2,830 research outputs found
Ontology-based personalisation of e-learning resources for disabled students
Students with disabilities are often expected to use e-learning systems to access learning materials but most systems do not provide appropriate adaptation or personalisation to meet their needs.The difficulties related to inadaptability of current learning environments can now be resolved using semantic web technologies such as web ontologies which have been successfully used to drive e-learning personalisation. Nevertheless, e-learning personalisation for students with disabilities has mainly targeted those with single disabilities such as dyslexia or visual impairment, often neglecting those with multiple disabilities due to the difficulty of designing for a combination of disabilities.This thesis argues that it is possible to personalise learning materials for learners with disabilities, including those with multiple disabilities. This is achieved by developing a model that allows the learning environment to present the student with learning materials in suitable formats while considering their disability and learning needs through an ontology-driven and disability-aware personalised e-learning system model (ONTODAPS). A disability ontology known as the Abilities and Disabilities Ontology for Online LEarning and Services (ADOOLES) is developed and used to drive this model. To test the above hypothesis, some case studies are employed to show how the model functions for various individuals with and without disabilities and then the implemented visual interface is experimentally evaluated by eighteen students with disabilities and heuristically by ten lecturers. The results are collected and statistically analysed.The results obtained confirm the above hypothesis and suggest that ONTODAPS can be effectively employed to personalise learning and to manage learning resources. The student participants found that ONTODAPS could aid their learning experience and all agreed that they would like to use this functionality in an existing learning environment. The results also suggest that ONTODAPS provides a platform where students with disabilities can have equivalent learning experience with their peers without disabilities. For the results to be generalised, this study could be extended through further experiments with more diverse groups of students with disabilities and across multiple educational institutions
INTELLIGENT VOICE-BASED E-EDUCATION SYSTEM: A FRAMEWORK AND EVALUATION
Voice-based web e-Education is a technology-supported learning paradigm that allows phone-access of
learners to e-Learning web-based applications. These applications are designed mainly for the visually impaired. They
are however lacking in attributes of adaptive and reusable learning objects, which are emerging requirements for
applications in these domain. This paper presents a framework for developing intelligent voice-based applications in
the context of e-Education. The framework presented supports intelligent components such as adaptation and
recommendation services. A prototype Intelligent Voice-based E-Education System (iVEES) was developed and
subjected to test by visually impaired users. A usability study was carried out using the International Standard
Organization’s (ISO) 9241-11 specification to determine the level of effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction.
Report of our findings shows that the application is of immense benefit, based on the system’s inherent capacity for
taking autonomous decision that are capable of adapting to users’ requests
A Voice Controlled E-Commerce Web Application
Automatic voice-controlled systems have changed the way humans interact with
a computer. Voice or speech recognition systems allow a user to make a
hands-free request to the computer, which in turn processes the request and
serves the user with appropriate responses. After years of research and
developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence, today
voice-controlled technologies have become more efficient and are widely applied
in many domains to enable and improve human-to-human and human-to-computer
interactions. The state-of-the-art e-commerce applications with the help of web
technologies offer interactive and user-friendly interfaces. However, there are
some instances where people, especially with visual disabilities, are not able
to fully experience the serviceability of such applications. A voice-controlled
system embedded in a web application can enhance user experience and can
provide voice as a means to control the functionality of e-commerce websites.
In this paper, we propose a taxonomy of speech recognition systems (SRS) and
present a voice-controlled commodity purchase e-commerce application using IBM
Watson speech-to-text to demonstrate its usability. The prototype can be
extended to other application scenarios such as government service kiosks and
enable analytics of the converted text data for scenarios such as medical
diagnosis at the clinics.Comment: 7 page
AXMEDIS 2008
The AXMEDIS International Conference series aims to explore all subjects and topics related to cross-media and digital-media content production, processing, management, standards, representation, sharing, protection and rights management, to address the latest developments and future trends of the technologies and their applications, impacts and exploitation. The AXMEDIS events offer venues for exchanging concepts, requirements, prototypes, research ideas, and findings which could contribute to academic research and also benefit business and industrial communities. In the Internet as well as in the digital era, cross-media production and distribution represent key developments and innovations that are fostered by emergent technologies to ensure better value for money while optimising productivity and market coverage
Web Mediators for Accessible Browsing
We present a highly accurate method for classifying web pages based on link percentage, which is the percentage of text characters that are parts of links normalized by the number of all text characters on a web page. K-means clustering is used to create unique thresholds to differentiate index pages and article pages on individual web sites. Index pages contain mostly links to articles and other indices, while article pages contain mostly text. We also present a novel link grouping algorithm using agglomerative hierarchical clustering that groups links in the same spatial neighborhood together while preserving link structure. Grouping allows users with severe disabilities to use a scan-based mechanism to tab through a web page and select items. In experiments, we saw up to a 40-fold reduction in the number of commands needed to click on a link with a scan-based interface, which shows that we can vastly improve the rate of communication for users with disabilities. We used web page classification and link grouping to alter web page display on an accessible web browser that we developed to make a usable browsing interface for users with disabilities. Our classification method consistently outperformed a baseline classifier even when using minimal data to generate article and index clusters, and achieved classification accuracy of 94.0% on web sites with well-formed or slightly malformed HTML, compared with 80.1% accuracy for the baseline classifier.National Science Foundation (IIS-0308213, IIS-039009, IIS-0093367, P200A01031, EIA-0202067
Inclusive Intelligent Learning Management System Framework - Application of Data Science in Inclusive Education
Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data ScienceBeing a disabled student the author faced higher education with a handicap which as experience
studying during COVID 19 confinement periods matched the findings in recent research about the
importance of digital accessibility through more e-learning intensive academic experiences. Narrative
and systematic literature reviews enabled providing context in World Health Organization’s
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, legal and standards framework and
information technology and communication state-of-the art. Assessing Portuguese higher education
institutions’ web sites alerted to the fact that only outlying institutions implemented near perfect,
accessibility-wise, websites.
Therefore a gap was identified in how accessible the Portuguese higher education websites are, the
needs of all students, including those with disabilities, and even the accessibility minimum legal
requirements for digital products and the services provided by public or publicly funded organizations.
Having identified a problem in society and exploring the scientific base of knowledge for context and
state of the art was a first stage in the Design Science Research methodology, to which followed
development and validation cycles of an Inclusive Intelligent Learning Management System
Framework. The framework blends various Data Science study fields contributions with accessibility
guidelines compliant interface design and content upload accessibility compliance assessment.
Validation was provided by a focus group whose inputs were considered for the version presented in
this dissertation. Not being the purpose of the research to deliver a complete implementation of the
framework and lacking consistent data to put all the modules interacting with each other, the most
relevant modules were tested with open data as proof of concept.
The rigor cycle of DSR started with the inclusion of the previous thesis on Atlântica University Institute
Scientific Repository and is to be completed with the publication of this thesis and the already started
PhD’s findings in relevant journals and conferences
AXMEDIS 2007 Conference Proceedings
The AXMEDIS International Conference series has been established since 2005 and is focused on the research, developments and applications in the cross-media domain, exploring innovative technologies to meet the challenges of the sector. AXMEDIS2007 deals with all subjects and topics related to cross-media and digital-media content production, processing, management, standards, representation, sharing, interoperability, protection and rights management. It addresses the latest developments and future trends of the technologies and their applications, their impact and exploitation within academic, business and industrial communities
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