReaders allow sharing eBook comments and highlights to eBooks services through the Cloud proclaiming the facilities Facebook and Twitter. to access the book any time, any where and, using any Learners’ engagement is promoted by interactive portable device. Using the cloud as a distribution platform capabilities of eBooks. Learners can manipulate virtual has also reduced the books’ prices. Finally, the cloud has objects, simulation of experiments and on-reading testing also provided a medium to establish communities of readers receiving the feedback that stimulate active reflection. Apple as in Kobo Inc. has been the pioneers integrating interactivity into their The educational sector is starting to embrace cloud iBooks textbooks. computing. An initial overview of the use of cloud Models of instructional design that promote deep computing in education has been presented by N. Sultan at learning establish that (1) learning is a product of [10]. In the study, the Washington State University’s School understanding; (2) understanding occur best through of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and schools performing tasks and (3) learning is a social activity [5]. of Kentucky’s Pike County district are mentioned as These three factors can be fulfilled by eBooks with current examples of institutions which use cloud platforms technology. However, further efforts are necessary to turn (cSphere4 and IBM data center respectively) to reduce costs. the eBook into an integrated learning environment where Amazon Web Services is been used to support peaks of students be guided in meaningful activities and the social workload of the course “Software Engineering for SaaS” of construction of knowledge will be not only allowed but the University of California At Berkeley. Google Apps is actively promoted. been used at the University of Westminster and several African schools to rely on the latest technology and reduce 19 1st International Workshop on Cloud Education Environments (WCLOUD 2012) costs. Thus, education institutions seem to be opened to this Data Layer. The type of assets that a user can include in the new paradigm. Data Layer will depend on permissions granted. The Integration Service enables the customization of IV. USAGE SCENARIO eBooks. An eBook will include not only learning assets but Omar, María and David are starting the module “People also information related to students’ profiles, team and Societies” in their History course. They live in different organization as well as the context and particular needs of districts in Madrid and belong to three different schools the course. Students’ profiles refer to students learning style, which are using our eTextBook service to support the course. perception style and special difficulties. Team organization Omar, María, and David are Muslim, Catholic, and Jewish will determine who should share what assets. Context will be respectively. useful to choose contents relevant to a student community. As a pilot experience, Omar’s teacher coordinates the The Integration Service is possible thanks to the scripting “People and Societies” module and customizes the capabilities offered by ePUB3, with previous ePUB releases, eTextBook for all the three classes involved. She decides to this service is not feasible. include the basic content provided by the publisher along with multimedia assets produced by last year students about Data Layer popular music of the three cultures involved. This year, these three classes will be deeply involved in learning about eBook Layer religions. Thus, Omar, María, and David will lead in their Resource Administration Integration respective classes the organization of relevant information. Service Allocation Service Service Learning assets Each school will augment their eTextBooks with the consensual information generated by their students. Finally, Omar’s teacher will be responsible for customizing the final eTextBook for all the community. C1 C2 Students work in their assignment in class using the Data directory Core Layer Information Security eReaders provided by the schools, and at home using their Service Service smart phones. All devices have access to our service through Analytics Communication a public cloud infrastructure which guarantees content Service Service accessibility. Users’ records Finally, education authorities in Madrid decide to use eTBS for this History course in all schools in Madrid. The Figure 2. eTBS architecture scalability of the pilot is guaranteed by the use of a commercial cloud computing platform. C. Core Layer V. ETBS ARCHITECTURE This layer provides essential cloud services for any The eTBS architecture proposed herein is a four-tier eBook such as the Security, the Information, the Analytics, architecture with a Presentation layer where the client is a and the Communication services as well as a set of services eBook reader based on Readium, the eBook Layer allows required by the learning community. users to access the eTextBook service, the Core Layer with a Core Layer is also possible thanks to the scripting set of general-purpose services and the Data Layer to handle capabilities of ePUB3. learning assets and students’ records. This architecture is D. Data Layer depicted in Fig. 2 and offers a complete service to customize The Data Layer contains the learning assets that can be eBooks using a public cloud infrastructure. included in an eBook (Learning assets); data about the users A. Presentation Layer of the application (Users’ records) as well as the organization Students will access their electronic text books though of the data (Data directory). the Readium eReader which is based on ePUB3, the third Learning assets encompass not only text and images as in major release of the standard ePUB for digital publications any traditional book or eBook but also, multimedia elements and documents. ePUB3 has features to embedded audio, such as video, audio, and 3D interactive objects that are video, scripting and interactivity within eBooks that might beginning to appear in eBooks. Unlike current eBooks, cause a significant impact on learning. learning assets are stored as low-granularity units along with metadata in the Learning assets area. B. eBook Layer Data about users (students, teachers and editors) is stored Users interact with the services of the application through in the User’s records area along with metadata that allows for the eBook Layer. Users might include new learning assets by the structuring of the data as information for services. For using the Resource Allocation Service and customize the instance, metadata includes users’ security permissions and eBooks with the Integration Service. students’ grading. System administrators grant users’ permissions through Data included in the Learning assets and Users’ records the Administration Service whereas the Resource Allocation areas are structured in the Data directory area in order to be Service allows users to include new learning assets in the recovered according to users’ requirements in the context of 20 1st International Workshop on Cloud Education Environments (WCLOUD 2012) core or eLearning services. For instance, learning assets are ACKNOWLEDGMENTS organized as dependency trees and all the assets referring to This work was partially supported by the State of Madrid a specific learning topic can be accessed and then selected (Spain) under the contract number eMadrid S2009/TIC-1650 according their tags; students can be organized by courses (e-Madrid) and EEE CICYT TIN2011-28308-c03-1. and (or) working teams. We thank Florina Almenárez for encouraging us to write the paper and for comments that greatly improved the E. eTBS Architecture in the Cloud manuscript. We are using the ePUB3 standard for structuring the REFERENCES information in eBooks and Readium as eReader. ePUB3 supports a wide range of publication requirements, including [1] EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative; “7 things you should know about e- readers”, EDUACUSE, 2010. complex layouts, rich media and interactivity, and global [2] Armbrust, M.; Fox, A.; Griffith, R.; Joseph, A.; Katz, R.; Konwinski, typography features. 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