Aligning the topic of FCA with existing module learning outcomes

Although Formal Concept Analysis is worthy of study on computing courses, it is not always possible or practical to dedicate a whole module to it. It may, however, fit into an existing module as a topic but require some careful design of teaching and assessment activities to properly align it to the intended learning outcomes of the module. This paper describes and evaluates a three year project to align the teaching and assessment of FCA with the learning outcomes of a final-year undergraduate Smart Applications module at Sheffield Hallam University. Biggs' constructive alignment was used, incorporating an adapted version of Yin's case study research method, in an iterative process; progressively modifying teaching and assessment activities to align them more closely with the prescribed learning outcomes. The process involved examining conclusions made by students, from carrying out FCA case study assignments, to draw cross-case conclusions about the learning outcomes achieved, and how they deviated from the prescribed ones. These cross-case conclusions were used to feed back into the design of learning and assessment activities for the next delivery of the module. After three cycles, the learning outcomes achieved closely matched the prescribed learning outcomes of the module

A Curriculum for the Body of Knowledge in Open Finance

This paper addresses an identified skills gap in graduates who are entering the Open Finance workplace. The latter is a new sub sector of finance centered on the use of third-party permissioned data. We address the concern that such graduates lack commercial awareness and relevant financial work experience. We build on the Curricular Domains Model. This expresses the curriculum as knowledge, action and self-domain. We first identify the needs of employers through an embedded researcher approach in collaboration with the Smart Data Foundry. We then apply an Integrated Curriculum Design Framework (ICDF) to the findings in order to develop a transdisciplinary curriculum that can be applied to a master’s degree program. Our contribution is in facilitating a systemic combination of the finance and computing disciplines to create a new one that addresses this field. We believe our proposed educational offering can assist with the challenges that are presented by the adoption of Open Finance

Service-Oriented Design of a Command and Control Intelligence Dashboard for Crisis Management

The number and intensity of crisis incidents that have happened worldwide in the last decade, such as the Haiti earthquake and the Mumbai bombings, have revealed the need for an organized system to support search and rescue operations. This paper presents such a system and focuses on one of its central elements, the Crisis Management Command and Control Intelligence Dashboard (CCCID). The paper presents the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach that was followed for the design of the dashboard and explains its specialized functionalities. A number of conclusions are drawn in relatio

Blended learning environments to foster self-directed learning

This book on blended learning environments to foster self-directed learning highlights the focus on research conducted in several teaching and learning contexts where blended learning had been implemented and focused on the fostering of self-directed learning. Several authors have contributed to the book, and each chapter provides a unique perspective on blended learning and self-directed learning research. From each chapter, it becomes evident that coherence on the topics mentioned is established. One of the main aspects drawn in this book, and addressed by several authors in the book, is the use of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework when implementing teaching and learning strategies in blended learning environments to foster self-directed learning. This notion of focusing on the CoI framework is particularly evident in both theoretical and empirical dissemination presented in this book. What makes this book unique is the fact that researchers and peers in varied fields would benefit from the findings presented by each chapter, albeit theoretical, methodological or empirical in nature – this, in turn, provides opportunities for future research endeavours to further the narrative of how blended learning environments can be used to foster self-directed learning

Discovering the hidden knowledge in transaction data through formal concept analysis

