A MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING APPLICATION FOR ACADEMICS AND FOR COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
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A MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING APPLICATION FOR ACADEMICS AND FOR COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
ABSTRACT
A Mobile Social Networking Application for Academics and Collaborative Learning is an android social networking application as well as a web-based application designed for university lecturers and students to have their lectures and class discussions on academic issues to improve collaborative learning among students even when they are not physically present.
The goals of this design were to have a closed system with a higher security mechanism where only authorised users can access the forum, to improve the method of disseminating information among students in a class through SMS notification, and to discipline students on their social media behaviour.
These goals necessitated the creation of a new design and deployment of a mobile social networking application for use in education.
In this study, a hybrid methodology comprised of Waterfall technique and Object Oriented Analysis and create Methodology (OOADM) was utilised, with some Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams used to create the system architecture.
This system was created using Object Oriented Programming (OOP) php, mobincub library (which contains android APK), ASP (for SMS notification), and MySQL Server as its back-end.
The “DegreeMate15” Android Social Networking Application for Academics and Collaborative Learning is an android social networking application as well as a web based application that provides the lecturer with an alternative environment for having lectures.
Students can also use the application to learn with each other, thereby improving learning anytime, anywhere. The application also has the functionality of storing each lecture that was done in it together with the time it was done, so that students who did not attend the lecture can read the lecture summary.
INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Social networking began with the birth of man. Man is a social being who will always struggle to exist without relating to others around him. Many years ago (20th century and before), people communicated and interacted with one another by various ways such as postal service, telegraph, and so on.
Following the evolution of the internet in the 1970s, people utilise the internet to connect or interact with one another, particularly in established organisations such as the United States Military.
Only in the recent several decades has the usage of social networking services become widespread, particularly among young people (Horizon, 2009). According to Boyd and Ellison (2007), a social networking service is a web-based service that allows people to:
Create a public or semi-public profile within a restricted system.
Make a list of other users with whom they are connected.
View and navigate their list of connections, as well as those formed by others in the system.
The manner in which these functionalities are implemented may differ from one site to the next.
Social networking began with Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), which were frequently maintained by enthusiasts who carefully cultivated the social aspects and interest-specific character of their projects, which were frequently technology-related in those early days of computers.
But, even before the Internet erupted onto the general consciousness, there were alternative pathways for social contact. CompuServe, a service that began in the 1970s as a business-oriented mainframe computer communication solution but grew into the public sphere in the late 1980s, was one such alternative.
CompuServe members could swap files and view news and events. But it also provided something that few had seen before: genuine interaction.
However, if there is a true forerunner to today’s social networking sites, it was most likely born under the AOL (America Online) umbrella.
AOL was the Internet before the Internet in many ways, and its member-created communities (complete with searchable “Member Profiles,” in which users would publish essential data about themselves) were arguably the service’s most exciting, forward-thinking feature.
Other social networking services such as Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter were created between 2002 and 2007.
When mobile series of social networking applications were produced, for example, 2go Messenger (which was largely used in African nations), created in 2007 as a communication tool for university students, social networking became more intriguing and fascinating, especially among the youth.
Despite the fact that it later shifted away from the student-only model by focusing on new markets in Africa. Another mobile social application is Whatsapp Messenger, an instant messaging service for cellphones with a subscription-based business model. This application was first made available in 2009.
The app is considered as one of the top 20 apps in the App Store due to characteristics such as platform support (operating on a wide range of mobile devices), functionality such as sending photographs, videos, and audio media messages, and immediate text chat.
These web-based and mobile-based social networking applications have aided in the enhancement of collaborative learning and view sharing among students of various levels and youths in general,
through the formation of various groups where people of like minds meet to share and update their views and responses to events that concern them as a group.
With the help of these social networking programmes in creating separate groups within them, the hope of adopting online collaborative learning as one of the official mediums to be utilised for academic studies in universities grows stronger by the day.
Recently, some teachers have adopted a technique for distributing lecture materials and quizzes by creating a closed group on Facebook, for example.
Students can also use Whatsapp to construct their own private groups for collaborative study and information exchange, and these two different processes are improving on a daily basis.
Other applications created solely for academic purposes include “Classroom Salon”, “Google Classroom”, “KDSeClassrom”, and so on. As previously stated, these apps support the majority of the functions offered by Facebook and Whatsapp.
They also offer greater technological support, such as teacher evaluations of student engagement in class, a tool for uploading assignments and quizzes and submitting them, and so on.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Social networking programmes have been greatly improved in order to be used as one of the required instruments for learning in schools.
