Students frequently move to another city to study, resulting in adaptation problems, especially when they are not able to understand the language of the new environment. With the recent technological advantages, the construction of more specialized tools are becoming easier to design and implement every day, including one that can help International students to help them adapt to new environments.
This study focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of a Cross-Platform Map System (CPMS) intended to help foreign students solve adaptation problems after they arrive and live in a Chinese-speaking environment.
A needs analysis was done conducting interviews and a survey, which allowed defining the drivers and basic requirements of the system. With this information, a customized map, search and translation functionalities were designed and two versions (Mobile and PC) of CPMS were implemented. A usability test with 17 participants was also made to evaluate how the CPMS could improve the adaptation process. Research data analysis indicates that the participants of the study evaluate positively the content and functionality of the system, recognizing its role as a guide and translation tool as well as the capacity to share information through it.
Moreover, a pre-test and post-test were used to assess the use of the system to learn Chinese. Results indicate more improvement in the recognition of characters on those students who used the CPMS in the usability test compared to those who didn’t.
Finally, the observation of the usability test shows the participants were notably more motivated to use the CPMS to locate points and obtain information about different points inside and outside the campus.

Abstract I
Acknowledgments II
Table of Contents III
List of Figures VI
List of Tables VII
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1. Introduction 1
1.2. Research motivation 2
1.3. Background 4
1.3.1. Overview 4
A. University 4
B. International Cooperation 5
C. International Students 5
1.4. Statement of the Problem and Proposed Solution 5
1.5. Purpose of the study and Research questions 6
1.6. Limitations of the study 7
1.7. Terms 8
Chapter 2 Literature Review 9
2.1. Culture Shock 9
2.1.1. Definition 9
2.1.2. Stages of Culture Shock 10
2.1.3. Causes of culture shock 11
2.1.4. Culture shock on foreign students 11
2.2. E-learning 12
2.2.1. Definition 12
2.2.2. Elements of e-learning 13
2.2.3. Evaluation of e-learning tools 13
2.2.4. Mobile Learning 14
2.3. Chinese Language Learning 16
2.3.1. Definition 16
2.3.2. Factors that influence language learning 17
2.3.3. Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) 18
Chapter 3 Research Methods 20
3.1. Participants 20
3.2. Research Design 20
3.3. Research Procedure 20
3.4. Research Duration and Location 22
3.5. Data Collection Method 22
3.5.1. Interviews 22
3.5.2. Usability test 23
3.5.3. Questionnaires 26
3.6. Validity and reliability 27
3.7. Triangulation 28
Chapter 4 Cross Platform Map System (CPMS) Design and Implementation 29
4.1. Pre-Implementation Phase 29
A. Interview 29
B. Survey 32
C. Drivers for Implementing a CPMS 33
4.2. CPMS Design 34
4.2.1. Basic Requirements 34
4.2.2. Focus Areas 35
4.2.3. Scenario 35
4.2.4. Content 36
4.2.5. Visualization guidelines 36
A. Map Interface Design 37
B. Landmark design 38
C. Icons 38
D. Photographs 39
4.3. Implementation Phase 41
4.3.1. Features 41
4.3.2. System Architecture 42
4.3.3. PC Map Version 43
4.3.4. Mobile Map Version 45
4.3.5. Differences between mobile and PC application 47
Chapter 5 Data Analysis of CPMS Evaluation 48
5.1. Adaptation 48
5.2. Chinese Language Learning 52
5.3. Tool Design 55
5.3.1. Elements of e-learning 56
5.3.2. Use of CPMS as an e-learning tool 57
Chapter 6 Conclusions, Discussion, and Future Research 60
6.1. Conclusions 60
6.2. Discussion 61
6.3. Future Research 63
References 64
Appendix 68

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