Comparative study of web annotation systems used by learners to enhance educational practices: features and services

In educational context, and with the emergence of web information technology, the need for annotation tools becomes more and more claimed and felt, because annotation practice is common and omnipresent. While reading, learner usually uses comments, highlights and circles sections to tag digital documents. Therefore, many systems have been developed in the learning environment to help learner to annotate different electronic-consulted resources. This great variety of annotation systems, which is usually considered as an enrichment of the educational community, reveals a lack of a clear strategy of how to compare developed annotation systems of the literature according to their features and services to facilitate learner the choice of an annotation system that allows to enhance learning. As a result, few works have tried to present comparative studies of these tools. The aim of this article is to provide a study of some annotation tools used by learners in educational practices. Therefore, we present a comparison of services provided by 40 annotation systems developed by industry and academia during the last decade. As a second contribution, we classify these annotation tools based on transversal features. Finally, the study further reveals gaps in systems and opportunities for further research.

[1]  Marja-Riitta Koivunen,et al.  Annotea: an open RDF infrastructure for shared Web annotations , 2001, WWW '01.

[2]  Kinshuk,et al.  Online annotation system and student clustering platform , 2015, 2015 8th International Conference on Ubi-Media Computing (UMEDIA).

[3]  Chris Sloan,et al.  The Relationship of High School Student Motivation and Comments in Online Discussion Forums , 2015 .

[4]  Zhijie Xu,et al.  Collaborative Annotation System Environment (CASE) for Online Learning , 2004 .

[5]  Mark Craven,et al.  Active Learning with Real Annotation Costs , 2008 .

[6]  Philippe Vidal,et al.  Tsaap-Notes -- An Open Micro-blogging Tool for Collaborative Notetaking during Face-to-Face Lectures , 2014, 2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies.

[7]  Chih-Ming Chen,et al.  Web-based reading annotation system with an attention-based self-regulated learning mechanism for promoting reading performance , 2014, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[8]  Marco Roccetti,et al.  E-learning 2.0: you are We-LCoME! , 2008, W4A '08.

[9]  Sheng-Yi Wu,et al.  Learning Reading Strategies with Online Discussion , 2014 .

[10]  Ahmed Hadj Kacem,et al.  An Approach of Assistance of Learner's Annotative Activity through Web Services , 2013, Aust. J. Intell. Inf. Process. Syst..

[11]  Ahmed Hadj Kacem,et al.  Prediction of Human Personality Traits From Annotation Activities , 2014, WEBIST.

[12]  Ahmed Hadj Kacem,et al.  Modelling Learner's Personality Profile through Analysis of Annotation Digital Traces in Learning Environment , 2015, 2015 IEEE 15th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies.

[13]  Ren-Hung Hwang,et al.  Development and evaluation of a Web 2.0 annotation system as a learning tool in an e-learning environment , 2012, Comput. Educ..

[14]  Ralf Klamma,et al.  u-Annotate: An Application for User-Driven Freeform Digital Ink Annotation of E-Learning Content , 2006 .

[15]  Karina L. Cela,et al.  Social network analysis for technology-enhanced learning: review and future directions , 2012 .

[16]  Wu-Yuin Hwang,et al.  Effect of Multimedia Annotation System on Improving English Writing and Speaking Performance , 2010, Edutainment.

[17]  Hirohito Shibata,et al.  Effects of Paper on Page Turning: Comparison of Paper and Electronic Media in Reading Documents with Endnotes , 2011, HCI.

[18]  Herbert Van de Sompel,et al.  Designing the W3C open annotation data model , 2013, WebSci.

[19]  C. Anagnostopoulou,et al.  COLLABORATIVE ONLINE ANNOTATION OF MUSICAL SCORES FOR E-LEARNING USING A.NNOTATE.COM , 2009 .

[20]  Ahmed Hadj Kacem,et al.  An Interactive Annotation System to Support the Learner with Web Services Assistance , 2015, 2015 IEEE 15th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies.

[21]  Jia Zhang,et al.  A Web 2.0-based collaborative annotation system for enhancing knowledge sharing in collaborative learning environments , 2010, Comput. Educ..

[22]  Ahmed Hadj Kacem,et al.  Automatic Recognition of Personality from Digital Annotations , 2015, WEBIST.

[23]  Max Chevalier,et al.  A Social Validation of Collaborative Annotations on Digital Documents , 2005, IWAC.

[24]  Jon Rickman,et al.  Notebook universities do not have to be expensive , 2006, SIGUCCS.

[25]  Richard J. Anderson,et al.  PaperCP: Exploring the Integration of Physical and Digital Affordances for Active Learning , 2007, INTERACT.

[26]  Ahmed Hadj Kacem,et al.  Annotative Activity as a Potential Source of Web Service Invocation , 2013, WEBIST.

[27]  Ahmed Hadj Kacem,et al.  How to Organize the Annotation Systems in Human-Computer Environment: Study, Classification and Observations , 2015, INTERACT.

[28]  Kyeong Hur,et al.  Increasing learning effect by tag cloud interface with annotation similarity , 2014, Int. J. Adv. Media Commun..

[29]  Ee-Peng Lim,et al.  Evaluating the Use of a Mobile Annotation System for Geography Education , 2012, Electron. Libr..

[30]  Hayato Yamana,et al.  Intelligent Ink Annotation Framework that uses User's Intention in Electronic Document Annotation , 2014, ITS '14.

[31]  Ahmed Hadj Kacem,et al.  A new annotation system based on a semantic analysis of a learner's annotative activity to invoke web services , 2014, Int. J. Metadata Semant. Ontologies.

[32]  Faiçal Azouaou,et al.  WebAnnot: a learner's dedicated web-based annotation tool , 2013 .

[33]  Shane Dawson,et al.  The Collaborative Lecture Annotation System (CLAS): A New TOOL for Distributed Learning , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies.

[34]  Amar Balla,et al.  An annotation-based pedagogical memory model for learner , 2010, 2010 International Conference on Machine and Web Intelligence.

[35]  Patrick Carmichael.  Learning how to Learn: Using the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set to Support Teachers as Researchers , 2002, Dublin Core Conference.

[36]  Jane Chu Prey,et al.  WriteOn1.0: a tablet PC-based tool for effective classroom instruction , 2009, ITiCSE '09.

[37]  Chih-Ming Chen,et al.  Enhancing digital reading performance with a collaborative reading annotation system , 2014, Comput. Educ..

[38]  Shyan-Ming Yuan,et al.  Supporting Online Reading of Science Expository with iRuns Annotation Strategy , 2014, 2014 7th International Conference on Ubi-Media Computing and Workshops.

[39]  Kai Kunze,et al.  Implicit gaze based annotations to support second language learning , 2014, UbiComp Adjunct.

[40]  Max Mühlhäuser,et al.  CoScribe: Integrating Paper and Digital Documents for Collaborative Knowledge Work , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies.