Abstract
The
research reported here is
part
of
a
larger project which seeks to combine serious games (or
games
based learning)
with
location based services to help people
with
intellectual disability and
additional sensory impairments to develop work based skills. Specifically this paper reports on
where these approaches are combined to scaffold the learning of new routes and
ultimately
independent travel to new work and educational opportunities. A phased development
methodology is applied in a user sensitive manner, to ensure
that
user feedback drives the
ongoing
development
process.
Methods to structure this include group feedback on conceptual
storyboards, expert review of prototypes using usability heuristics relating to the main system
goals,
and finally co-discovery methods
with
student pairs exploring all three modes of the system
in real world contexts. Aspects of developmental and cognitive psychological theories are also
reviewed and it is suggested
that
combining games based learning approaches
with
location
based
services is an appropriate combination of technologies for an application specifically
designed
to scaffold route learning for this
target
audience.
Keywords
Cooperative/collaborative learning; cross-cultural projects; human-computer interface; navigation;
public
spaces
and computing.
Introduction
In the UK around 25 people in every thousand have mild or moderate intellectual disabilities and
about four or five per thousand have severe intellectual disabilities (Department of
Health,
2001).
These
disabilities are often combined
with
additional impairments (e.g.,
mobility
or fine motor
control and additional sensory impairments) and help will often be needed
with
almost every
aspect
of daily living (Brown et al, 2009a).
People
with
intellectual disabilities often face a lack of
control and opportunity in
their
everyday lives (Brown et al, 2009a),
with
less than 10% having
jobs and few living in
their
own homes or having real choice over who cares for them (Department
of
Health,
2001). It is however, the intention of current policy (Department of
Health,
2001) to
enable
people
with
intellectual disability and additional impairments to have as much choice and
control as possible over
their
lives, be involved in
their
communities and to make a valued
contribution to the world at work. Several major reviews have recognized
that
this can only be
achieved
via appropriately designed educational courses
that
equip them for independent living,
and
that
also develop communicational skills (Tomlinson, 1997; National Development Group for
the Mentally
Handicapped,
1977).
One
of the core skills required for leading an independent life and
accessing
the world of work is
the gaining of independent travel skills and having the confidence to learn and travel new routes.
Such
skills are a key prerequisite to many of the recommendations of the UK Government's
Valuing
People
Report (Department of
Health,
2001): facilitating
access
to transport will enable
people
with
intellectual disabilities to
access
a wider range of leisure opportunities and
opportunities for education and lifelong learning (p 78).
These
activities will in
turn
enable them to
lead
full
and purposeful lives (p87)
A
increase
their
quality of life, facilitate social inclusion,
encourage
healthy life styles (p90) and enhance
their
chances
of employment (p84).
Our
solution to this problem is the development of an accessible location based services learning
tool using the Android Operating System (such as on T-mobile's G1 phone) combined
with
games
based learning
approaches.
The aims of the tool are to allow our
target
audience to plan
and
rehearse new routes to work, leisure and learning opportunities, and then to carry these out
independently in a safe manner. According to
Prasad
(2006, p1) "Location
Based
Service or
LBS,
is
the
ability
to find the geographical location of the mobile device and provide services based on
this location information". Games based learning or 'serious games' can either be 3D immersive
environments or "simpler games such as quiz games" (Down, 2008). This approach extends
some
earlier solutions based on flexible
virtual
environments (Brown et al, 2005; Sanchez &
Saenz,
2006; Lloyd et al, 2006), where new routes and the generic skills involved in travel training
1
could
be practiced in preparation for real world experience. Evaluation illustrated good transfer to
real world abilities.
Moving
the environment of learning to a real world and real time context might help to
compensate
for the poor memory skills often associated
with
this target audience (Burack &
Zigler, 1990) and ensure
that
learning takes place in a context similar to
that
in which it is
required.