As a result, several recognised institutions and lecturers have already begun to use them to create online classrooms, conduct quizzes, upload electronic lecture notes, make notices, and so on.
Looking at the applications that have been developed to date for this purpose, there is a pressing need for such applications to meet and support more technical functionalities,
which will make their use more flexible and acceptable in academic fields, supporting traditional classrooms and improving collaborative learning. Some major technical functionalities that have yet to be implemented in such apps are:
Members utilising the application as a group or class must be properly authenticated.
Improved Announcement Information System.
Students in a group receive instant information notice via SMS.
Separate column for the lecturer’s post and the students’ comments, contributions, and questions throughout class.
Direct assignment and quiz submission in the application.
Customization of the lecture hall for each subject offered by a specific group of students.
Mechanism for monitoring and regulating student behaviour on the forum.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
As the usage of social networking applications as a tool for collaborative learning and information systems grows on a daily basis, it is critical to address some of the flaws that impede the smooth operation of existing systems for academic learning.
Our goal is to design a mobile application (which will also operate as a web application) that will integrate the majority of the functionalities specified in the problem description by reviewing existing systems (applications). Our goal is to incorporate these capabilities into our application by;
Using the application, create a closed system for each group or class: This will use an efficient authentication approach to restrict access to just members of a group or class, improving absolute privacy.
Creating a better information system: This will be used to update class information and make announcements.
Creating a quick SMS notification system for information:
If any information or announcement is sent in the information system, this will always send a text message to the participants of a class.
Making a file that contains all of the lecture history for each topic: Students who are not in the lecture room during the session will be able to read the whole lecturer’s post on the topic.
Creating a mechanism for cautioning and controlling student behaviour on the forum: This will encourage students to be serious during class or discussion time, resulting in a comfortable learning atmosphere.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Because the social networking application required for successful collaborative learning requires some level of academic focus, it necessitates an application that can be dedicated completely to this goal.
To have the attention and complete participation of every member of the group utilising the application, some level of gap must be closed in order to have a conducive learning environment.
This is why we suggest DegreeMate15, an application that can be dedicated to serving and implementing the objective for why social networking media has been chosen as one of the tools for academic learning.
This software is required to bridge the communication gap between students in a class while they are not in class. It will also relieve the stress of students travelling from their separate hostels to gather as a group or a class to solve or discuss academic concerns.
Because the application will support e-classroom, the number of students in my department who drag or struggle to get to a real classroom for their lectures will decrease.
Students cannot claim to be lagging behind in information or to be misinformed using this application since an instant SMS will always be sent to each student in that group telling them that information has been passed online in the application’s information system.
Members of the class can get information and contribute to issues at any time, no matter where they are as long as they have their mobile phone;
additionally, the cost of running online applications in mobile (android) phones is lower than the cost of running the same application as a web application.
As a result, the suggested application will be less expensive (megabytes required), keeping in mind that the majority of the application’s end users will be students.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This project’s scope has been confined to a mobile social networking programme that runs only on Android phones or any other Android-enabled device (but it can also run as a web-based application on a computer). This package will address some of the following issues:
Logging in and authenticating users (students assigned to a group or class).
The inclusion of a status box for updating information and uploading files such as e-lecture notes.
Each course will have its own electronic lecture room.
Provision of a discussion area for participatory learning and resource exchange among students.
The creation of a quick SMS notice for users anytime any information is transmitted online.
Creating punitive measures to warn students of any wrongdoing.
1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The study’s restriction focuses on the problems faced during the study, which are as follows:
Difficulties experienced in obtaining trustworthy and thorough information on how to develop a mobile social networking application.
Inadequate concentration on the study.
Problems faced while compiling and implementing information obtained from application end users.
The difficulty experienced in selecting the programming language that will best implement the intended system.
1.8 Definitions of Terms
Programming Paradigm: This is a fundamental style of computer programming that serves as a method of constructing the structure and elements of a computer programme.
Networking is the practise of connecting computer equipment to enable digital communication between them.
End User: A person who employs a product after it has been fully produced and marketed.
Application: A computer programme or set of programmes that is intended for end users.
A social network is a social structure composed of a collection of social actors (such as persons or organisations) and a collection of interaction ties between these actors.
The World Wide Web (www) is an internet server system that supports specially structured documents.
Web 2.0 is the transition from static HTML web pages to a more dynamic web that is more organised and built on offering web applications to consumers.
Any application that employs a web browser as a client is referred to as a web application (Web App).
The use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person is known as cyberbullying.
A server is a computer programme that offers services to other programmes.
Forum: A message board on the internet where users can publish messages about one or more topics of debate.
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