How To Write An Ebook Recipe Card

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1 INTEGRATION OF E-BOOK CREATION INTO AN E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Nick Hatzigeorgiu Stamatia Chatzisavva Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) / Research Center "Athena" ILSP - Thrace Branch Vasilissis Sofias 8 GR Xanthi GREECE Abstract Learning management systems (LMS) are used by many institutions for the support of the courses they are offering, both classroom-based and internet-based. Also, in recent years, e- book devices have become very popular and their growth is predicted to continue in the near future. It is only recently that e-book devices became affordable and there is now a slow, tentative introduction of such devices into the educational process. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of merging these two platforms: the learning management system and the e- book reader environment and technologies. In particular, we describe software developed by the authors that can extract information from an e-learning management system to an epub file that can be used with an e-reader without the need of a live internet connection. This software can create electronic books that include a variety of information stored in the LMS database, such as notes, discussions, exercises and assignments. Keywords: E-Learning, EPUB, Learning Management Systems, E-book Readers Introduction Several educational institutions around the world use e-learning platforms or distance learning environments to support their educational process. The main utilization of such software is the creation of internet-based courses and web sites, and the storage of related support materials and discussions. One popular software platform which permits these functions is Moodle, an open source modular platform which is widely used as a learning management system (LMS). In an unrelated development, in recent years there is a growing enthusiasm for the use of e-book readers instead of printed books (Young, 2009), a trend that was accelerated by the arrival of the Amazon Kindle in These e-book reader devices use e-ink technology which permits very high readability, comparable to 1

2 printed books, and very long battery lives. One of the most flexible open e-book formats is EPUB, which is now one of the most widely used formats for electronic book storage and distribution. Right now, e-book readers are used mainly for reading literature and not for textbooks. Therefore, there is currently a limited use of e-book readers in education (Rowlands, 2007). However, there are several projects on using e-book readers in an educational setting (Nelson, 2008) and we predict that a few years from now the use of e-book readers in education will be routine and widespread (Dougherty, 2010). In our work, we developed an integration of these two learning environments: the e- learning platform and the EPUB format for e-books. We have developed a software module that can be used to transform the supporting material stored in the LMS database (such as teacher notes, exercises, answers and discussions) to the EPUB format. Using our software the LMS user can utilize the advantages of an e-book reader: portability, readability, long lasting battery life and independence from internet connections. Electronic books in general, are considered as a useful tool for enhancing the learning process (Jamali et. al., 2008). This is because the relationship between the learner and the book, is changing towards a more interactive and dynamic way. E- books can include animations, videos, images, sounds, hyperlinks and other features that can improve the classic model of reading process by involving reader s interaction. Learning management systems A Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is software designed to manage education activities. This is usually a software platform that can electronically store files and reports and manage teachers and students. Many educational institutions use this software as an additional tool for enhancing their teaching process (Archambault, 2008). The capabilities that such a system can provide differ, depending not only on the platform used but also on the various modules that are activated and the policies of the institution and of the educator for a particular class. Some of the most common uses of an LMS are: user registration, educational material management, video conferencing, chat tools, forums, online exercises, grading system, on-line tutorials. A large variety of technologies has been used to develop such software and there are a variety of e-learning platforms available today (Lewis, 2005). Most LMS that are being used today are web-based. As a result, access to the learning material, and also to the management of the LMS, is easier and can be performed remotely. There are systems, such as Moodle and Atutor that use PHP and MySQL, while others use ASP.NET and SQL Server. Similarly, there are systems that are open source and free and others that are not. Some of the most known open source LMS are: Moodle, Atutor, Bazaar, Bodington, Claroline, Coursemanager, ILIAS and Sakai (Uzunboylu et. al., 2006). Almost all of the above LMS provide tools to support discussion 2