This is important for a target audience described as 'concrete thinkers' whose
performance is characterised as rigid, context dependent or as blind rule following and for whom
generalization of learnt skills from one setting to another is unreliable (Gow et al, 1990). 'Context
aware
learning' is therefore particularly important for our target audience and 'mobile devices are
especially
well suited to context-aware applications simply because they are available in different
contexts, and so can draw on those contexts to enhance the learning activity'
(NESTA
Futurelab
Series
Report 11, 2004, p15).
A
location based service would also be able to offer real time support should route divergence
occur
or some other error be made. Location based services systems can track users'
performance on previously trained routes and indicate significant divergence in terms of time or
distance
via a user
specified
alarm and offer advice for correction. Lindstrbm (2007) states
that
for users
with
disabilities it is
necessary
to assimilate a mental map of the route to be taken
;
Importantly^
if this mental map can be
built
in a mobile environment, then users will be less
affected by unforeseen circumstances
that
may force a route change.
Parents
and caregivers of people
with
intellectual disability are often prone to over-protection
which
can sometimes affect
their
personal freedom. Such a mobile device offering a system for
independent route learning and real time support using location based services may help to
mitigate some of these fears by allowing a user's position to be tracked, safe in the knowledge
that
should they get lost this system can be programmed to automatically
text
their
GPS
position
with
a street name to a nominated other's mobile device, or call a nominated helper to help them
conversationally to navigate to safety.
Users
with
disabilities often stress the importance of having
some
way to locate them when they can no longer orientate themselves during
a
journey
(Lindstrbm, 2007).
Using
game based learning has several documented advantages. One of the primary advantages
of serious games in learning is
their
ability to engage the learner voluntarily in sufficient
repetitions of the activities to ensure learning takes place (Pivec, 2007). Persistent reengagement
is
the situation in which the player returns to the task unprompted (Garris et
al,
2002). Serious
games
can also be particularly effective at engaging and motivating certain groups of learners
with
intellectual disabilities, such as offenders (Brown et al 2009b). Further evidence of the
motivational powers of computer games for our target audience are emphasized by other
researchers
where such games were used in the
successful
retention of testers
with
intellectual
disability in a study to evaluate a navigational device over a period of eighteen months in order to
complete a baseline evaluation and to test each version of the prototype (Standen et
al,
2006).
Serious
games can be structured
with
different levels of
challenge.
One of the primary functions
of tutoring, according to Wood et al, (1976), is to allow the learner to make progress by
initially
providing scaffolding, for example by controlling those elements of the task
that
are
initially
beyond
the beginner's capability. As the beginner becomes more familiar
with
elements of the
task and develops the ability to carry it out independently the
tutor
intervenes
less.
The secret is
to ensure a balance between
success
and challenge and the different levels
that
can be
built
into
games
provides this. Systems for new route learning using location based services can be
appropriately structured to heavily scaffold the planning of new routes and the
first
instances of
traveling these new routes (and additionally in collaboration
with
peers including teachers), and
then be programmed to offer less intervention as the user develops the confidence and skills to
2
ultimately^ travel these routes independently. The situated learning paradigm
emphasizes
that
learning is as much a process of
social
participation (Lave et al, 1991, in
NESTA
Futurelab Series
Report
11, 2004, p13). Whilst other researchers offer similar arguments to
Wood
et al (1976) and
2
'emphasise
the idea of cognitive apprenticeship, where teachers (the experts) work alongside
students (the apprentices) to create situations where the students can begin to work on problems
even
before they
fully
understand them' (Brown et al (1989), in
NESTA
Futurelab Series Report
11,2004, p13)
Serious
games can provide immediate feedback so
that
an
activity
is easily linked
with
a learning
outcome,
in
Pivec's
(2007)
words: "the debriefing process between the game cycle and the
achievement of the learning outcomes".
