This study seeks to contribute to the design of the environment which will support students' activities in PBL (Project Based Learning or Problem Based Learning).
In the curriculum of university education, PBL is increasingly important. And learning of a new style requires an environment suitable for it.
In this paper, we aim at verifying the interaction between ICT tools for information sharing and furniture layout, focusing on group work which occupies an important position in PBL. We report on 2 experiments.
The experiment method and the analysis method were common in both experiments, but furniture layout was different in both experiments. The experiment method: The experiment participants were one group of 4 people. And they performed group work using the tablet devices. To the tablet device prepared for each participants, an application simulating a white board was installed. The application enabled every participants to write simultaneously on the simulated white board. On the tablet device at hand, they could display the entire white board or enlarge and display a part of it. The 2 experimental groups were compared. On one group, the entire white board, which was the same on the tablet device, was always displayed on the wide display device (46 inch) for sharing ideas. On the other group, nothing was displayed on the display device.
The analysis method: The data obtained from the experiments were analyzed using the Brunner-Munzel test and Bayesian inference. They were evaluated by p-value, effect size and posterior distribution.
Layout: At Experiment-A, 2 members were seated side by side on each side across the table, and the display device was set on one end where the members were not seated. The height of the display was set as the height that the member could see without looking up or looking down (Fig. 1).
At Experiment-B, the display device was arranged so that it could be seen when everyone faced the front, and 4 experiment participants sat on the table with chairs (Fig. 6)
Conclusion: The following findings are obtained from the 2 experiments conducted this time.
1) Display device with inappropriate arrangement not only doesn't function as an information sharing tool, but also creates a negative effect of lowering the evaluation of information browsability compared with the case of not using a display
2) The arrangement of the information sharing display which is a tool for acquiring information also affects the ease of use of the tablet device which is a tool for information transmission
3) It is possible to induce the act of directing the line of sight to other members by arranging the display
From the above, it is confirmed that to realize the learning environment introducing the ICT targeted at PBL, it is necessary to consider the learning environment that takes the interdependence of space and tools.