The aim of this research is to discover if hitherto hidden knowledge exists in transaction data and how it can be exposed through the application of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). Enterprise systems capture data in a transaction structure so that they can provide information that seeks to align with the knowledge that decision-makers use to achieve business goals. With the emergence of service-oriented architecture and developments in business intelligence, data in its own right is becoming significant, suggesting that data in itself may be capable of capturing human behaviour and offerer novel insights from a `bottom-up' perspective. The constraints of hard-coded top-down analysis can thus be addressed by agile systems that use components based on the discovery of the hidden knowledge in the transaction data. There is a need to connect the user's human-oriented approach to problem solving with the formal structures that computer applications need to bring their productivity to bear. FCA offers a natural approach that meets these requirements as it provides a mathematical theory based on concepts, logical relationships that can be represented and understood by humans. By taking an action research and case study approach an experimental environment was designed along two avenues. The first was a study in an educational setting that would combine the generation of the data with the behaviour of the users (students) at the time, thereby capturing their actions as reflected in the transaction data. To create a representative environment, the students used an industry standard SAP enterprise system with the business simulator ERPsim. This applied study provided an evaluation of FCA and contemporary tools while maintaining a relevant pedagogic outcome for the students. The second avenue was a discovery experiment based on user activity logs from an actual organisations productive system, applying and developing the methods applied previously. Analysis of user logs from this system using FCA revealed the hitherto hidden knowledge in its transaction data by discovering patterns and relationships made visible through the multi dimensional representation of data. The evidence gathered by this research supports FCA for exposing and discovering hidden knowledge from transactional data, it can contribute towards systems and humans working together more effectively.</p

Blended learning environments to foster self-directed learning

This book on blended learning environments to foster self-directed learning highlights the focus on research conducted in several teaching and learning contexts where blended learning had been implemented and focused on the fostering of self-directed learning. Several authors have contributed to the book, and each chapter provides a unique perspective on blended learning and self-directed learning research. From each chapter, it becomes evident that coherence on the topics mentioned is established. One of the main aspects drawn in this book, and addressed by several authors in the book, is the use of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework when implementing teaching and learning strategies in blended learning environments to foster self-directed learning. This notion of focusing on the CoI framework is particularly evident in both theoretical and empirical dissemination presented in this book. What makes this book unique is the fact that researchers and peers in varied fields would benefit from the findings presented by each chapter, albeit theoretical, methodological or empirical in nature – this, in turn, provides opportunities for future research endeavours to further the narrative of how blended learning environments can be used to foster self-directed learning

LearnFCA: A Fuzzy FCA and Probability Based Approach for Learning and Classification

Formal concept analysis(FCA) is a mathematical theory based on lattice and order theory used for data analysis and knowledge representation. Over the past several years, many of its extensions have been proposed and applied in several domains including data mining, machine learning, knowledge management, semantic web, software development, chemistry ,biology, medicine, data analytics, biology and ontology engineering. This thesis reviews the state-of-the-art of theory of Formal Concept Analysis(FCA) and its various extensions that have been developed and well-studied in the past several years. We discuss their historical roots, reproduce the original definitions and derivations with illustrative examples. Further, we provide a literature review of it’s applications and various approaches adopted by researchers in the areas of dataanalysis, knowledge management with emphasis to data-learning and classification problems. We propose LearnFCA, a novel approach based on FuzzyFCA and probability theory for learning and classification problems. LearnFCA uses an enhanced version of FuzzyLattice which has been developed to store class labels and probability vectors and has the capability to be used for classifying instances with encoded and unlabelled features. We evaluate LearnFCA on encodings from three datasets - mnist, omniglot and cancer images with interesting results and varying degrees of success. Adviser: Dr Jitender Deogu

Mobile Health Technologies

Mobile Health Technologies, also known as mHealth technologies, have emerged, amongst healthcare providers, as the ultimate Technologies-of-Choice for the 21st century in delivering not only transformative change in healthcare delivery, but also critical health information to different communities of practice in integrated healthcare information systems. mHealth technologies nurture seamless platforms and pragmatic tools for managing pertinent health information across the continuum of different healthcare providers. mHealth technologies commonly utilize mobile medical devices, monitoring and wireless devices, and/or telemedicine in healthcare delivery and health research. Today, mHealth technologies provide opportunities to record and monitor conditions of patients with chronic diseases such as asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) and diabetes mellitus. The intent of this book is to enlighten readers about the theories and applications of mHealth technologies in the healthcare domain