Database Concepts in a Virtual World

This project explored the use of a 3-D virtual world in an introductory database course to reduce the amount of time required to learn database concepts. A Second Life 3-D model was built to clarify database concepts and students used the model to create a Microsoft Access inventory database. Thereafter, the students provided feedback by answering a voluntary survey. Eighty two percent of the students surveyed agreed that the 3-D model clarified terms such as records, tables, primary keys and relationships. Seventy five percent of the students believed that the model reduced the amount of time required to learn these concepts

Patient Health Portal: user calendar perspective

In this paper, we do a brief literature review on portals and their stakeholders. Health portal stakeholders are identified, within their internal and external action to the system. It is also reported the results of an analysis made to a number of European, United States and Australia health portals. In this paper we propose a conceptual model of a patient health portal based on a calendar perspective. Users’ needs are reflected in this conceptual model. We also describe the implementation of prototype based on the conceptual model. The prototype was built in an open source content management system (Drupal). Our study does also include a statistical analysis of the preliminary results of a survey to a group of users

What is Cyberinfrastructure?

Cyberinfrastructure is a word commonly used but lacking a single, precise definition. One recognizes intuitively the analogy with infrastructure, and the use of cyber to refer to thinking or computing – but what exactly is cyberinfrastructure as opposed to information technology infrastructure? Indiana University has developed one of the more widely cited definitions of cyberinfrastructure: "Cyberinfrastructure consists of computing systems, data storage systems, advanced instruments and data repositories, visualization environments, and people, all linked together by software and high performance networks to improve research productivity and enable breakthroughs not otherwise possible." A second definition, more inclusive of scholarship generally and educational activities, has also been published and is useful in describing cyberinfrastructure: "Cyberinfrastructure consists of systems, data and information management, advanced instruments, visualization environments, and people, all linked together by software and advanced networks to improve scholarly productivity and enable knowledge breakthroughs and discoveries not otherwise possible." In this paper, we describe the origin of the term cyberinfrastructure based on the history of the root word infrastructure, discuss several terms related to cyberinfrastructure, and provide several examples of cyberinfrastructure

The ActiveLecture System

For an instructor, it has always been a challenging task to keep students engaged during the lecture and assess them in real time. Instructors use different methodologies to address the challenge of keeping students engaged during the class and increase their participation. Widely used methodologies for active learning include clickers and Tablet PCs. Clickers are small handheld devices which are used to collect student responses and present these responses graphically. Tablet PCs provide a functionality to use natural handwriting to provide feedback. Web browsers are a cost effective approaches. I have used a web based technology to create active learning system called ActiveLecture. It provides a mechanism for students and an instructor to communicate effectively during the lecture. I converted the ActiveLecture system from Java EE 5.0 to Java EE 6.0 platform. I added new functionalities to the ActiveLecture system and gathered statistics and video captures to evaluate them. Finally, I performed an analysis based on the collected data that can help instructor assess the effectiveness of the ActiveLecture system

Active Lecture: An Interactive Lecturing System

Classroom lecturing has been improving with the advances in information technology. The Active Lecture, an advanced lecturing system, is developed as part of this project. The Active Lecture system allows the students to be more interactive during a lecture process. The Active Lecture system has features that are helpful to both the instructors and the students before, during, and after the lectures. The Active Lecture system is deployed and is made available for use in a classroom. The usage of the Active Lecture system is compared with the usage of Ubiquitous Presenter in a classroom setting

Technical Report: TeraGrid eXtreme Digital Campus Cyberinfrastructure and Campus Bridging Requirements Elicitation Meeting

In an effort to systematically investigate requirements for TeraGrid XD, the XROADS collaboration held during 2009 a series of requirements elicitation meetings (REM) with small groups of stakeholders. This report summarizes the conduct of and results from a requirements elicitation meeting on the topics of campus bridging and campus cyberinfrastructure. The meeting’s goal was to develop a clearer and more functional definition of what the next phase of the TeraGrid should do to be a resource broadly useful to and used by university and college campuses throughout the US.This report depends very much on the prior involvement of several XROADS partners in the TeraGrid, which has been funded in part by the NSF via the following grant awards: 0504086, 0503697, and 0742145 to the University of Chicago; 0451237 and 0504075 to Indiana University; and 0122272, 0332113, 0451566, 0503944, 0910847 to the University of California San Diego

Portal da saúde: uma alternativa usando tecnologias open source

A investigação realizada propõe um modelo concetual de um portal de saúde centrado no utente que assenta num interface baseado num calendário. O estudo começa com uma revisão da literatura sobre os conceitos associados à implementação das tecnologias de portal nas organizações e sobre a sua importância como agregador de conteúdos e de porta de entrada para as organizações. Para sustentar as necessidades e desejos dos utilizadores recorreu-se a uma análise de stakeholders com a identificação das suas ações sobre o Portal. Em seguida, e de modo a dar forma ao conceito proposto, fez-se uma análise do estado da arte de portais de saúde e das suas funcionalidades principais. Destes estudos iniciais resultou uma proposta de de um modelo concetual de um portal de saúde centrado no utente e nas suas necessidades. A implementação do modelo concetual foi realizada usando o Drupal, que é uma ferramenta de gestão de conteúdos (CMS) baseada em software open source. Este estudo inclui também os resultados preliminares de uma pesquisa realizada junto de um grupo de utilizadores.The research proposes a Conceptual Model of an health portal user-centered with a core interface calendar. The study begins with the literature review of the related concepts with the implementation of portal technologies in organizations and its importance as content aggregator and gateway to organizations. To evaluate the users' wants and needs a stakeholder analysis was developed, identifying their type of action on the Portal. Then, in order to shape the proposed concept, it was made an analysis of the state of the art health portals and their main features. These initial studies resulted in a Conceptual Model proposal of an health portal focused on the users' needs. The implementation of the Conceptual Model was performed using Drupal, which is a content management system tool (CMS) based on open source software. This study also includes the preliminary results of a conducted survey in a group of users