Other researchers have also noted the potential of combining location-based experience
with
game-based
learning, to "enable radically new forms of learning experience" Benford (2005, p4),
and
the importance of
"accessing
learning materials in the particular context where and when
they are most immediately relevant..." Developing a learning-oriented system rather than a basic
guidance
system is a more appropriate approach for this
target
audience.
The
development of
virtual
environments (VE) and 3D serious games for new route training can
involve high development costs resulting mainly from programming costs. In an
attempt
to
counteract this researchers have produced adaptable VE so
that
different town/road/building/road
crossing
layouts can be practiced (Brown et al, 2005), However this leads to teaching general
travel training skills rather than learning specific new routes. Using location based services
systems
to plan and practice new routes involves relatively low costs,
with
set up costs involving
mainly the purchase of
a
suitable mobile device
{e.g.,
T-mobile's
G1
phone}, and then staff or
teacher costs to support a user in
first
planning and personalizing a route and then rehearsing
this route.
These
costs are relatively small in comparison
with
the programming
time
to develop a
bespoke
VE or 3D serious game which can run
into
weeks and months.
2. User Sensitive
Inclusive
Design
A
suitable development methodology for a route learning systems aimed at people
with
learning
disabilities is the
Phased
Development methodology. Dennis and Wixom (2003, p11) state "The
phased
development methodology breaks the overall system
into
a series of versions
that
are
developed
sequentially". The analysis phase identifies the overall system concept, and then the
requirements are broken
into
a series of versions
with
the most
important
and fundamental
requirements put
into
the
first
version
(McHugh,
2009).
The
route learning system is
part
of the development of
a
wider
European
project to develop
games
based learning approaches to teach work based learning for people
with
intellectual
disability and additional impairments. User sensitivity is crucial to this project, and so the analysis
phase
was carried out
with
project stakeholders and user representatives (at the Birmingham
Institute
for the Deaf
and
the Shepherd School Old Students' association). This process ensured
that
the overall system concept was appropriate to the needs of the
target
audience,
and
that
the
design
requirements were actually derived via analysis of the user characteristics, the route
learning tasks to be performed and
their
environment of
action.
The ways in which these design
requirements could then be met by specific features of the route learning system (called Route
Mate)
were represented using conceptual storyboards, allowing early feedback in the design
process
via demonstrating these at facilitated user group meetings.
Early
stage prototypes containing the
important
and fundamental requirements were also tested
within
facilitated user group
sessions
to ensure
that
the
important
usability and accessibility
issues
and other issues relating to the main system goals were corrected early on before they
became
major
issues.
Later, co-discovery methods were used
with
student pairs testing the
prototype system in a real route learning situation. In this way, each stage of the
Phased
Development Methodology was applied in a user sensitive way and offered opportunities for the
target
audience to
trial
low
fidelity
and prototype versions to ensure the original goals of the
overall system were met.
3. Analysis phase and
iterative
design
with
users
3
3.1 User
scoped
design requirements
Design
requirements were scoped
with
trainers at the Birmingham
Institute
for the Deaf and
teachers at the Shepherd
School,
Nottingham.
These
design requirements are shown in table 1.
Design
Requirement
Indicator
DR1
DR2
DR3
DR4
DR5
DR6
DR7
Design
Requirement: The system should:
Assist
users
with
planning and using a personalised route independently
Encourage
users to use
their
own skills and not rely on the device
Reinforce
learning objectives of the wider
EU
project
curriculum
Not require the user to carry additional technology other than a mobile
phone
Be
accessible to users
with
learning difficulties and sensory impairment
Assist
the user
with
other required skills development areas related to
cognitive disability (such as memory)
Provide
an easy
facility
to get help
from
a parent or carer when required
Table"!:
User
scoped
design requirements
3.2 Further design requirements
It was
felt
that
a set of more focused accessibility-related design requirements were required for a
system aimed at users
with
multiple
cognitive and sensory impairments. Guidelines aimed at
such
users were reviewed including those using
text
in interactive systems aimed at people
with
a
learning disability
(Evett
& Brown, 2005) and in the design of serious games for
this
same
target
audience
(Brown et al, 2009a) combining recommendations
from
main resources (W3C 1999,
2008a;
Horton, 2006) and various other notable resources (TechDis, 2009; Tiresias, 2008; BDA,
2008;
NLN,
2003; Evett et al, 2006;
Fields,
2009). In reviewing these guidelines
with
trainers
from
the two user-representative organizations the following additional design requirements were
defined.