3 forums, file sharing, , chat, forums, group work, student community building and student portfolios. Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is one of the most popular and widely used open source LMS platforms. Moodle was created by Martin Dougiamas who in the past was the manager of WebCT. It was designed with the purpose of managing education activities and it is mostly used for asynchronous distance learning. Moodle can be installed in Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, NetWare environment and in any other operational system that supports PHP. The data is stored in a relational SQL database. It is mostly combined with MySQL or PostgreSQL, but it can also be used with Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Borland Interbase, Informix, Visual Foxpro, SAP DB, SQLite, Sybase, Microsoft Access and ADO. One of the strengths of Moodle is its modular design, which is such an integral part of its architecture that the word module is part of the acronym Moodle. There are dozens of modules that are available and each module can accomplish a specific task. The administrator can enable or disable modules depending on the specific needs in an installation. E-book readers and the EPUB standard E-book readers are electronic devices used for reading an electronic book. A number of portable e-book devices with different sizes, shapes and prices are available in the market (Weinstein, 2010). Some of the e-book devices that use e-ink technology are: the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Sony Reader, the Hanlin ebook and the Cybook Gen3. These devices differ in their characteristics, such as search tool options, adjustable font size, support for images and sound and availability of other tools. They also differ in the file formats they support. Currently one of the most widely used formats for e-books is the EPUB format. EPUB (short for Electronic PUBlication) is a free, open source e-book standard created by the International Digital Publishing Forum ( It became an official standard in September Most of the popular e-book reader devices support the EPUB format. An EPUB file is a collection of files and folders compressed into one single file. An EPUB file can be decompressed by the usual PC compression utilities. Also, the book content inside the EPUB file is mostly defined using standard XML. These decisions had the purpose to make EPUB an open and widespread standard which is easy to use, and works well with established software technologies and tools. In particular, EPUB contains the following three specifications: Open Publication Structure (OPS) 2.0, uses XHTML to format its content. Open Packaging Format (OPF) 2.0, involves two XML files with type extensions.opf and.ncx respectively that describe the structure of the EPUB file. OEBPS Container Format (OCF) 1.0 describes the compression of all files in a ZIP archive. 3

4 In particular, the minimum files that an EPUB file has to include when decompressed are the following: Mimetype file. This file usually includes the mime type. META-INF folder. This folder contains the file container.xml, which describes the path for the.opf file. OEBPS folder. According to IDPF specifications, it is recommended all files related to book contents should be placed in this folder. For example, the OEBPS folder may include an image folder, an.opf file with metadata, an.ncx file with the contents of the book. XHTML files. Content files of the book should be XML 1.1 documents. The epubgen module Our main goal was to create EPUB books using the information contained in a Moodle course. This is very useful in many situations. For example, a professor might want to put together a study package for a course, which can be saved as an electronic book that contains all the relevant material for a course: notes, exercises, answers, discussions. Or perhaps a student might want to create such an e-book so that he can be able to study the material using an e-reader, which is less straining for the eyes. This way the e-book can be studied in any environment, for example in a park without a wireless connection. The creation of an electronic book also saves paper, especially in situations like this where the study material is comparatively ephemeral. To construct such an e-book we have to tap the LMS database for the relevant material and extract the required information in a structured way. The various text fields should be wrapped in XHTML markup and create separate web pages. For each of them we have to write the relevant contents and save them appropriately. Images, links and other files should be modified accordingly. It is very useful that Moodle is open source, so that all the material is open, the database is also open, and there is adequate documentation for all the aspects of the platform. This way the computer programmer can see directly how things work and extend the capabilities of the platform. There are hundreds of Moodle modules available for download but we couldn t find anything that can create EPUB files for a course. So we developed a new module that can perform this purpose. It is called epubgen (EPUB generator), and it was developed using PHP code. It has to be installed in the course/report directory of Moodle. For the user, the module is a simple wizard that guides the user to create an e-book which contains the elements he wants. To use the module, the user has to go to the course he is interested in and then click on the Reports link. He will get to a page of possible reports, and one of the links will be called Generate EPUB document. Clicking on this starts the wizard. In the first step (Figure 1) the user has to specify what material he wants to include in the e-book. This depends on the particular course, but in general there are the following options: 4

