Description
Geographic information science (GIScience) is a constantly evolving field, posing a challenge to the production of current and affordable GIScience education textbooks. The content of printed textbooks has long been replicated in digital format, but the addition of interactive multimedia elements which support the content enhances the learning experience through engagement of multiple senses. The availability of interactive multimedia textbooks on mobile devices affords greater portability and accessibility. GIScience education in particular benefits from the inclusion of multimedia elements such as maps, images and videos. While digital publishing has potential for timely updates and rapid dissemination, individual authors generally have limited time and resources to update textbooks, especially when incorporating interactive multimedia elements. Collaboration is one approach to meeting this challenge; by working in parallel on an interactive multimedia textbook guided by pedagogy, collaborators can expedite the development and publishing process. This research discusses initial development of a free prototype interactive multimedia textbook for GIScience on Apple iPad (hereinafter "GIScience iBook" or "prototype") and a collaborative framework to support ongoing content development. There are three research questions in this study: (1) What are the major technical challenges in designing and implementing the prototype and content development framework? (2) How to assess and evaluate the prototype for an audience of undergraduate university students taking their first GIS class? (3) Who are the collaborative participants in the GIScience education community and what are their motivations, experiences and user profiles? The development process resulted in the GIScience iBook prototype, consisting of two chapters, as well as a contribution framework implemented on the Plone Content Management System (CMS). Technical challenges include the proprietary nature of the prototype that limits development to Apple computers using iBooks Author software. Additional expertise with specialized programs is also necessary to develop original multimedia content, for example use of the Adobe Photoshop to prepare images or Esri ArcGIS to create maps. The Plone CMS used for the framework requires a longer time to develop technical expertise compared to similar content management systems, such as WordPress or Drupal. One critical issue is that hosting the framework on a single research web server results in collaborative framework unavailability when the server is down due to network security error or hardware failure, or if the technical expertise to rebuild the underlying Plone CMS framework is lost. Prototype testing was conducted with 30 student participants enrolled in two undergraduate GIS courses at San Diego State University during the Fall 2013 semester. Prior to prototype testing, only a single student preferred to read a GIScience textbook on a tablet; after prototype testing, over half (17) preferred a tablet. The results of student SWOT analysis of the prototype: Strengths were the ability to interact with the multimedia elements, leading to higher interest and engagement with the prototype; weaknesses were potential for distraction and that the prototype only runs on Apple iPads; opportunities were the free download and faster update potential; and threats include lack of access to Apple iPads primarily due to high cost, and technology changes. Only one other collaborator, a male community college instructor, contributed material to the prototype, but did not use the collaborative framework despite receiving inservice training in its use. This indicates that additional study on how to motivate potential collaborators to contribute material, and redesigning the framework to more conveniently streamline and facilitate contribution is warranted. Based on the positive responses of the students towards the prototype, further development is a valid consideration. However, the ongoing challenge will be to attract and motivate collaborators in order to sustain development. The hackathon model is proposed as a possible approach to increase collaboration on further development of the interactive multimedia GIScience textbook.