These
design requirements are shown in table 2.
Design
Requirement
Indicator
DR8
DR9
DR10
DR11
DR12
DR13
Design
Requirement: The system should:
Ensure
presentation
at
appropriate
speed - it is essential
that
speed of
presentation is appropriate for the particular
target
group, and may be
modified during the
iterative
user-centred design process
Allow users to go back - essential for all users, and especially those
who may have organisational,
information
processing and/or memory
difficulties
Allow User Control - allow for user customisation based on user
preference; for example, some users
with
dyslexia or visual impairment
have distinct colour and contrast requirements, others may wish to slow
things down, or to use keyboard
access
Text
- make any
text
plain
text
(rather
than images or graphics), follow
Clear
Text for All guidelines
(Evett
& Brown, 2005, and see
WCAG
2.0,
W3C,
2008a), no dense blocks of
text,
plain English
Text
Alternatives:
Provide
text
equivalents for
non-text
content, including
auditory and visual components, so
that
it can be changed
into
other
forms people
need,
such as Braille,
speech,
symbols, other languages
including sign language
Colour - never convey
information
by colour alone
4
DR14
DR15
DR16
DR17
DR18
DR19
DR20
Contrast - ensure sufficient contrast so
that
it is easier to distinguish
items, both visual and auditory (cf.
WCAG
2.0,
W3C,
2008a)
Navigable - help users navigate, find content and know where they are:
by placing navigation information in the same place (usually at the top)
and
ensuring
that
it is consistent and simple, using maps when
appropriate, using home and back buttons, providing context and
orientation information
Maintain
organisation - instructions, buttons, clearly displayed and in
the same place (often at top) throughout presentations
Design simply - in simple layouts, it is relatively easy to draw attention
to important features and differences; in more complex layouts it
becomes
harder to highlight features, thus making presentations even
more complex
Robust - make systems consistent and error free, provide appropriate
error
messages
and error catching
Aim for
compatibility
with
assistive technologies - e.g.,
screenreaders,
text-to-speech, zoom features
Seizures - do not include elements
that
are known to cause
seizures,
for
example by having elements
that
flash or have particular spatial
frequencies
Table
2: Design requirements derived from published guidelines
3.3 First and second design
with
user feedback
The
proposed solution to meet these design requirements is a location-aware application for a
mobile phone (DR4)
that
allows users to plan
their
route in advance, rehearse the route before
their
first
day at work, and use the route when traveling independently to work (DR1). Additional
learning objectives should address route planning and time management,
with
the use of the
system also promoting the development of memory, concentration, stress-management and
confidence-related
skills (DR3, DR6).
In addition to using
GPS
technology, the solution will also make use of the mobile phone's
camera,
to allow users to add
their
own pictures to the map (DR10), and a digital
compass,
to
help
communicate the direction in which the user is heading (DR1, DR2 & DR17). Table 3 shows
other proposed system features to meet these design requirements.
Proposed
System Features
Setting a time to leave alarm
with
the program
assisting/suggesting
adjustments when the user arrives
late for work
An
off-course alerter, to remind the user to stay on course
An
estimated time of arrival, to help users
with
time-
management and allow the user to judge if they are going
to arrive to work on time and react in an appropriate
manner
Meeting
Design Requirements
DR1,
DR2, DR3,
DR6 & DR10
DR1.DR2&DR7
DR1.DR2,
DR6&DR7
5