5 Wikis documents authored collectively by more than one person. Forums - asynchronous discussions on a topic. Chats - real-time synchronous discussions over a topic, via the web. Notes (.html) - supporting material in the form of html that the teacher has composed through the use of Moodle's WYSIWYG HTML editor. Glossaries - a list of definitions such as a dictionary. Databases - a bank of record entries about any topic. Assignments - tasks specified by the teacher that require students to prepare digital content and submit it. Choices - simple questions by the teacher with a choice of multiple responses. Quizzes - quiz test that can include multiple choices, true \ false and short answer questions. Lessons - a number of pages for delivering content. Surveys a set of questions in different forms created by teachers for gathering data from their students. External Files (.doc,.ppt,.pdf) - resources attached into the course in the form of.doc,.ppt and.pdf. Figure 1: The user has to specify the material to be included in the e-book. In the next step (Figure 2), the user has to specify the options that Next follows a screen that includes both standard and custom settings for the EPUB book creation; the user can specify image dimensions, color and depth, quality of compression and simple or formatted view of book s text (figure 2). A confirmation screen, with the 5

6 selected material and the preferred settings, is displayed. The user is informed whether the e-book has been created successfully. A button for downloading the e- book is provided as far as an option for downloading the external files. After these selections, the module accesses the Moodle database, selects the relevant material, and creates the required XHTML pages. Then it creates the contents pages, as well as all the other files required by the EPUB standard and also saves all the connected files, for example images, and transforms them to an appropriate format. At the end the module compresses all the files and creates an.epub file that the user can download. Figure 2: The user can specify EPUB file options. Conclusions E-learning platforms and distance learning environments have become popular among educational institutions and many have integrated them in their educational process. Moodle is one of the most popular open source platforms and it is widely used as a learning management system (LMS). Additionally, the use of e-book readers has recently emerged as a possible replacement for the traditional printed books, and it is currently being introduced in many universities as an alternative option for traditional textbooks. We believe that the EPUB standard will become the main format used by e-book readers. It is already very popular and it is supported by the majority of devices. Thus e-books and e-book readers are becoming an ideal tool in distance learning methods, since they allow access in knowledge in a new way with various advantages, especially readability and long lasting battery lives. It is natural to anticipate the combination of those two educational systems: the e- learning platform and the e-book concept. The module we have developed, epubgen, performs exactly this function. It is an EPUB generator living inside the learning 6

7 management system. It can create.epub files that can be used as e-book with most of the commercial e-book reader devices and it permits the reader to study the material of the LMS in any environment, without the need of a live network connection. References Archambault, L., Oh Young, C., Rongratana, N. & Levitt, G. (2008). A Look At Content Management Systems in a Higher Education Setting: Implementation Strategies, Experiences, and Future Implications. In C. Bonk et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2008, Dougherty, W. C. (2010). Managing Technology E-Readers: Passing fad or trend of the future? The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36(3), Jamali, H. R., Nicholas, D. and Rowlands, I. (2008), Scholarly e-books: the views of 16,000 academics, Results from the JISC National E-Book Observatory, Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 61(1), Lewis, B.A., MacEntee, V.M., DeLaCruz, S., Englander, C., Jeffrey, T., Takach, E., Wilson, S., Woodall, J. (2005). Learning Management System Comparison. Proceedings of the 2005 Informing Science and IT Education Joint Conference. June, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, Nelson, Mark R. (2008). E-Books in Higher Education: Nearing the End of the Era of Hype? ECAR Research Bulletin, (1), Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Jamali H. R. and Huntington P. (2007). What do faculty and students really think about e-books? Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 59 (6), Uzunboylu, H., Özdamli, F., Özçınar, Z. (2006). An Evaluation of Open Source Learning Management Systems According to Learners Tool. FORMATEX. Weinstein, A. (2010). A Look at Global Expansion for e-books. Pub Res Q, 26, Young, Jeffrey R. (2009). 6 Lessons One Campus Learned About E-Textbooks. Chronicle of Higher Education, 55 (39), 18. 7