A thesis submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy

Abstract

I observed that there is a spontaneous informal peer group activity named “Kuppi” among Sri Lankan university students. Inspiration to study about Kuppi in more detail lead me to conduct surveys and interviews with undergraduate students at University of Colombo School of Computing. Thereby, I found out that Kuppi is an informal reciprocal teaching activity and very popular among the undergraduate students. I observed that students conduct their Kuppi sessions often at locations outside the institute i.e. for example cafeteria. Since it is difficult to acquire conventional mediation tools and artifacts such as white boards to support learning at an outdoor location, conducting group learning activities in such resource constrained environments is tedious. Nowadays, most students carry wireless connectivity enabled laptop computers which can successfully be used as a mediation artifact in Kuppi. However, results of the studies also revealed that even if they have several laptop computers available, they only use single laptop computer for Kuppi as they find it difficult to use several laptop computers interactively within a group discussion conducted outside of institutional settings. A comprehensive study of existing potential tools that support collaboration and group learning activities revealed that none of them address the specific requirements of Kuppi. Therefore, my main objective in this research was to develop an appropriate framework to help students to conduct Kuppis using multiple laptop computers. I designed an application named “KuPpI” considering the requirements gathered during initial phase of my research. I kept the design as simple as possible to make sure students don’t have to spend much time on setting it up KuPpI prior to a Kuppi session. KuPpI was tested and evaluated for its usability revealing good results in performance and user interface design. KuPpI was then given to student groups for evaluation by using it in their Kuppi sessions. Observations, focus group discussions and surveys were carried out to evaluate such events and get students’ feedback. Analyzing collected data, it was evident that students find KuPpI very useful for their Kuppi. Furthermore, results revealed that, using KuPpI, they can easily connect multiple laptop computers in a location where no existing network infrastructure available and using KuPpI features such as ability to share screens; sending messages to group members within a Kuppi session; and transferring files interaction has become easier. Thereby, problems they encountered in using laptop computers when conducting Kuppi have been successfully addressed by KuPpI. Removing the environmental restrictions of a learning activity improves the effectiveness of the activity. Through KuPpI, I have successfully found a way to improve the effectiveness of Kuppi.